Capacity Constraints: Hidden Practice Barriers

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Fixing the weakest links.

Your practice should flow smooth, fast, and uninterrupted, like a clear mountain stream.

Most offices, unfortunately, have hidden dams that slow or even block the flows within their office. This limits growth and increases stress.

For example, I have often seen the front desk so clogged with paperwork that new and active patients were inadvertently discouraged from coming in.

Every department and function of your practice is vulnerable to innocuously seeming events that add friction that choke production. Interruptions in the billing department, poor note-keeping systems for doctors, too many therapies to choose from, insufficient space, staff unclear of their goals, staff driven into apathy by being micromanaged… there are many potential opportunities for roadblocks.

Generating more new patients to increase your patient volume is usually a good idea. But often, the increase in volume is short lived because the office had too many hidden log jams and wasn’t set up for the higher patient volume. Even the doctors, while saying they want more new patients, can become fatigued by the end of the day and privately look forward to lighter days.

There are several remedies for these clogged flows.

First, clear up the goals and outcomes of each department. For example, the goal of the front desk is not “completed paperwork.” (A “Fully Scheduled Day” would be better!)

Second, you can review and refine the flow of patients into, through, and out of your practice. Draw a patient flow chart. Start with your new patients. List the sequence of actions your new patient goes through on their first day at your office. Later, you can do this for their second and third day. You can later work out a flow chart for reactivated patients, re-injured patients, and different types of cases.

Then, you and your team can rehearse the entire sequence to see what is missing or what needs to be eliminated.

I cover this in The Goal Driven Business:

Broken flow patterns that remain invisible “clog up” the system and slow down everyone’s best efforts to produce valuable outcomes and excellent service. These are bottlenecks. Discovering and eradicating them is a significant function of the Goal Achievement Process.

In his 1984 book, The Goal, Eliyahu Goldratt introduced what has come to be known as the “Theory of Constraints.” By making a chart outlining the flow of your customers, for example, you’ll better identify “leaks” or constraints which lessen your ability to achieve high quality and quantity customer outcomes.

As Goldratt states, “Since the strength of the chain is determined by the weakest link, then the first step to improve an organization must be to identify the weakest link.”

Every three months or so, do a “walk-through” with your entire team, where someone takes on the role of customer. This rehearsal will bring to light many duplicated or omitted functions. You’d be surprised to discover that many of the tasks you assume are done for your customer are actually skipped or poorly linked in. Sometimes you find tasks from decades ago, that no longer apply, are still being done.

Be an engineer to your goals and discover the constraints holding your office back, and remove them.

Be…… A Goalineer!

Ed

PS For those of you who have purchased my book, The Goal Driven Business, you are welcome to schedule a no-charge consultation to see how you can remove your bottlenecks and achieve your goals. SCHEDULE NOW

If you haven’t purchased the book yet, please do so here.  BUY THE BOOK

Health Screenings in 2022

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This past weekend, outside our local grocery store, the Village (what they call a suburban town out here) closed off the main street and had an art fair. So I took a few minutes to look around before I headed home with my organic veggies!

There were maybe 30-40 10×10 tents with various artists displaying their works. The day was hot, and I was in a hurry. Suddenly, I stopped when I saw an old familiar sight, one that I hadn’t seen for a few years. There it was-a chiropractic health screening booth.

That’s right… s c r e e n I n g s!

The signs said, “Spinal Health Screening” with the name of the corporate chiropractic company which now has offices in a few states in the Midwest and in WA, according to their website.

Now, for the most part, I like screenings and, if done right, recommend them. I would not be overstating the fact that we have personally participated in hundreds of screenings in hundreds of venues over the years. (I still have a couple of PVC Posture Analyzers in my garage.) We have personally trained well over 50 “Screening Technicians” and hundreds more in seminars and via our marketing manuals. We used screenings when we opened up our 24 offices here in Wisconsin.

Now that people are less in fear of being murdered by one another for carrying the COVID, outdoor events are resurfacing.

Here is a short list of benefits of screenings:

  1. Generate new patients.
  2. Reactivate former patients.
  3. Create new external referrals sources
  4. Create goodwill and good publicity. (We won an award for our booth at a county fair once which was pictured in the local paper.)
  5. Meet people in your community.

Here are 5 essential ingredients to help you achieve these benefits:

  1. Friendly. Whoever is in the booth should be friendly, casual, and having fun. Therefore,
  2. Short shifts. It should not be an endurance contest—a few hours at most. Get in, greet people, talk with them, screen the interested few, and get out.
  3. Training and positive experience. If you have a non-doctor in the booth, for Pete’s sake, train them. Ideally, they could be a staff member who already knows the excellent outcomes you produce and can easily recommend you.
  4. Be interested in people. Are they in pain? Have they seen a chiropractor, acupuncturist, P.T., M.D. for their issue? Where do they work? What do they think of the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball club’s chances this season?
  5. Unserious. As B.J. Palmer said in Rule #9, “Don’t take yourself too damn seriously.” (to get a copy of Rule #9)

Get out there with your people… they need you!

Ed

PS BY the way, just curious… please reply if you would like a short webinar on what we have seen works best for screenings.

STARTING your day- Goal Driver procedure: Case Management

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We are starting a new month… and the 2nd half of the year.

For all doctors and practices, the action of STARTING is important.

In fact, how you start your day is more important than you might realize.

Too often, I have seen doctors rush into the office in the morning and not greet their support team. I have even seen doctors come in late after their patients had been waiting to see them.

In most cases, the doctor’s attention is already somewhere else and not on STARTING the day with their team. They are still CONTINUING from the previous day so that workdays seem to blend together. Mentally, I am sure this brings about extra stress — feeling like work never ends or that you must toil endlessly on an assembly line that you have no control over.

Instead, make each day new. Yes, this is a cliché, but that doesn’t diminish its importance. You create your new and unique day. If you don’t, today just blurs into a continuation of earlier days.

It really all goes back to GOALS. You should START each day with the end in mind.

Goal Driver Procedure: Morning Case Management

We recommend that you start the day with your team 15 minutes before patients come in. Review the numbers and flow for the day, and coordinate patient care. This is a kind of case management meeting. Set goals for the office for that day. Tell a joke.

Morning case management meetings are a great tool to help improve the performance of your practice. Assign this to your manager, put it on a checklist, and make sure it gets done each day.

Now, for a joke: What sits at the bottom of the sea and twitches?

A nervous wreck.

