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Tag Archives: D.C.
5 Levels of Administrative Support in a Chiropractic Office
Someone in your office needs to be responsible for the administrative duties that fall outside of the usual functions in a chiropractic office of:
- Front Desk
- Patient Accounts
- Hallway/Therapy.
This someone is usually the chiropractor – at least at first. But as the practice grows there is more administrative work to do. The doctor can do it, of course, but he or she should be spending time on adjusting patients and building the office.
The smart doctor knows this rule:
Do what you do best,
And delegate all the rest.
Some offices have a chiropractic assistant that is called an “office manager.” The role of the office manager is often vague and the duties are varied. Usually the “office manager” has had very little, if any, management training.
The growth of the business will eventually stall because of this.
Most chiropractic team members are bright and industrious and whoever is assigned the role of office manager usually does her best for the office. Unfortunately, this is not enough in most cases for the office to achieve its capacity and goals.
In 2013 we will be launching a number of new office manager training programs to help doctors and office managers achieve their full potential.
In the meantime, the chart below may help clarify the general range of duties of an office manager. It lists an approximate hierarchy of responsibility for someone delegated by the doctor to perform administrative functions.
A staff member who has another job in the office, for example, front desk, may take on a part time role of Administrative Assistant. As the office grows, she could take on more responsibilities as the Administrative Coordinator, and then finally as an Office Manager. She may have to delegate some of her front desk duties to give time for the extra admin work she now has.
The titles below are intended to demonstrate that there are different levels of administrative responsibility and are not exact. Your office might just need an admin assistant.
However all doctors need to delegate their management and administrative duties and more offices than not, suffer for lack of well trained and effective office managers.
5 Levels of Administrative Support
Administer = from Latin administrare, from ad- + ministrare to serve, from minister, servant
5. Practice Manager – Similar to a general manager. This role is for a larger office with 15 or more staff.
4. Office Manager – About 5 hours per week or more, but takes on a majority of the administrative duties and some of the management functions. Supports the staff and the doctor to give better service. Is accountable for office growth and performance.
3. Office Coordinator – Works 5 hours a week on administration. Helps the doctor with management duties, including human resources (hiring, training, etc.), marketing, coordinates with the staff on training, marketing, and other special projects.
2. Administrative Coordinator – Works about 3-5 hours a week on administration. Clerical duties, some important. Helps the doctor with management duties, including human resources, marketing, etc.
1. Administrative Assistant – Works about 3 hours a week on administration. Mostly clerical duties.
“Highway to Health Summer” Tour 2011 with Dr. Billy DeMoss, Founder of the Dead Chiropractor Society
It’s summer. Time to get away… and spend the weekend getting high on chiropractic and just relaxing.
Join us Friday evening, August 19th, in Appleton WI as we celebrate chiropractic with Dr. Billy DeMoss, founder of the Dead Chiropractic Society and CALJAM, the yearly music festival and seminar program that is lighting up the chiropractic profession.
Billy D will rock your world with a rip roaring presentation Friday evening, August 19 at the Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton, WI.
Saturday morning there will be a special presentation for staff (and doctors) with Phyllis Frase, Internationally renown staff trainer and practice development coach.
Later, you can go for a walk to the local farmers market, catch a free concert, or just walk by the Fox River and enjoy a beautiful summer day in Wisconsin – all while inspired again about chiropractic.
The Apple Valley Hotel is a deluxe resort on the north side of Lake Winnebago in Central WI, located next to the beautiful Fox River. With many amenities, it is a great family destination as well as nice for those who just want to get away from it all.
Date, Time, Location
Friday, August 19, 7-10pm
Dr. Billy DeMoss: “Highway to Health Tour”
Saturday, August 20, 8-10am
Phyllis Frase: “How to Be A Rock Star C.A.”
Paper Valley Hotel — LINK
333 W. College Avenue, Appleton WI 54911
Hotel Reservations: 1-800-394-7046 US/Canada Toll-free
Telephone (920) 733-8000
—Hotel Information…. Special room rate of $99.00. Will be extended for the weekend if you wish.
Price of Admission – and Registration
Fees double at the door. Space limited so register now.
Dr. Billy DeMoss:
PM&A Client: $25 Per person, doctors and staff
Not an active PM&A client, just $35 – Per Person, doctors and staff
Ms. Phyllis Frase:
PM&A client – no charge – Just let us know who is coming by sending us an email at services@pmaworks.com or faxing us at 1-877-868-0909
Not a PM&A client: $25 per person
To register, click the registration form, open the file, print it, complete it and fax it back to us at: 1-877-868-0909 Registration form.
Billy DeMoss, the Dead Chiropractic Society (DC-S), and a free Chiropractic
Dr. Billy DeMoss has changed chiropractic.
He has done this by offering an alternative model to the standard chiropractic seminar. In so doing, he has helped to bring chiropractic back to chiropractic.
