159: 10 Tips for Chiropractic Success

159 Ten Chiropractic Tips for Success Transcript
Attendees
Michael Perusich, Troy Fox
Transcript
The information provided herein is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or treat any illness, or to be construed as any assurance that this information may benefit you in your practice.
Dr Michael Perusich: Chiropractors are you looking for the inside track to success in your practice? Hi everybody. Welcome to the KC CHIROpulse Podcast brought to you by Kats Consultants helping doctors. Keep their pulse on success. I'm your host Michael perusich joined with my co-host Dr. Troy Fox,…
Troy Fox: Good.
Dr Michael Perusich: Everybody's always wanting to know what are the tips? For Chiropractic entrepreneurs to succeed so that you and I Banner this stuff around all the time. I thought this would be kind of a fun. topic today
Troy Fox: Yeah, most definitely and they're probably more than 10, but I'm sure we can come up with 10 really easily that will help your practice today. I mean, get your pencil and paper out right or get your laptop out. that's the more PC thing and 2024.
Dr Michael Perusich: yeah, or hey, I got this new thing. It's called the remarkable. I don't know if you've seen it. but it's like a tablet only it's thinner and it's super lightweight and you write on it and then it converts your writing if it can figure it out it converts your writing into typed format
Troy Fox: there you go. That's very Yeah.
Dr Michael Perusich: It's conical. It's kind of cool. So there's one tip get organized, partisan part of success is getting organized…
Troy Fox: yeah.
Dr Michael Perusich: if you're not ized. And docs when I say get organized. Usually we're so busy. You can't stay up. Well organized all by yourself. It requires help. So make sure you've got somebody helping I can say I've always got somebody in the background helping me with my calendar. For example, just making sure that all my events and everything get on my calendar and then they help me know when I'm supposed to do this or do that. And if you be shocked at how much that helps you stay organized.
Troy Fox: It keeps you from being double booked with outside commitments because there are times when people come to you and ask you to be a speaker maybe or maybe you're supposed to record a podcast we do but we have an open time set up for that but a lot of times if I do my own booking. I will end up looking myself because I don't look closely enough. I'm in a hurry and I'll just go. Yeah, I can do that and I will overextend myself. So having staff help you yeah.
Dr Michael Perusich: I do that all the time. Yeah, I do.
Troy Fox: it's
Dr Michael Perusich: In fact, I've just gotten in the habit. You probably do the same thing. I just got in the habit of saying what if it comes to scheduling you can jump on my calendar best thing to do is talk to Marissa. I don't manage the schedule.
Troy Fox: Yes, that's exactly and I think that is with any busy chiropractic office as well is a really good rule to follow unless you're the only one there by yourself. If you have staff they have moments in between at times when you're with a patient that they have time to look over your schedule and see what's going to fit best. Sometimes staff will back to me and say hey, here's two or three options to you. So I think that's important to stay organized. Just that's the outside stuff obviously stay organized with your patients as well. But on the outside stuff, I think it makes you look very professional when you don't have to call somebody back and tell them hey, I screwed up. I told you I could do this and yeah, I'm already booked with something else. So
Dr Michael Perusich: Exactly and you just made me think of another tip here and that is when staying organized with patients. Make sure you're keeping up on your patient records. I know EHR takes a lot of time and things but keeping up on those records as best and quickly as you can. Is gonna keep you from getting buried and feeling overburdened by the amount of paperwork?
Troy Fox: Yeah, yeah, it's one of those things that at the end of every day. It's not very fun to look back and go. Okay. I've got one patient record open because there were some notes that I still needed to add into it. You can either walk away. And then you got a problem. Now you got an open note that's going to be there the next day, and the next day and then you're gonna forget about it. And then you're gonna have an open note, which is not good or…
Dr Michael Perusich: right
Troy Fox: you sit there and take them few minutes that it takes while you're still fresh to finish it and that brings this into Point number three here is point number three. Be ready when you go in with patience another words.