(Let that sink in!)

Carpe Posterum (Sieze the Future)

Ed

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Here in the United States, July 4th is a date we celebrate each year, commemorating the independence as colonies from Great Britain.

And I can’t help but see a parallel between those hardy souls in the American colonies that wanted their freedom and, well, you! Chiropractors and their teams.

To colonize means to “take control of a people or area, especially as an extension of state power… to take or make use of (something) without authority or right.” (Merriam-Webster)

It could be said that the profession of medicine has been colonized by a few corporate interests. Same has been happening with other professions and industries. A few large corporations own and control more and more businesses that were once independent.

But for the most part, chiropractic as a profession has remained independent.

It hasn’t been easy, what with the AMA and Pharma coming after you, as was disclosed in the Wilk’s trail. (That was just a speed bump for them!) But Team Chiropractic has won its independence and freedom due to the courage of those who have come before you.

And it also comes from your continuing courage today.

So, this Fourth is also about your independence and your continued efforts to do the BEST for your patients and your communities.

Celebrate this!

Yes, it is just another day at the office. But this weekend, have an extra cool drink and recognize your leadership and courage in standing up for the true health of your patients and your community.

Stay free, and help others do the same.

Ed

Where Everybody Knows Your Name: Creating a Chiropractic Community

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Used to be a popular TV program called Cheers back in the 80’s. It was modeled after a bar in Boston with the same name. As a situational comedy, Cheers presented a familiar group of customers who came to the bar to have a drink, but also to relax, socialize, and have good cheer.

 

Patients come into your office to improve their health and find relief from discomfort. But they are also looking for something more.

 

Remember that a practice is a network of relationships created and sustained through communication and service. That’s my definition. There are other definitions, I’m sure, but at the foundation, communication is critical.

 

It can be a lonely world where there seems little time for real communication – or friendship.

 

You are more than a doctor, and your staff are more than just support professionals. You and your entire team are part of a caring family, a community of like-minded people who are committed to health and helping each other achieve it.

 

Creating a community is a big deal in businesses now. For good reason… Belongingness has been identified as an intrinsic motivation we all have, according to Self-Determination Theory. But it can be contrived and gimmicky if it is not genuine.

 

In the best offices I have visited, staff and doctors formed a work family… genuinely caring for each other as well as for their patients. The patients were also included in the family. Sometimes, I would see them spending too much time gabbing at the front desk or bringing fresh produce for the doctor from their garden. I would even see patients just stop by the reception area to chat amongst themselves, catching up on shared concerns and local news.

 

Yes, the best practices have policies and procedures. These are the systems that help ensure fast and efficient service in high quantity with high quality.

 

But procedures cannot take the place of a real person interested in and caring for another person.

 

In very lay terms, the spine is the structure that supports and protects the function of the spinal cord. It is the function that counts, that comes first.

 

Many offices have their function impeded by tangled up, omitted, or unfollowed procedures and policies. You definitely need a strong infrastructure to have a prosperous low stress business. But the reason, the goal for good systems includes having good communication with your patients and each other.

 

There are many troubling issues we all face. Make your office a place where people want to go for better health and better friendship.

 

A place where everyone is glad you came and where everybody knows your name.

 

Ed

 

Theme from the sitcom Cheers
“…Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

 

Wouldn’t you like to get away?

 

Sometimes you want to go

 

Where everybody knows your name,
and they’re always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.”

 

Carpe Posterum (Sieze the Future)

 

Ed

Your Best Business Investment: Did you make First Adjustment Calls?

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When was the last time you called your patient after their first adjustment?

We’ve advised this for years, and it is one of the many items on our Marketing Checklists. The procedure was simple: the staff handed the doctors a slip of paper with the names and numbers of patients who had their first adjustment that day. Then, on the way home, the doctor would give the patient a call to see how they were doing. I remember hearing from the staff that the patients loved getting a call from their doctor and felt it was an extra effort to ensure their well-being personally.

I was reminded of this when my wife, Barbara, took a phone call from the MD from whom she recently received a light skin surgery. She was impressed and delighted. (“Wow,” she said after the call. “I think I’ll call to schedule more surgeries this month!” She’s funny!)

But we live in a world where we are becoming more insulated from each other. We almost interact as much with Artificial Intelligence, electronics, and automation as with live people. Automation runs our shopping, our money, and our communication, even much of our medical care.

I just read a report this week that Google suspended an engineer from work who said that an AI program at Google was now sentient (conscious). He said that he had “startling talks” with a chatbot program.* And never mind the masking, social distancing, and lockdowns which I am sure we haven’t seen the last of.

It seems that honest, caring, and genuine interest from a live person, especially from someone who knows us, are vanishing human qualities.

And this is the niche where you and your team are uniquely qualified to own.
As entrepreneurs, we focus on business matters – we look at our scoreboard, analyze the numbers, and review our accounts receivable. We look at how we can grow our business and improve the bottom line. And all that is fine and part of our job.

But all the numbers, the paperwork, all the administration and marketing are for nothing if the personal connection you have with each patient is absent.

And this is what makes your service exceptional – the quality of connection you and your team have with each patient. The genuine interest in and authentic care for each patient, and the outcomes you deliver, are the heart and soul of your business.

Improving this is the best investment you can make for long-term success.

Carpe Posterum (Sieze the Future)

Ed

(Yahoo News)

3 Effective Methods to Amp Up Your Team’s Motivation

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Do you sometimes feel that you are just reporting in on Mondays to work on the assembly line? Has the eagerness to achieve your goals been replaced by an attitude of “now I have to go to work.”

How about your team members? Do you suspect that they sometimes disengage from their work when you are not looking?

It happens.

Yet, the level of any team’s motivation directly affects its level of success.

Here are three keys to improving motivation:

1. GOAL ALIGNMENT

The outcomes of any job need to be matched with the mission of the job.
For example, let’s take the front desk. Many front desk new hires are trained on the appointment procedures for patients but omit teaching them on the mission of the front desk.

The mission of the front desk is to assist the patient in becoming healthier by helping them keep to their health and treatment plan. That would be its mission or higher-level goal. The lower-level, or practical, goals would include every patient keeping their appointment, or 100% kept appointments!

If the front desk is primarily busy working on insurance paperwork, their work is not in alignment with the mission of their job. This is a misalignment of goals.