We all know that there are various versions in how this great profession is presented and applied. But there is a common denominator in the profession that makes it special and in which everyone can agree.
What is it?
The subluxation…? Well, sure, but even this is disputed. Let’s go for something even more basic.
The fact that chiropractic truly helps people get healthier and avoid getting run down in the medical-pharmaceutical-sickness complex? Yes. True enough.
What else makes it special that we can all agree to?
NO ONE OWNS IT. Chiropractic wasn’t bought out by a Chinese company, a multinational firm, or bailed out by the Federal Reserve or the World Bank. Your skills are not trademarked by Eli Lilly (Pharmacy Company). You can use Activator or the knee-chest. For the most part, you are free to do whatever you want.
But there is also something else that makes chiropractic special and that we all can agree to. What is it?
Well, chiropractic, if you are doing it right, is fun. In fact, it is a blast. Adjusting patients and seeing them get better and loving you and your team for it! What could be better?
So, let’s add it all up: chiropractic helps people get healthier, it helps them avoid costly medical procedures, it allows them to live a better life, it allows you and your staff to have a better life, it is free from outside financial interests, and, it is fun.
NOW this is cause for a party!! THIS, if anything, should be celebrated.
This is what Billy preaches, practices, and sets an example for us all.
There are many professions out there that are soulless, goalless, and hopeless. Many are also too burdened with their own seriousness. We also can fall into this “chiropractic-as-drudgery” daily work mindset.
But, this is NOT chiropractic. And, as B.J. Palmer said:
The average businessman has long since forgotten Rule No. 9, “Don’t take yourself too damn seriously.”
Dr. DeMoss practices Rule No. 9. and helps us all celebrate the work we do.
The next Cal Jam, which he calls “ kiro-Woodstock” is scheduled for March 12th & 13th, 2012. You can visit his website at www.californiajam.org where you can sign up to receive his newsletter and be a part of his worldwide referral network.
AND, you can listen to him live this Tuesday, April 26, at 12:30 Central Time. (For non active clients, we are charging $25 which will be donated to Oaklahaven.)
For the full article on Rule #9 by B.J.Palmer, and a downloadable PDF file: Rule #9
Chiropractor to Chiropractor: Reclaim the Joy of Practice
Being a chiropractor can be a lonely job.
Who knows what it is like to adjust patients late in the afternoon while one patient is going on and on and the next one is dirty from work and smells? And yet another just called in who has been under care for two weeks and is in pain and wants to be seen right away – who knows what that is like?
Someone who has been there and done that – another doctor.
You aren’t looking for advice, that can wait. You don’t need a lecture. It would just be good to talk with someone who has been there before and survived, or better, thrived.
Let me introduce Dr. Tom Potisk. He is not the overbearing charming salesman type of a doctor that you often see in consulting programs. Actually, not too many doctors are really like that. In fact, most doctors are very similar to Dr. Tom.
Dr. Tom and Dave, Phyllis and myself have been discussing an additional ingredient to practice success that that we feel doctors need. Simply, another doctor to talk to. They have us, of course. But we are managers and marketers and practice builders. That is our specialty. And we too have been there and done that, since the 1980’s. But as managers – not as doctors.
We feel doctors need both for practice success: a professional manager to help build a profitable and self sustaining business AND the support and perspective of a professional, experienced chiropractor.
So we are very happy to partner with Dr. Tom Potisk in providing services to our wonderful wonderful clients.
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Tom will be giving a number of presentations at our upcoming seminars this year. One of the classes will be on Doctor to Doctor: Reclaiming the Joy of Practice. This is his basic theme: how, as a doctor, you can truly enjoy each day doing what you do as a doctor. His approach is simply – doctor to doctor. Not as a coach, but as a fellow doctor who has been through what you are going through and made it to the other side – very successfully.
Listen to this his first teleclass you – you will find it very motivating and reassuring.
Hope to “see” you there,
Ed
Here is what others have said who have listed to his full presentation:
“Dr. Tom’s program was fantastic! I laughed, I cried, and I went back to my practice with a new, deeper sense of dedication and confidence. All DCs need to hear his message!” – Dr. Donna Stackpool, Lake Geneva WI
“Reclaim the Joy of Practice was an amazing presentation! Dr. Potisk made the evening fun and enlightening with great tips on how to stay happy and truly enjoy Chiropractic. I loved the history references with BJ. It was a great reminder of how generations past fought for Chiropractic and how we need to honor them and the profession AND continue the passion. Thanks Dr. Potisk for lighting the fire again!” – Tara Gill DC, Delevan WI
“After nearly 40 years of practice, I thought I heard the last of the great, authentic, and sincere chiropractic programs years ago; then along comes Dr. Tom Potisk with his Reclaim the Joy of Practice presentation. He brought me right back to what I remembered as the good-ole-days with an adjustment between my ears. High pi Dr. Tom !” – Jerry Zelm DC, Oconomowoc WI
And you can read more about Dr. Tom Potisk here.
