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October 2004 Table of Contents
CBP® Research Update • Conventional Wisdom • Don's Opinion • CBP® and Geriatrics: A Case Report • Enough of Chiropractic is for This Pain or That Pain • Chiropractic Passion • The Purpose Driven Practice • Three New and Important Whiplash Articles • You Hired Me To Do A Job • ACA Lawsuit Dismissed • CBP® Online Cyber Update • Harrisons' and Caillet • ICA Files 'Amicus' Brief • A Response to Dr Fuhr • Life University Achieves Financial Goal • Structural Rehab Tool • CBP®'s Chiropractoc of the Year • CBP®'s Annual Awards
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The Purpose Driven Practice
by Thomas O. Morgan, D.C., B.S., FICA, FPAC
 Dr. Tom Morgan and his wife, Mary Ann, are founders of Volume Practice Seminars. Their goal is to help doctors and staff achieve volume practices, become debt free, and live spiritually disciplined lives that glorify God.
Dr. Tom Morgan graduated from the Palmer College of Chiropractic, Davenport, Iowa. He holds a B.S. degree from Upper Iowa University in practice management. Also, he holds two honorary Fellow degrees. Dr. Morgan was in active chiropractic practice for over 30 years. He retired in 1996 at the age of 54. Since that time he has been teaching the Volume Practice Seminar and doing chiropractic consulting full time. During his time in practice, he had one of the largest high volume, cash practices in the world. He has written a book about these years entitled “VOLUME PRACTICE” and three more books about chiropractic. He is famous for his “Touch and Tell” system. Dr. Morgan is a member of the continuing education faculty at Palmer, he was also an instructor in Activator technique for over ten years. He also was president of a state Association and served on the state board of examiners for twelve years.
The doctors I coach who are ultra-successful in their practices have special ingredients that other doctors do not have. When I hear a negative about a volume practice, I can’t help getting a little irritated. Volume Practice doctors work harder, pay more attention to patient needs, and have a higher PVA (patient visit average) than any other doctors with whom I work. I have also been brokering practices and doing practice analyses for years, so I get to talk to doctors who want to sell their businesses. Some of these chiropractors are disappointed in practice. Some are changing careers, and have never recognized the “bigness” in chiropracTIC. I pick their brains.
I find there is a common thread of hopelessness in every case. Something besides themselves is always the problem. They never melted down to the purpose of being chiropracTORs. I can’t tell you how many hours I have spent on the phone trying to instill a thread of hope in my clients. There has to be a reason for their education and position as D.C.s. When I see them walk away, I feel a loss. I try not to take it personal, but the thousands of adjustments they could have given, the large quantity of good they could have given to others, the big chance TIC gives to its doctors — is gone. It is always a sad moment for me.
You have to guard, nourish and hang onto your chiropracTIC purpose; because it is this “TIC” that gives the doctor purpose. My volume practice doctors are on the greatest work adventure of their lives. Take it from a person who bent over his adjustment tables long into the night. Those years went by all too quickly. When I compare the purpose of a volume practice (def: a doctor who adjusts as many patients as possible during working hours), to a “profit only” practice where there is little wellness care and the doctor maxes out the insurance as fast as possible and only really wants PI and/or Worker Comp cases, I see a family wellness practice/volume practice as the best. Usually the “profit only” type practices have low PVA’s; are pinioned on the winds of change and become feast or famine practices. Let’s look at getting your practice back on purpose.
WHY DOES YOUR PRACTICE EXIST?
This may sound like all you have to say is “ to help sick people.” However, it should be MUCH more than this. The doctor and staff must have a clear understanding what TIC is all about; as well as the special calling the doctor has to get patients better and the great emphasis on education — training patients to factor TIC into their lifestyle and factor out synthetic drugs and other carcinogens. Your practice is not about charity, although most doctors do take charity cases. It is not about money, although this is a profit venture and you must manage your business by your income stats. What your practice exists for is meeting special needs of the patients you serve.