“The psychologists Ken Sheldon and Tim Kasser have found that people who are mentally healthy and happy have a higher degree of ‘vertical coherence’ among their goals — that is, higher-level (long-term) goals and lower-level (immediate) goals all fit together well so that pursuing one’s short-term goals advances the pursuit of long-term goals”. (The Happiness Hypothesis – pg145)

In the Goal Driven System, we have found that everyone works more efficiently and with a better attitude if the mission of the job is connected to its outcomes.

You, as the doctor, come to the office to work with patients, yet much of your work involves getting administrative tasks completed. Your higher clinical goals as a doctor do not line up with all the admin chores needed.

Here is a sample chart showing higher-level goals and lower-level goals.

Action Step: Regularly review the mission for everyone’s job, including your own, with the outcomes it needs to produce. Keep higher-level and lower-level goals connected.

2. TEAM INCLUSION
Your employees will be more motivated if they are included in the progress and direction of the business in which they work.

“Motivation requires that people see a relationship between their behavior
and desired outcome…” (Edward L. Deci). (Why We Do What We Do, Deci, page 59)

Action Step. Keep your team updated on the progress towards your goals, as we discussed in our last newsletter.* Do this in regular staff meetings to monitor the progress in achieving lower-level and higher-level goals.

3. COACHING AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Several studies indicate that people are more likely to achieve their goals with accountability and support.*

This is one reason why weight-loss programs do so well – there is someone you must answer up to who also guides you, supports you and keeps you on track to your goals.
There are many barriers that can cause us to lose our enthusiasm to achieve our goals and settle for substitutes. Owning and growing a business as a doctor is very challenging and sometimes a lonely endeavor.

Action step: The solution is to recruit trusted advisors – colleagues, and professionals for accounting, legal, and practice development (our specialty.)

Carpe Posterum (Seize the Future)

Ed

This is covered more thoroughly in my book, the Goal Driven Business. Buy it here.

*Last Goal Driven Newsletter: https://www.goaldriven.com/post/those-numbers-do-you-manage-by-emotions-or-by-goals

* Study on Accountability. Psychological Bulletin © 2015 American Psychological Association 2016, Vol. 142, No. 2, 198 –229 Does Monitoring Goal Progress Promote Goal Attainment?

Those Numbers: Do You Manage by Emotions or by Goals?

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scoreboard for statistics

It’s Monday morning. The staff is getting the office ready for the new day. And while doing so, they are wondering… “How is the boss’s mood going to be today?”

They are taking their cues on how the day will transpire based upon, at least in part, your emotional state.

Your team, as well, will often be tempted to manage their roles in the office emotionally, based on the circumstances in their personal lives.

There is nothing wrong with positive emotion. Emotion is a feeling “a mental reaction subjectively experienced” (Merriam-Webster). Some are more positive than others, such as joy, delight, cheerfulness, and others are more negative, such as anger, grief, and fear.

But emotion is reactive. Setting your sights and working for goals is proactive.

Your Scoreboard

Your practice numbers show you if you are headed towards your goals or away from them.

They can predict what needs to be done to improve your business and achieve your goals. They also keep everyone on your team informed on the status of the practice and included in its management.

There is a right and wrong way to use your numbers to help you achieve your goals.

There is, in fact, an entire methodology on how to use statistics to improve business performance.

Large companies use analytics to manage and improve their production in formal processes such as Kaizen, Six Sigma, and Total Quality Management.

In the Goal Driven System, we use a simplified version called GAP, the Goals Achievement Process, which works just fine.

At the beginning of each month:

  1. Review. Review your key numbers monthly at staff meetings. (This can also be done weekly to check on your progress.)
  2. Notice and support. Notice where the numbers went up. Then, plan a couple of action steps to support the areas that went up.
  3. Notice and fix. Notice where the numbers went down. Then, plan a few action steps to fix the areas that were down.

Remember that numbers by themselves are nothing. They are symptoms or representations of the quality and quantity of your outcomes. Don’t get so caught up with the “stats” that you lose sight of what the numbers represent. Expecting the numbers to improve without confronting and enhancing the factors causing the numbers is at best ineffective and, at worst, can be abusive.

But numbers can assist you and each team member to stay focused on the goals: your office mission, its values, and its outcomes.

In a Goal Driven office, your team takes its cues from the office scoreboard.
There is an art and a method to capture, display, read your statistics and apply what they tell you. This is not adequately taught to most doctors in business – or to employees. Yet managing by numbers is a fast and very effective method to keep your business improving.

We are creating a short training course to remedy this called Goal Driven Analytics for the Chiropractic Practice. Subscribers to this newsletter (you!) will be the first to hear about it.

In the meantime, stay true to your goals, and use your scoreboard to help you do so.

Seize the Future

Ed

The SPARKLING Practice and How to Achieve It: Synergy is the Key

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We just awarded a two-doctor chiropractic office employee the SPARKLE award for outstanding service to patients and team members for 21 years of service.

Why a SPARKLE award? Well, that was the term most frequently used to describe this team member.

The clinic owner said: “She has dedicated almost 21 years (7,440 days!) of her professional (& personal, let’s be honest) life to our practice & the pulse of our family and pediatric practice. Over those years we have walked many of life’s journeys together, and she has formed meaningful connections with our patients. We have shared laughter (SO MUCH laughter!), tears and everything in between. She has changed many lives in her nearly 21 years.”

sparkle award for teammateWhile she indeed does “sparkle,” so does the entire practice. And the sparkle of this office is a byproduct of its synergy.

I even feature their practice as a positive example in my book, the Goal Driven Business.

The owner, the doctors, and the staff are all committed to the goal of providing the best service possible to each patient. But their goals also include supporting each other.

According to Merriam Webster: ” ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,’ expresses the basic meaning of synergy.”

In his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey refers to synergy as Habit #6.

“Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn’t just happen on its own. It’s a process…”

Much of the Goal Driven Business draws upon Covey’s work as I have seen his concepts help create a business that runs at full capacity smoothly.

His preceding two habits particularly apply:

  • Habit 4. Think win-win.
  • Habit 5: Seek to understand first, then get understood.

This chiropractic practice has formal communication systems, but they also communicate abundantly informally. And each team member has the goal of helping each other and the patients “win.”

In the end, it all goes back to goals. It always does. The owner keeps the goals, including the mission and core values, at the forefront of the team each week. Further, she sets an example by living these goals professionally and personally.

And as a result, staff are happy, patients are happy, and the office runs at full capacity, profitably and smoothly.

You can generate synergy in your office by improving communication and focus on win-win goals for the patient and for each other.