Troy Fox: Don't be that guy or gal that comes flying into the parking lot three minutes before your first patient jumps out of the vehicle drag in half your stuff behind you running inside in a huff to see that first patient and you run in the room and you're not even remotely mentally there get yourself ready what I say every morning to myself as I want to be a hundred and ten percent focused. I want to be ready for every patient that comes through my door. So I have the energy to give to those patients and it's a really simple statement to myself but I tell myself that and I will tell you that over time what that is done has caused me to have an extreme amount of calm and peace when I walk into the building in the morning. I make sure that I'm there in enough time and when I say enough time, I mean if I'm there 15 minutes before patients and a lot of days it gives me enough time to actually sit down take a couple deep breaths check my adjusting and make sure my work area is ready to go. I mean who doesn't like to have
00:05:00
Troy Fox: Their work area ready? I don't care…
Dr Michael Perusich: Right, right.
Troy Fox: what kind of job you do, but that is what I do. I make sure that I'm ready. And if I have a patient that has a special need that maybe I haven't done what if I'm kinesio taping somebody just a quick look to make sure okay. Do I have enough? Kinesio tape? Not that I could fix it at that point. But let's make sure that we're ready so we don't run into any hiccups and then I'll run up front and I'll check with the staff. We do just off the cuff, quick meeting up at the front a team huddle and we go. Hey this patient right here is gonna require this this is gonna and…
Dr Michael Perusich: Absolutely.
Troy Fox: that's literally one of the biggest things that I do every day that makes my day run smoothly. So as an entrepreneur I want to make sure that the patient experience is perfect.
Dr Michael Perusich: so I think we kind of fell into another tip there too. But let me come back on something for just a…
Troy Fox: Yeah.
Dr Michael Perusich: You said you'd like to get to the clinic 15-20 minutes early. I like to get their 30 to 45 minutes early because I like to walk around the clinic and it does two things for me one. How does the clinic look from the patient point of view? Is it clean is it ready to go and…
Troy Fox: Mm-hmm
Dr Michael Perusich: number two? It helps me just get in the zone of treating patients. and then You talked about having that morning meeting with your team just to get the team together team communication.
Troy Fox: Yeah.
Dr Michael Perusich: This is the next tip team communication is so powerfully important because if you aren't on the same page with patients…
Troy Fox: right
Dr Michael Perusich: if your staff for example is hearing things that patients are saying that could be pertinent to care, but they're not telling you. And you guys aren't having that coordinated communication process. You could be really missing out on a lot of things.
Troy Fox: Yeah that I want to throw in real quick here. if I just said that I get to the clinic 30 minutes to an hour ahead Dr. Purush would have said I like to get there an hour to an hour and a half ahead. Of course,…
Dr Michael Perusich: of course.
Troy Fox: whatever works now my difference is I'm in a small town practice 30 miles away. So I'm literally there over my whole lunch hour and all that. So some of the things that you do in that 30 minutes, I show up 15 minutes early and over the lunch hour. There's a lot of times when I wander through my building and I'll go sit in a room and…
Dr Michael Perusich: Sure.
Troy Fox: just kind of look around for a little bit and what do I see kind of like you you do so, that's a good tip. I think it's something good for us to do and I think it's also beneficial to our patients.
Dr Michael Perusich: The front door was worn out old pictures stacks of magazines everywhere. no wonder you're not growing your practice looks terrible, so clean it up. Make sure it's in good looking order. Kind of goes back to being organized as well. what's it look like behind the front counter what a patients seeing because the front counter looks way different from the patient side than it does from your employee side. So make sure
Troy Fox: Yeah that so. I was gonna say sight smell and sound. Those are the three thing walked through the door,…
Dr Michael Perusich: yeah.
Troy Fox: and that's really important. that's a pretty big tip. What is that number five or number four? I can't even remember.
Dr Michael Perusich: I think that's number five. I was trying to keep track of them,…
Troy Fox: I think it's number. All right.
Dr Michael Perusich: I'm not organized enough to
Troy Fox: Yes, that's never says site smell sound and what I mean, does this personally? I don't like walking into an office that's dead silent. I like to hear something and here's the thing you play whatever you want. I don't really care. You can play hard rock if you want to I don't think that's probably appropriate in your office.
Dr Michael Perusich: yep.
Troy Fox: You can play. Okay, most people know what K Love is it's uplifting Christian music you can play jazz music.
Dr Michael Perusich: Yep.
