Tag Archives: patient

Have You Mapped Your Patient’s Health Journey?

Posted on by
Reply

woman mapping out patient flow for chiropractic office

Improving Your Chiropractic Patient’s Experience

Advertising has peaked. We are awash in ads coming at us from every possible source. We are hit with anywhere from 4000 to 10,000 ads per day.* With AI and ultra-sophisticated forms of targeting, it’s almost totalitarian.

The new marketing is customer service or Service Marketing.

Advertising has its place, of course, if it is to the right market, with the right message, and the right offer. But with all ads, the low-hanging fruit gets picked quickly, and new ones are needed.

There are other avenues of marketing your chiropractic services, but the importance of world-class service and outcomes is more vital than ever.

You’ve seen the stats:

  • 40% of customers began purchasing from a competitive brand because of its reputation for good customer service.
  • 55% are willing to recommend a company due to outstanding service, more so than price.
  • 85% would pay up to 25 percent more to ensure a superior customer service experience.*

Nothing is radically new about these numbers, but it helps to see them again.

And Service Marketing is not really new. But I believe it is and will be the dominant feature that distinguishes you from comparable providers. This is because content marketing has flooded the market. Therefore, call it service marketing or relationship marketing, turning each of your patients into raving fans who become salespeople for you is an intelligent marketing strategy.

But you must deliver the WOW!

CUSTOMER AND PATIENT JOURNEY MAPPING

Customer Journey Mapping is a relatively new term that has been hatched over the last 10 or 15 years in marketing. While the term is new, the concept is not.

Customer Journey Mapping is a procedure used to visualize and analyze customers’ end-to-end experience as they interact with, in this case, your practice.

It is essentially a flow chart.

It starts with a prospective patient’s first call to make an appointment. What do they see when they drive up to your office, walk through the door, and are greeted? It involves mapping out every encounter and even the likely emotion your patient experiences through Day 1, Day 2, Day 12, and so on.

And how far do you take your patient? Is it 8 visits and done? Do you take them through Acute Care, Corrective and Strengthening, to Supportive and Wellness? Do you have a map for your patients and do they know it? What are the milestones along the way? Are your patients excited about reaching them?

IMPROVING YOUR CHIROPRACTIC AND HEALTHCARE SERVICE

One of the exercises I covered in my book The Goal Driven Business, which has always been useful, is a complete Day 1 and Day 2 walk-through. It is rehearsing your flow chart or patient map.

Everyone watches while someone acts as a patient. I have often done this and acted as a patient. I will notice things that everyone has taken for granted — the old poster from 1989 still on the wall with the Muppets, a dead plant in the corner, a dead smile on the front desk, no explanation when I am dumped off on a therapy unit. Staff start noticing things as well. Redundancies show up, so do poor handoffs between the front desk and the doctor or from the doctor to patient accounts.

Zeroing in on how the phone is answered, an exam is done, or a report of findings is presented, you can find many small improvements that make a big difference on how your patients experience your office.

(Want me to set this up for you? Schedule a time and give me a call.)

Creating your patient’s experience is your most important marketing activity. Mapping it and practicing will help you create raving fans — that will generate even more fans.

Keep improving,

Ed

*The average American encounters around 6,000 to 10,000 ads or brand exposures per day. Source: “MIT Technology Review” article by Michael Schrage (Aug 7, 2017)

*Customer service stats. X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, by Brian Solis

—————————————————-

If your practice building efforts aren’t taking you to your goals,

there are reasons — many of which are hidden from you.

Find out what they are and how to sail to your next level by getting and implementing my new book, The Goal Driven Business.

goal driven business book for CEO and Office Managers by Edward W Petty.

The Goal Driven Business, By Edward Petty

Goal driven order now button

The Patient Handoff

Posted on by
Reply

doctor and two women introductions.

Improving your patient’s experience.

There are subtle and brief moments in your practice when you and your team can earn or lose your patient’s trust. It can make the difference between your patient agreeing to your care program or finding a reason to delay the decision.