And make your practice SPARKLE!

Ed

PS. For help in creating a synergistic and sparkling practice, contact us!

Improve Patient Retention Through Gamification

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winner running through the finish line

It all comes back to goals – helping patients achieve theirs.

Last week I discussed improving patient retention through excellent onboarding.

Onboarding is a 21st Century term meaning, in this case, those actions you take with a new patient to introduce and orient them to their new service. The analogy would be a new passenger coming “on board” a new boat. (The link to this article is below.)

The other activity I mentioned that can improve patient retention is also a 21st term: “Gamification.”

Merriam Webster says gamification is: “the process of adding games or gamelike elements to something (such as a task) so as to encourage participation.” The concept is not new, but it has become a science and is integrated into all video games. I cover this in detail in my book, The Goal Driven Business, which I recommend you purchase and use. (Link below.)

Games are native to our species. Even to puppies, as you see them rolling over each other. Kids love to play with their parents, and as they get older, with other kids, and then enjoy organized sports. The Olympic games began, according to one source, in 776 BCE. We love our games, and perhaps, we need them.

Awards

A game poses a challenge where you can overcome barriers and demonstrate your grit. If you win –hurray! Winning is the prize, but sometimes you also receive an award.

In ancient Greece, winners received an olive wreath as a crown. In modern Olympics, the winners receive bronze, silver, and gold medals. In some martial arts, as you advance in your skills, you are awarded different colored belts. When you graduate from college, you receive a nice certificate you can hang on your wall to impress your relatives! (sarcasm)

Your patient has accepted a challenge, along with you and the entire clinic team, to achieve certain health goals. So why not acknowledge or even reward the patient for completing specific benchmarks along the way?

Years ago, I recall some offices would have a special short ceremony for their patients once they completed their program of care. First, the staff would help the patient don a black robe used in graduation ceremonies and a graduation cap (mortarboard) and tassel. Then, they would take a polaroid snapshot (a brand of camera that produced instant hard copy photos) with the doctor and the patient in their graduation garb, give a copy to the patient and attach another to a bulletin board. I have even seen this in a hospital setting, just without the robe!

In Your Practice

Gamification can be applied in your office in many ways.

For example, after completing their 6th visit, the front desk could award patients a silver star sticker. After the 12th visit, they are awarded a gold star stuck to a coffee mug with the office name and logo. Finally, after completing their care program, the patient could receive a diamond star attached to an office t-shirt.

Gamification aims to keep everyone engaged in the “game” of achieving health goals.

One approach to bringing this about is to have a team meeting and go over this idea. Encourage unbridled creativity! Use the best ideas that make the most sense and run the program for three months on a trial basis. Set goals (and awards) for the team for percentages of patients completing their programs.

All these are examples of gamification. But even a “Glad you made it today Mrs. Jones. Good to see you and your daughter” is a kind of an award. Unfortunately, in life, we are rarely recognized for our accomplishments – and mostly for our errors.

So, compliment your patients for their courage to improve their health. It is a big deal and a major accomplishment that they even show up, let alone follow through with their care.

After all, games are fun. So, let the games begin!

Ed

Link to Onboarding Article

Link to The Goal Driven Business

Improve Patient Retention Through Onboarding and Gamification

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It all comes back to goals – helping patients achieve theirs.

Onboarding and Gamification. Now there are a couple of terms you didn’t hear way back in the last century of practice management.

While these terms are new, what they define have been used for years. I do think they more clearly express very useful procedures that can help fill up a practice and help more patients achieve their goals of better health.

Let’s take a look at each:

Onboarding

Onboarding refers to the process of bringing a new employee, or in this case, a new patient, “on board,” as on a boat. According to Merriam Webster, “companies want to onboard their clients and customers too—to get them fully fluent in their products and services, so that they can get the most out of them.”

Onboarding a new patient would include all the basic procedures you do over the first few days of care, including consultation, history, exam, imaging, financial arrangements, and explanation of the application of first services.

There are probably 8-10 essential actions you can take with every new patient, or returning patient, that will make their experience so exceptional that they eagerly continue with their care. However, like most offices, when you are busy, you may take a few shortcuts and only do the bare minimum of procedures to get by, vowing to complete them later.

But later rarely comes. Staff turnover, new regulations, and other disruptions all discard the best laid patient service procedures. Finally, only the very minimal is done.

I call this “Procedural Atrophy.” It happens. It is a “thing.” It happens to all of us. This is why checklists are so valuable. They remind us of all the steps that should be taken to produce the best outcome possible.

For many years, we have integrated a checklist for new patients on our New Patient Log.

When a new patient comes in for their first appointment, their name is manually written on a sheet. At each step along the way, the sheet is checked off as completed. This helps ensure that no step is missed in the onboarding process.

In some offices, we have even added columns for future visits, such as Progress Exam, Progress Report, Completed Care Program. We have then assigned a team member, usually someone in the therapy department, the role of Case Completion Coordinator. Their goal is to coordinate services to help ensure that each patient gets the care they want and need and completes their program. We also assign the Case Completion Coordinator statistics to help them monitor their effectiveness.

Retention is helping your patients achieve their goals of better health. The same would apply to any type of service business.

It is all about goals, yours and especially theirs.

I’d like to keep these newsletters as brief as possible, so next week we will cover how Gamification is yet another tool to help your patients achieve their health goals.

In the meantime, seek your future and stay true to your goals.

Ed

P.S. Reply to this email With Please send me the New Patient Log and Checklist if you would like a customizable Word copy of a sample New Patient Log and Checklist

PSS ALSO, get the Goal Driven Business plus 10 practice building tools –HERE!

Call Your Mom: The most important person in your practice

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mom, mother, daughter, hugging, petty, michel, goal, driven, love“Call your mom!”

When we dropped off our son at college as a freshman that late summer day years ago, I told him: “Call your mom!”

And he did, but not often enough.

The fact that moms are extraordinary is an understatement. They are not ordinary people.

Motherhood just isn’t giving birth or the nine months before — if that wasn’t miraculous enough. It isn’t just the diaper months, the nursing, the crying, or the “terrible twos.” It goes on through all the stages of their child’s life – preteen angst at discovering their identity, infatuation break-ups, finding their social tribe, and all the challenges growing up leads us through.

Mother is always there.

And motherhood never ends. As long as she lives, our mothers are there throughout our lives.

Motherhood is a magical cape that certain women wear, your mom, for instance, that at one time protected you and at another helped you fly. Often without your gratitude.