Troy Fox: Here's what I would say good place something that makes your office sound more sophisticated another words.
Dr Michael Perusich: Yep.
Troy Fox: Okay, love that's a great station or maybe some upbeat jazz music or piano music excuse it makes you look more and sound more sophisticated.
Troy Fox: You are and on the smell. You don't have to have it throughout the office, but I'll tell you what a diffuser with a little essential oils at the front desk makes a huge difference people into my office and go it smells like a spa in here. And so it's a little tiny thing that we do every day that reaps huge benefits, especially with our female pay our males, our working guys. They probably aren't super impressed with the essential oils. But our ladies that come in are my gosh is that lavender? Yes, it's a very relaxing lavender, we like to talk about it and I think it really shows the patient that we're trying to upgrade the experience.
00:10:00
Dr Michael Perusich: So here's a side tip to that tip. We used to buy our diffuser incense from the day spa down the street. it smelled awesome.
Troy Fox: Yeah.
Dr Michael Perusich: And so everybody coming in that was also a client at the day spa, they would that same smell in our office and they would recognize it and it was just instant relaxation for everybody. So yes highly recommend that put a couple around the office.
Troy Fox: yeah.
Dr Michael Perusich: It's okay to let your office actually smell good sometimes.
Troy Fox: Yeah, I have one of my adjusting room too. But my point was at least put one at the front desk. But yeah, we put the same and…
Dr Michael Perusich: Absolutely.
Troy Fox: we put the same set throughout the office. So we're not mixing it up and it doesn't smell different everywhere.
Dr Michael Perusich: Right, here's another tip.
Troy Fox: We use the same set on the set.
Dr Michael Perusich: Make sure you look professional I'm never going to tell you how to dress. I'm just gonna tell you how to look I don't care if you're wearing a polo or shirt and tie or scrubs. I wear scrubs Troy. I know you wear scrubs.
Troy Fox: Yep.
Dr Michael Perusich: There you go. But make sure you and your staff look professional your patients coming in have a picture on their mind, especially your new patients have a picture in their mind of what a doctor and their staff should look like make sure that you're meeting that. Look. Otherwise you come in they come in and they don't know if you're the doctor or if you're the janitor, so make sure that you look professional. Here's another thought on that same subject when you look professional, especially if you're carrying your logo around with you everywhere take your staff out to lunch once in a while, maybe once a month or something and let the community see you and your staff with your logo scrubs on or your logo polo shirts or whatever. They might be so that they see you out in the community. That's a great way to help build your brand image.
Dr Michael Perusich: so I can think of so many tips. but here's another one. I think's really important. We talked about staff communication, but you're patient communication is important make sure you're speaking to patients on a level that they understand what you're talking about. We don't need to tell them the difference between spondylolysis and a spondylolisthesis necessary unless that's pertinent to their case, but make sure that the understand in basic terms. What their care is about how Chiropractic can help them? Make sure you tell Your expectations for care and how often you expect them to be coming in make sure your staff is having that same conversation with them and then make sure you're helping them understand as you progress through care. How well are they doing?
Troy Fox: And with that said you're the doctor. Listen, I know some of you go. I don't like to do that. I'll just tell the patient they can come back whenever they want to you're the authority to tell what they need. And here's how I like to and…
Dr Michael Perusich: Be the leader.
Troy Fox: I bought a practice that was basically that type of practice where people dictated their own care in a year's time. That practice of radically turned it on its head and as a result, there's a lot of things that have changed my satisfaction level of as a result of that are income is improved by Leaps and Bounds just because people are actually getting the care that they need and they're satisfaction is high but here's how I do it. Two rules number one I work for Okay, but number two we work together as a team, which allows me?
Troy Fox: As a team member to let you know what I feel like you need to do without any repercussions in other words, even if you don't like what I have to say will still be friends.
Dr Michael Perusich: right
Troy Fox: But I'm gonna tell you what you need because I'm remiss if I don't do that. But I would tell my own family member if they walked in the door with your condition. And so I think that's an easy way sometimes to approach especially when you're trying to break that mold. It's an easy way to approach it because I approach patients in my practice that had for years dictated their own care and said when they were going to come back. and…
Dr Michael Perusich: right
Troy Fox: what's funny is my patient satisfactions through the roof right now. It is through the roof because folks are getting the care that they need. So don't be surprised if you make a change that it's not easier on YouTube because you're not always dealing with acute care crisis situations either and I love
Dr Michael Perusich: right Yeah, that's absolutely true. And I think drumroll please but I think this is tip number 10 watch your finances keep control over your finances and…
00:15:00
Troy Fox: Go Yeah.