What is ironic is that the patient does not know what those special needs are. They think they just need a quick fix, like a blast of drugs for an infection and they will be on their way. I always teach a “quick fix” approach for the first couple visits. I adjust all of my referral patients on the first visit and I try my best to “WOW” each new patient with the fantastic results of a chiropractic adjustment. Even the matrix of a volume practice is not enough (Effective, Convenient, Affordable). There must be special love for this work. This includes a special love for each patient. It also includes an attempt to give the patient much more than they pay for, as well as a desire from the staff to see the patients’ quality of life go up and to reward those whose attitude reveals a respect for TIC and a belief in what chiropractors know is the truth about health and where it originates. When patients take on TIC disciplines, when they make lifestyle changes that they know will help innate change their body for the better, the chiropractor has done his job completely.
My personal goal is to have patients who want to learn and have a TIC conversation with the doctor. To do this effectively, you must be the best doctor and adjuster you can possibly be. You must know when the patients’ subluxations are “cleared out” and that the innate — life force — is given credit for the results of your adjustment. Patients have to refer to you and seek you out because of your skill — FIRST. Next, you must maintain a special focus on your practice purpose and be willing to work very hard. There is not much enthusiasm from me when I start coaching a doctor and find out that he or she just wants to work a few days a week and get home at 5:30 p.m. (right during the busiest time of every chiropractor’s practice {4-7p.m.}). In my “Rapid Start” book, I outline literally a hundred things a new doctor must do, but paramount is that you must give all you have “24-7,” until you reach 300 new patients. Then you can take a break. I remember one new doctor I started in our program who took off for two weeks before opening his practice, because he said he was not going to get another vacation for a year. He was right, but that attitude of “me first” is the type of thinking that should only come when you are “fat” and burned out in practice.
There has to be much more in your practice besides the bottom line or the income. You have to influence your patients. You have to make a name for yourself and TIC in your area, plus you have to serve in the profession and help it go forward. You have to support your college, TIC research, and see the knowledge and understanding of the subluxation and adjustment come up to your clinical understanding. You have to dream of the future — filled with more chiropractors and fewer medics and drugs. You have to believe with all your heart that you have more to offer than drugs. You also have to believe that you have the safest technique, no negative impact, low intervention, and the greatest principles and health philosophy in the world! This practice is the FUTURE for health care.
You have to be less impressed with more open heart surgeries, transplants and genetic manipulation. You have to believe that all of the people have been sold the false promises of medicine. They have been duped into believing they need to ingest toxic drugs and rely on allopathy and surgery to improve their quality of life. You, on the other hand, understand and practice a BETTER way. Do you teach it? Do you insist your patients understand and accept this? Do you stand on call to help them maintain the TIC lifestyle? This is your PURPOSE.
Lastly, you have to have a time horizon. You have to set goals for volume and income and reach those goals. Most importantly, you have to SAVE your income. The more chiropractic associations and colleges I gave to, the more I made, and the more I saved. Remember, when you call me and tell me what you are making, I will always ask you how much of this did you save? I believe with all my being that your practice exists right this minute, right where it is — to do the right things for the right reason, at the right time. To me this is the real bottom line.
When I was at my peak in practice maturity and volume, I gauged my practice momentum on the number of “hopeless” cases (incurable if you will) who came in and stayed with me for years; the number of house calls, the number of adjustments I did on non patients outside my practice; the number and regular adjustment repetitions my parents received and the parents and families of my staff and all my acquaintances were getting; on the number of dollars I saved and the TF bonds we purchased; on the number of chiropractic seminars we attended and the number of DC friends we had — who were like-minded and serving like we were serving. We kept looking on the horizon, like the DCs of old. They knew the “day” was coming, they carried these dreams, even though they would not get to see it happen. They dreamed big dreams of it coming; convinced their children to be TORs and to let them lead the movement.
Doctor, you must understand you can’t live in your fears, you must stretch your thinking and dreaming beyond the here and now to the long term perspective why God gave chiropracTIC to the world. Here’s a hint — It wasn’t for the chiropractor. Lean on these 10 purpose driven words I have staked my life on the past 40 years. “We are changing the world one spine at a time.” Now, go to work.
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