Yea, dads are around too, often in the background. But moms are the first line of comfort and care, someone who loves you more than themselves.

And if moms are so vital in our lives, they are too in our practices.

Always show special gratitude to the mothers in your office.

This Sunday, May 8, is Mother’s Day. Do something special for all the mothers in your practice. Not as a gimmick but as a sincere act of gratitude and respect. Some offices give a flower to every mother that comes in on Friday or the days before. You can always provide some organic chocolates, a scented soap, or tea.

Yes, there is a marketing aspect to this, but excellent customer service is marketing. In most cases, women see doctors more than men, and mothers are often more dominant in determining and advocating for better health in families. (1,2) They are probably your better patients, and your better referral sources as well.

What if you don’t know if they have children? Well, first of all, you should. You are creating relationships with your patients. But if you don’t know, you can always politely ask them – and you will get to know them even better and strengthen your relationship.

For those who are not mothers, give them a flower to give to their mother. Then, have them post the photo on social media, and you can reward them with something.

So, Call Your Mother, and do something special for all the mothers in your life.

Ed

1. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6602a12.htm
2. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-men-dont-go-to-the-doctor_n_5759c267e4b00f97fba7aa3e

Chester Wilk Was Not to Be Bullied

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A chiropractor that stood up for chiropractic.

chester wilk: a chiropractor that stood up for chiropractic

THIS IS A SPECIAL NOTE OF THANKS and a tribute to Chester Wilk, D.C., who passed away just a few days ago.

Dr. Wilk was the Wilk in Wilk versus AMA, the case where a federal judge ruled in 1987, based upon evidence, that the American Medical Association had been attempting to “contain and eliminate” the chiropractic profession.

Dr. Wilk and four other chiropractors first filed the suit in 1976. Doggedly pushing it along, Dr. Wilk, colleagues, and attorneys had to keep fighting even after the ruling against the AMA. From Wolinsky’s book, Contain and Eliminate:

“Wilk had earned a reputation as a street fighter. In 1974, he’d written a book of his own, Chiropractic Speaks Out: A Reply to Medical Propaganda, Bigotry, and Ignorance. In it, Wilk made a case for the validity of chiropractic based on scientific research, and he attacked the AMA for trying to stop chiropractic education and block insurance and Medicare reimbursement for chiropractic services. “Chiropractic is not a cure-all, but neither is medicine,” Wilk said.”

“The case was finally settled in January 1992. The amount of the settlement is under court seal. The settlement went toward attorney fees for Wilk et al., plus additional funds went to support a center for disabled children run by a chiropractor in Kentucky and the chiropractic schools with a request from the National Chiropractic Antitrust Committee led by Dr. Chester Wilk, which raised funds for the suit, that the colleges earmark the windfall for research. Not all did.” (Wolinsky)

I had the honor of having lunch with Dr. Wilk and his wife many years ago in Chicago. Later, in 1996, we both presented at a seminar hosted by Petty, Michel, and Associates to doctors and staff here in Milwaukee.

He was not flamboyant and seemed unassuming, but to me, he had a steely commitment to chiropractic, and I could see that he was not someone to be bullied.

Were it not for Dr. Wilk, and many others that worked with him to defend the profession of chiropractic from the illegal acts of the American Medical Association, you might not be where you are now.

The story about the Wilk’s case is a lesson for us all and an example well set.

And whether you are a chiropractor, work in the chiropractic field, work in any health field, or pursue healthy solutions for yourself and your family, no one or no organization has any right to suppress health information from you.

Dr. Wilk was not to be bullied or silenced, and neither should any of us. He stuck to his goals through thick and thin.

Please take a moment to pay your respects to this humble man and how we can continue his work.

Seize the Future!

Ed

PS links:

Dr. Chester Wilks Book: Medicine, Monopolies, and Malice
https://www.amazon.com/Medicine-Monopolies-Malice-Chester-Wilk/dp/0895296470

Wolinsky book: Contain and Eliminate
https://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/o2.php?f_id=34

More info about Dr. Chester Wilk https://chiro.org/Wilk/

Dr. Chester Wilk at Petty, Michel and Associates seminar discussing the Wilks vs AMA trail in 1996

Mr. Ed Petty at Petty, Michel, and Associates seminar discussing practice development.

How to Hire the Best in 2022

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Again, its all about the goals.

On occasion, you may need to hire a new team member. We always help our clients with hiring and “onboarding” new employees on our major consulting programs.

We have been hearing a lot about millennials not wanting to work, people don’t want to work, and it’s hard to find good employees.

I don’t buy it. We have been hiring great employees.

You must understand and appreciate the seismic changes that have been occurring in society. The workplace is not what it used to be.

The Assembly Line

I discuss this a great deal in my book, The Goal Driven Business.

The Industrial Age needed an industrial mindset for a workforce. As a worker, you were a cog on the assembly line. You checked out of your life when you punched in and checked back in when you punched out. Not much was required from you…except your brawn and obedience. It was a machine world and required mechanist minds and behavior. The employee worked just as hard so they wouldn’t get fired, and the employer would pay just as little so that the employee wouldn’t quit.

We have long since passed the Industrial Age, but our work culture hasn’t changed that much. The worker at the sandwich shop asks you what you want on your lunch sandwich, the cashier totals your groceries, and the therapy tech at the hospital follows their checklist.

But a reckoning has been on its way for some time.

And that time is now.

Many factors have culminated in today’s “hiring crisis.” It is a perfect wave, of sorts.

OK Boomers

But let’s first dismiss the judgments from the “OK Boomers.”(“OK boomer” is a catchphrase and Internet meme often used by Gen Z to dismiss or mock attitudes typically associated with baby boomers.” Wiki.)

Older generations have always viewed younger generations as flighty, fickle, and poorly motivated workers. I am one of the hardest workers I know, but my dad didn’t think so when I was stumbling around after college trying to find something to sink my teeth in.

While the youthful uncertainties of work may not have changed, there has still been a dramatic shift in our culture.

Financial Changes

Millennials are in debt the way no other generation ever considered. Today’s average college tuition is 31x more than it was in 1969. (1. Yahoo) Total student loan debt is 1.75 trillion. (For comparison, the U.S. Budget in 2020 was 6.6 trillion) with the average borrower owing $29,000.