Dr Michael Perusich: your practice. The quickest way to have a not profitable business is to not watch your finances. So make sure that you're watching them and not spending money that you don't have and I don't mean that month once in a while that you might have…
Troy Fox: Yeah.
Dr Michael Perusich: where your cash flows just a little short and you might dip into a line of credit or something for just a minute knowing that you're gonna pay it right back in the next month or two not talking about that I'm talking about Wild spending on advertising and buying equipment things when you don't have the money. Buy things only when you have the money and…
Troy Fox: No.
Dr Michael Perusich: make sure that there's going to be a good positive return on the investment when you spend it.
Troy Fox: And make sure as well that you're not scraping either another words. I've walked into practices are we're talking about buying a new hundred thousand dollar piece of equipment, which seems unless you're patient full dictates it and some of you do but If you're seeing 15 patients a day, and we're talking about a hundred thousand dollar piece of equipment my immediate answer probably before I even look at your finances is probably you can't afford it at this point. But here's the problem we run into I walk into your practice and what I see adjusting tables with rips and tears in them. They look horrible. I mean if you walk in and actually see it from a patient's standpoint. It looks like a nuclear bomb went off on your table get those tables recovered.
Dr Michael Perusich: It's terrible.
Troy Fox: Yeah. Yeah several hundred dollars. Those are the expenses that you really must spend because it goes back to some of the other tips that we gave you.
Troy Fox: Make sure that your rooms look clean, but they're painted. Those are the things that you spend money on initially once that's in place and you start to generate income you start to generate a following then you can introduce a new technique that maybe takes a little bit more risk financially for you place because I'm not saying this $90,000 piece of equipment is bad. It's probably a really great piece of equipment for 90k, but is it something you can support so we don't want you to sink your ship when what you're doing. You're trying to figure out how to grow my practice. How do I increase patient satisfaction? We can do that very simply a lot of times by recovering a table putting a coat of paint.
Troy Fox: Some essential oils out there maybe putting some jazz music on the radio there.
Dr Michael Perusich: Yep.
Troy Fox: There's some simple things maybe go through your waiting room and do a couple of small upgrades. I went to consignment store in Wichita, Kansas and bought most of my furniture for my waiting room my patients love it. They think it looks like a homie living room with a little hundred dollar fireplace hanging on the wall and…
Dr Michael Perusich: You'll love it.
Troy Fox: when it's cold outside. today we had it fired up patients love being in there by the fireplace until it's their time to come back and see me, they feel like they're sitting in a living room and…
Dr Michael Perusich: Sure.
Troy Fox: it's all groovy. It looks like 1970s cuz I got kind of the but those are things that you can do that don't cost a ton of money that really give a one upgrade to your office.
Dr Michael Perusich: Yeah, and you mentioned tables that have rips and tears and things that have been replacing the vinyl on it. Sometimes the vinyl can be repaired and you don't even notice it depending on the color of your tables. I know we would do this all the time. We'd get a little punctures or something. We had a guy basically on speed dial that would run over to the office at lunch time and he'd patched the table up.
Troy Fox: right Yeah.
Dr Michael Perusich: It'd be brand new. So, there are some great things that you can do for your practice to make it successful so you don't have to And tons of money you don't have to go crazy with it. It's the little things that matter so I think that's our 10 list…
Troy Fox: Yeah.
Dr Michael Perusich: if you will, so go check us out at cats consultants.com. See what we're doing for doctors, download some of our free resources, subscribe to the podcast and above all I'd like to thank our sponsor ChiroHealth USA for joining our project with us and being a part of our crazy podcasts every week. So appreciate everybody listening tuning in every week to the KC CHIROpulse Podcast, and we will see you next time.
Troy Fox: y'all later.
Dr Michael Perusich: Here's a quick word from our sponsor.
Meeting ended after 00:19:31 👋