More Videos and Photos from PM&A’s Adventure to the Chiropractic California Jam 2010
Dr. Tom Potisk gives a succinct and complete accounting and review of our travels to, and as it turned out, through Southern California. (see earlier post)
Here are some various videos and photos if you want more, though rough and candid, reporting. (Some videos may need the volume turned up.)
Walking to Cal Jam
Opening – Don’t Back Down – Chiropractor
Clips from various talk. May have to turn up volume.
Dr. Brian Porteous – a clip from his talk on the hyperstension study. LINK
Dr. Dan Murphy – talks about recent research on toxic chemicals and how they affect nervous system and adjusting – (9 min) LINK
Dr. Dan Murphy – talks about cervical spine, referencing the hypertension study. LINK (5 min)
Dr. Dan Murphy – refers to book by M.D. references Innate. LINK
Dr. Fabrizio Mancini – applying chiropractic is not complicated. (2 min) LINK
Motorcycles, Natural Hot Springs, Sushi, and Chiropractic Philosophy – Wowee! What a Weekend!!
In the natural hot springs.
I just returned from a few days in Costa Mesa CA. I attended CalJam, a chiropractic philosophy/music convention, with Ed Petty from PM&A. It was refreshingly different because of the focus on chiropractic’s unique philosophy combined with music.
The man behind it all is Dr. Billy DeMoss and his fun-loving personality really shows in the event. Check out my video of BJ Palmer resurrected. [Longer Version]
Of course, I had to give Ed a lesson about why I’m called the “down-to-earth” doctor (www.thedowntoearthdoctor.com), a big part of it is going on adventures, so I took him on a high desert search for a natural hot spring called Deep Creek Spring. Yes, those are my feet in the picture. Ed reciprocated by guiding me on a motorcycle tour one of the days – I drove my first Harley and now I’m hooked! Thanks Ed.
My Harley in Laguna Beach, CA
As I listened to many of the greats like Dr Dan Murphy, Dr. Fabrizio Mancini, etc. I became even more grateful for the 25 years of tremendous success I’ve had in chiropractic. “Best profession in the world!” is what I told a 2nd semester student I bumped into there. He was wondering if he made the right decision, given all the negative news circulating about the business of practicing lately.
The speakers were talented and the content inspiring, but it also became apparent to me, that the seminars of PM&A are better in the sense that they lack sales. What I mean is that all or most of the speakers at CalJam, as inspiring and fun as they are to listen to, have a hidden agenda – they want to sell me something. That’s one of several reasons why I stayed with PM&A as my practice management guide, and why I’m excited to now be a part of their team.
I teach a class around the country called Reclaim the Joy of Practice, based on my book of the same name (www.reclaimthejoy.com) for content, I’m always on the lookout for exceptional DCs. I bumped in to Dr. Gerald Clum, president of Life West Chiropractic College.
Listen to his brief message in response to my question “What can chiropractors do to be more successful?” LINK.
Doctor, how can you apply that message today?
Asking Permission, Gaining Respect
By Dr. Tom Potisk
Doctors of chiropractic appreciate respect as do patients. When a doctor acknowledges and recognizes that the patient may have limited time and money, a mutual respect develops and the situation becomes win-win. For example, when making a recommendation to a patient, ask “May I explain the tests that need to be performed today?”, and then “These will take approximately ____ minutes. Do you have time today?”
After explaining the results, a good follow up is: “Are you ready to start treatment today?” Then explain the treatment.
Far too often doctors get into a routine and they begin to assume that the patient wants what you’re about to perform. Asking their permission to proceed not only relaxes the patient but lowers your liability because you’ve gotten their consent.
Never assume that permission has already been obtained by staff. Ask “Has the receptionist explained our procedures and policies?”
For gaining referrals, avoid the harsh “Bring in your spouse and child for a spinal exam.” Instead ask, “Many of my patients bring their family here for preventive check-ups. Would you be interested in how that works?” The best time to ask this is when the patient has praised your treatment. As Doctor Sid Williams says, “Breed them while they’re in heat!”
For building a wellness care practice, a great question is “If there were a way of preventing this problem from reoccurring and avoiding new problems would you be interested?”
At the end of your practice day, reflect upon it and take notice of how many times you asked questions versus issued advice and orders. The ratio should be about 50:50. Don’t be afraid to ask your staff for their perspective of your performance. They are your best source of input and will feel honored by your inquiry.
In this era of managed health care and busy lifestyles, asking for the patient’s permission goes a long way in gaining their respect and building a joy filled successful practice.
Dr. Tom Potisk has been a client of PM&A for nearly all of his 25 year multi-doctor practice. He now works with PM&A and is soon publishing a book titled Reclaim The Joy Of Practice.