We have been in an inflationary spiral, with housing leading the way. Generally, the cost of living is rising. The increase in the Consumer Price Index for March is equivalent to an annualized rate of 15.4%, the largest 12-month increase in 40 years. (2)

So, finance is a factor—a big one.

Goals, Values, and Meaningful Work

In 2015 Gallup, surveyed over 80,000 working adults. The majority (51 percent) of employees were unengaged at work, while another 17 percent were actively disengaged, for a total of 68 percent not engaged. That means that nearly 2/3rds of the workforce were dissatisfied with their jobs and ready to make a change.(3)

COVID 19 sent a shockwave throughout the work-a-day world. It jarred employees out of their jobs and they were now free to pursue something more in line with their new values and purposes.

One office we work with recently hired a C.N.A. who had quit their prior employment because they did not want to get the COVID jab. They felt that the medical approach they were forced to follow was not aligned with their own values and goals. As a result, they took a new position at a chiropractic office we work with and now happily feel part of their new family.

Indeed, a hiring company, states:

“A work environment that possesses organizational culture is driven by purpose and clear expectations. This motivates and inspires employees to be more engaged in their work duties and interactions with others.”

One of the major processes we work with the business owners is helping them and their teams delineate their own values that they aspire to each day. Positive team culture can be better created and maintained by regularly reviewing these values.

One very competent employee we recently helped hire for an office was so impressed with the Core Values on the office website that she knew this was her place. She has since joined the team and is a high producer.

Emphasize Your Goals and Mission

Employees want security. They are not necessarily looking to become wealthy, at least in the short term. You may need to review your pay scale for your team and make gradual adjustments in these inflationary times.

But we all have intrinsic goals, which include our values, and these take precedence. Work these out for your business and nurture them often. Stay true to them. In promoting for new staff, communicate your values and just how rewarding it is to work with your practice.

Become Stronger to Withstand Future Reckonings

I anticipate more “reckonings” and seismic shifts in the not-too-distant future that your business will have to weather and overcome. The world is changing quickly. The stronger you are, the better your chances of surviving and thriving.

  1. Read and apply my book, The Goal-Driven Business.
  2. You can also set up a no charge appointment to discuss how we can help strengthen your business and make it more profitable. Make an appointment for a no-charge call consultation here. LINK
  1. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/average-cost-college-jumped-incredible-122000732.html
  2. https://www.investopedia.com/inflation-jumps-again-in-march-2022-5225599
  3. https://news.gallup.com/poll/188144/employee-engagement-stagnant-2015.aspx

Insurance Key References

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Following is a list of links to various publications with helpful information on insurance filing guidelines and requirements.  At the bottom is a convenient downloadable document with all of this information listed.
~~

Wisconsin Worker’s Compensation Treatment Guidelines DWD CH 81.04
https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/dwd/080_081/81

General. Except as set forth in par. (b) and s. DWD 81.04 (5), a health care provider may not direct the use of passive treatment modalities in a clinical setting as set forth in pars. (c) to (i) beyond 12 calendar weeks after any of the passive modalities in pars. (c) to (i) are initiated. There are no limitations on the use of passive treatment modalities by the patient at home. DWD 81.06(3)(a)

Wisconsin Worker’s Compensation Tx Guidelines Departure from Guidelines / Exceptions
DWD 81.04(5) (5) Departure from guidelines. A health care provider’s departure from a guideline that limits the duration or type of treatment in this chapter may be appropriate in any of the following circumstances:

Wisconsin Unfair Claims Settlement Practices
Ins 6.11  Insurance claim settlement practices.https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/ins/6/11/3

Wisconsin Medicaid CMS1500 Claim Instructions
https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/forms/f0/f01234a.pdf
https://www.forwardhealth.wi.gov/kw/pdf/2008-89.pdf

Wisconsin Medicaid – New Requirements and Clarification of Chiropractic Services
https://www.forwardhealth.wi.gov/kw/pdf/2016-35.pdf

Documentation, SOI, 20 visit limit, exam clarification.
State of Wisconsin Insurance Equality
632.87(3) Wisconsin Insurance Equality Chiropractic

Medicare Supplement Mandated Benefits Wisconsin
https://oci.wi.gov/Documents/Consumers/PI-002.pdf
Medicare Supplement and Medicare SELECT policies cover the usual and customary expense for services provided by a chiropractor under the scope of the chiropractor’s license. This benefit is available even if Medicare does not cover the claim. The care must also meet the insurance company’s standards as medically necessary.

Wisconsin Provider Manual Anthem BCBS
https://www.anthem.com/docs/public/inline/PM_WI_00006.pdf

Wisconsin Anthem BCBS Commercial Reimbursement Policy
https://www.anthem.com/docs/public/inline/C-08010.pdf

Wisconsin Anthem BCBS Commercial Modifier Rules
https://www.anthem.com/docs/public/inline/Modifier_Rules_2021.pdf

Downloadable Reference Guide: Insurance Key References

Relationship Marketing: Build and sustain your practice through relationship marketing

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You are in the relationship business.

People see you for a result – but they stay with you because of the relationship.

There are many different definitions of relationship marketing – marketing isn’t codified like CPT®! (That is maybe a good thing!)

Last week I talked about direct response marketing and indirect or brand marketing. Relationship marketing stems from direct response. It emphasizes retention and patient and customer satisfaction.

Relationship marketing works. It helps with patient retention and patient referrals. It also helps generate referrals from external sources.

But what is it, and how do you improve it? 

What is a Relationship?

A relationship is a connection that you have with another person. It is based, ultimately, on communication. Therefore, the quality of that communication determines the quality of the relationship.

Good communication, one that creates a good relationship, centers around understanding. As Stephen Covey advises, Seek first to understand, and then to get understood. Understanding is fundamental for good communication.

The relationship between you and your patient depends on results, of course. But to get results requires understanding the patient. Seeking to understand the patient – showing them a genuine interest in their condition and life – is not only needed from a clinical point of view, but it is vital for good communication and developing the relationship.

How to Improve Patient Communication

Patient Care can be an overused, even over-advertised term. But care is founded first on interest in and concern about the other person.

This means not just going through your script (yuck!) or your checklist with the patient, which may help keep you on track. It means do you understand them, or how and why they came to you? Are you interested?

But how do you do this after the 10,000th patient comes in to the office?

By being a real person who is interested. For example, a patient comes in and wears a green hat. You wonder about the green hat, so you ask them about it. “Hi. I can’t help but notice that you are wearing a green hat. It looks…stunning! Any special occasion?”

A checklist can help you communicate important information, but it can’t take the place of a real live person. It can’t make a relationship. You are not a robot, and neither is your patient.

Be appropriate and respectful, but mostly, be authentic.

This creates trust because your customer sees that you are interested in them as a unique person, not the 10,000th customer. And they see you as a real person, not just a busy professional trying to be interested but really faking it.

I am sure that you have experienced employees in other businesses trying to be interested in you but merely following a script. A bank teller asks me: “Have plans for the weekend?” I am nice back, but I know that she is just doing what her MBA executives in some office far away think she should say.

So, honest and interested communication, added with services and results, will create a strong relationship between you and your patient.

Outside of Your Practice

But relationship marketing goes beyond just your office.

Your patients know people. They can help you get to know their family, friends, and business associates.

You can create relationships with other professional practices, businesses, and organizations. I have seen many examples where a relationship was created between the doctor and an outside entity that resulted in many new patients.

Some examples:

  • YMCA’s and commercial gyms whose owners and managers were also patients.
  • Dentists who didn’t treat TMJ.
  • MD’s who didn’t want to deal with patients with back pain.
  • Ballet company that wanted to keep their dancers in shape.
  • High school coaches who wanted to see their athletes do their best.
  • Motels who needed a “house” medical doctor, dentist, and chiropractor.
  • Autobody shops that took care of injured cars and sent injured passengers to the chiropractor.
  • R. managers at companies who referred employees.

And this is vital: the relationship must be between you and another person associated with the outside entity. You are always dealing, first, with one person.

I have used this definition for years, and it still holds true:

A practice is a network of relationships
 that is created and maintained through service and communication.

There are specific barriers to implementing relationship marketing, and you will run into them. I want to keep this article short, so I will refer you to my book below, which addresses the barriers and how to avoid them or bust through them.

But regardless, just communicating more with more interest will bring in more new patients and keep the ones you have longer.

Communicate more and with interest.

And…

Seize the Future (That is where your goals are!)

 Ed

Link to the Goal Driven Business Book

Link to the Video Supplement to Relationship Marketing

Which is Better for You: Direct Marketing or Indirect Marketing?

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Last week I sent an email with a link to Ode to Joy.

Ode to Joy is from Beethoven’s 4th movement of his 9th symphony, considered one of the top three symphonies ever created.

It was a short 5-minute rendition. It is beautiful and evocative – listen to it again. (Link below.) Plus, its performance was a masterpiece.

But it was actually an ad.

It was a brilliant advertisement for a Spanish Bank. It was promoting Sabadell Bank’s 130th year anniversary in 2012. According to one website, it has had 90 million views since 2012, while another posted in 2015 has received over 18 million views.

That is a lot of exposure. But does it generate new business?

This type of advertising is called brand marketing, or what I call indirect marketing. It is the opposite of direct marketing. Direct marketing, also called direct response marketing, tries to generate an immediate response. Knowing the differences will help you manage your marketing and make it more effective for your particular situation.

Direct Marketing

The goal of direct response marketing is to generate qualified prospects that respond to an offer. When you receive a card in the mail that promotes a free dinner about retirement funds, the company that sent you that mailer hopes you reply and attend the dinner and accompanying talk. At the dinner, a speaker gives a presentation with the hope of scheduling you for a private consultation later that week. When you see an ad on Facebook for a free manual, the advertisers intend that you respond and order their manual. The distinguishing characteristic of direct marketing is numbers – you can quantify the results of your marketing efforts.

Indirect Marketing

The goal for indirect, or brand marketing, is for the name of your business to be well known and well thought of. When you volunteer at the local food bank, co-sponsor a kid’s little league team, or simply provide excellent customer service, these are all examples of indirect marketing. The results of indirect marketing are difficult to identify immediately.

Until you are in Stage 4 in the growth of your business (about 75% or more full capacity), most of your marketing efforts should be direct marketing. Indirect marketing supports direct marketing, but even if your entire town knew about your business and thought highly of it, there is no guarantee that anyone would come to see you as a customer.

Handing out your business card to someone would be an example of indirect, personal brand building. However, handing out your business card with a handwritten note on the back that said something like “N/C screening in May for Joe M. Dr. EP” might be an example of a direct response marketing.

Marketing Mix – Direct, Indirect, and Internal, External

Another factor to consider in managing your marketing is how much should be directed externally – to non-patients and customers and how much should be directed internally to your existing and former patients and customers.

It has been my experience that too few practices are industrious enough with marketing to and communicating with their existing and former patients.

Below is a chart that gives approximate percentages of how to balance your direct and indirect marketing for your practice. I have divided the development of a business arbitrarily into 5 Stages. Figure each Stage to be about 20% your full capacity.

Telling your story and the successes of your services should never end, regardless of how successful you are. Change your marketing strategies depending at what Stage of development your business is in — but keep marketing.

Carpe Posterum (Seize the Future),

Ed
GoalDriven.com

Ode To Joy

Make each day an Ode to Joy!

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“Music is … a higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy”
― Ludwig van Beethoven

Takes 5 minutes. This is an inspirational musical event. The link is below.

It is worthy of the best humans have to offer – and akin to what you provide innately to your patients – as doctors, providers, and support professionals.

Match this with all you do in April and you’ll have a great month!

-Ed

 

For more information on how to create a more profitable business that is more fun than what you are doing now, please purchase and then use the book, The Goal Driven Business.

What You Must Do Before You Try to Improve Your Practice

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Will Durant

Too often, we stop doing what worked and yet wonder why our business isn’t doing as well as it had in the past.

When I would visit an office that wanted to improve, I would initially ask them what they were doing when the office was performing better?

The staff and doctors would pause, think, and gradually, the answers would begin. “Well, we used to call the new patient after the first adjustment…” “We used to have a radio program…” “We used to send out birthday cards… “We used to ….”

After each answer, I would ask, “Well, are you doing that now? The answer was usually “no.”

If business is improving, if the scoreboard shows that you are having a winning season, why stop doing what is working?

Keep doing what works!

This may seem obvious. It is. But we all fail at this one time or another, so it bears repeating.

What keeps us from continuing to do those things that are most successful? Boredom, staff turnover, or a momentary crisis when many procedures get washed overboard.

All offices suffer from what I call Procedural Atrophy – a gradually wearing away of what works. The result is only the very minimal procedures that keep the doors open are performed. Progress exams are no longer done, and the front desk no longer smiles when answering the phone.

The Goals Achieve Process – Now You Can Improve

You want to improve your business – provide better service, increase revenue, decrease stress.

But first, ensure that you are still doing what you were doing when you were doing well. Keep applying your successful procedures!

THEN, make improvements.

Various organizational processes are used in large companies that entail a sophisticated method of improvement, sometimes called Kaizen, Six Sigma, and Lean. Kaizen is a Japanese process developed by an American, but you can earn a “Black Belt” in Six Sigma. (I know. Confusing! People get paid big bucks for this stuff!) We have a very simple improvement process called the Goals Achievement Process outlined below.

  1. Review your numbers for the last few years.
  2. Notice when you were doing better.
  3. Make a list of the procedures, projects, and policies that were successful then.
  4. Also, include the level of your motivation and your attitude, and what you were doing to keep you inspired during those times.
  5. Get the successful procedures on checklists for your team to implement and ensure they are done again.
  6. Assign your manager to ensure that these procedures stay in place.
  7. Do a version of this each month, over and over.
    1. Review what worked and what didn’t the prior month.
    2. Check what procedures weren’t done or done well, or need to be improved, or discontinued
    3. Make a 4-6 step plan for the new month to improve those areas that need improvement.
  8. Optional: Use a professional coach/consultant to help you keep everything on track and improving!
  9. Also, read The Goal Driven Business.

In an entrepreneurial practice (the Personality Driven Practice), the owner is good at using their creative energy to get things started. And while this burst of energy is essential to start a business, it usually doesn’t continue once the “newness” wears off. So, they go in search of a new “shiny thing” to implement or try in their Practice.

A Goal Driven and systematized business works both creatively and methodically to become expert at doing the same procedures over and over, each time as if it was the first time. There is a vast difference between the amateur or serial entrepreneur and the expert who is still training and working to improve.

As Clarence Gonstead said: “Practice. Practice. Practice. Never stop.”

Stay on the Rails

It helps to think of your business as a train. You gradually build up speed and momentum. Keep doing what is working and keep it on the rails. Then, improve it.

Have a great week!

Ed

A new review for the book The Goal Driven Business:

A MUST-READ FOR ANY BUSINESS OWNER!

Throughout the years of my Practice, Ed has helped coach our staff and change our thinking from “personality” driven to “goal” driven – allowing my office to stay open and profitable whether I am here or taking time off!

This book is so easy to understand and gives you real steps to take now in your business. I highly recommend this book to anyone who currently owns a business, is thinking about owning a business, or is a manger of a business!

Donna Brown, D.C.
Business Owner, Group Practice

The Missing Role in Your Practice

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The cause of almost all relationship difficulties is rooted in conflicting or ambiguous expectations around roles and goals. Stephen Covey

The reason many offices have a difficult time growing has to do with missing roles.

A role is the identity assumed to perform a series of tasks that produce a specified outcome.

In the hundreds of offices that we have visited over the years, the doctors take on essentially two roles: doctor and owner. This works in the beginning for a few years as the practice grows. In time, however, the practice begins to roller coaster. Numbers go up, then they go down, cycling up and down until everyone fatigues and just settles.

There are several causes for the Practice Roller Coaster. There are hidden barriers that hold an office back and sabotage its growth. These are covered in my book, The Goal Driven Business.

One of the barriers has to do with a missing role that most business owners overlook. Can you guess which one that is?

Let’s look at goals: What is the goal of a doctor? “A healthier person,” right?

What is the goal of a business owner? A secure and solvent business. Dividends from ownership.

What is missing? The doctor can achieve their goal by seeing 10 people a week. As a business owner, they can keep their overhead very low – perhaps working out of their home. But is that what you really want – to see 10 people a week out of your house? Overhead is low and you are getting good results. So, what is missing?

The CEO – the chief executive is the missing role. The goal of a CEO is a very profitable business that operates at full capacity providing world class service and delivering extraordinary results.

The CEO is the chief manager, leader, and marketer, which are the three functions that drive the business to its goals.

Sometimes we hear the doctor being referred to as the “boss,” but boss is not a well-defined role. “Boss” is generally recognized as the person who gives orders and makes decisions. However, it is an overlay of an existing role, as in a “bossy” doctor or “bossy” owner. The role of a CEO is much more than this.

Most providers are too busy providing services to do much managing – and besides, they are paid for their services, not their managing or leadership. Doctors are trained to manage patients, not businesses.

Still, this is a role that must be fulfilled as distinct and separate from the owner or provider roles if the business’s full capacity is to be achieved.

Three Functions of the CEO

The role of CEO includes these functions:

  • Leadership: Leadership is all about goals. It defines where you are going and why and helps everyone you work with embrace this knowledge with commitment. Leadership includes your mission, long-range plans, values, and … the insistence upon achieving them.
  • Management: Management deals with how to get to the goals. Management works to ensure that people and procedures are effectively working and improving.
  • Marketing. Marketing includes procedures and projects that help generate new patients/clients and retain them. Marketing is business, and business is marketing.

Once your practice is at least at 50% capacity, a couple of hours spent each week on effective leadership, management, or marketing activities as a CEO is worth 8 hours or more doing anything else. For example, time spent going to a seminar – perhaps 20 hours including the transportation, may increase your numbers for months afterward. A little can go a long way.

Because the role of practice CEO must be very part-time, we have developed the Fast Flow CEO System for the Goal Driven Business. This can take as little as 2 -3 hours per week, depending on the scale of your business. Here are five components of the Fast Flow CEO System:

  1. Get Out to Work On. Regularly take time to get out of the business so that you can work on your business.
  2. The CEO Works for the Business. The business does not work for the CEO. Sure, the business works for the doctors so that they can provide better service to the patients. But that is for the doctor. Sometimes called “servant leadership,” the CEO is the Chief Coach, helping others understand the goals and how to achieve them.
  3. Team Members. The CEO works to create team members who take on a portion of departmental management, marketing, and leadership.
  4. Manager. The CEO creates the role of manager and delegates a team member to assume this as a part-time role. The manager can take on much of the CEO’s daily and weekly duties.
  5. Study. The CEO studies leadership, management, and marketing to improve their skill as a CEO. Leaders are … readers!

Certainly, all this requires some skill and training – and coaching! But just clarifying the role of CEO and its expectations as distinct from the roles of owner and doctor (or “boss”) will significantly improve your chances of breaking out of the Practice Roller Coaster and achieving your goals.

Ed Petty

March 14, 2022