Excuses can be easy to dream up. There are hundreds of reasons why someone can’t, or won’t, agree to a care plan or follow through with their care. But the reasons presented may not be the actual ones.

Surveys show that customers cease their relationship with a business when they experience an attitude of indifference on the part of the employee or business. People hate to be ignored.

You know this, so you ensure you and your team communicate well with patients at the front desk and during the report of findings and case presentation. These are obvious communication events.

But just as important, but not always as obvious, is the communication that occurs when the patient is transferred from one staff member to another.

This is called the Patient Handoff.

For example, the doctor has spent time reviewing the exam and imaging findings with the patient and correlated them with their history. The doctor explains the health issues and the care plan to the patient. The patient nods in agreement. With other patients now waiting to be seen and the doctor feeling rushed, the doctor may leave the patient and ask another staff member to schedule the patient for care and to work out their finances.
It would take another 3-5 minutes for the doctor to introduce the patient to another staff member and relay the key information to them in front of the patient. It would be minutes well spent.

“Hi Betty (Patient Accounts Specialist). This is Sam. He works out at the same gym as I do over at Acme Fitness. He wants to keep up with his workouts so I have worked up a treatment plan to help him recover from low back injuries. I’ve included the info in the back (hands written report to Betty). Could you schedule him for his appointments and discuss his payment options?”

“Sam, any questions or comments?”

“No.”

“Ok, great. I look forward to working with you here at the clinic and also at the gym. See you soon.”

After the report of findings is a handoff event that can be too easily cut short or skipped altogether. Another handoff I have often witnessed omitted entirely is introducing the new patient to their therapy and rehab services.

We are all in a hurry, but these patient care transition points hugely impact how your patient experiences you and your clinic.

In sum, patient handoffs help with the following:

  1. The continuity of care ensures that the patient receives consistent and appropriate care throughout their treatment plan.
  2. Minimizing misunderstandings or errors in their care.
  3. Improving your patient’s satisfaction and trust in you and your clinic.

Take time to do thorough patient handoffs, and you will see retention improve, referrals increase, and happier patients.

Working towards a healthier future,

Ed

Failure to Follow Through

Posted on by
Reply

It is the ‘follow through’ that makes the great difference between ultimate success and failure, because it is so easy to stop. — Charles Kettering

Failure to Follow Through

If it worked once it probably will work again

There is a management disease that many businesses, including chiropractic and other health practices, can suffer from. It is called “Failure to Follow Through.”

I noticed this at one of the first offices I worked with in Northern California – years ago. Their numbers were down. When I visited their office on a hot summer day, the reception room was empty, and few patients were scheduled. I noticed they had a thick binder of photos of patients and staff on the lower shelf of a dusty bookcase. The photos showed happy staff, doctors, and patients. There were also patient success testimonials, several years old.

We all met together for a staff meeting. I asked the doctor and staff if they could name a few specific actions they did back then. I said, “let’s start with marketing.”

Well, it turned out that they ran advertisements for a bi-yearly promotion. So I asked if they had done this in the last few years. “No” was their answer.

“What else were you doing at the time,” I asked. They said they always discussed financial and scheduling arrangements away from the front desk. Are you doing that now? “No.”

What else were you doing during that time? “We used to call the new patient after the first adjustment.” They also did progress exams. “Doing it now?” “No.”

The list went on and on.

Being the brilliant practice management scientist that I am, I encouraged them to re-implement what they had been doing. They did, and a few months later, the office was filling up again.

Practice Management

If it worked once, it probably will work again. Make minor improvements as needed, but why change the system if it is working?

Well, you can get bored, right? Or a staff member who knew the system left and their duties were not replicated by someone else. Or, everyone gets bored, so you feel the need to change things to bring excitement back into the office, and key procedures quietly start disappearing.

Discontinuing your successful procedures can create a roller coaster ride for your practice, with numbers going up and then down. And this can cost you thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars.

A checklist of successful procedures is essential, but that is not enough. They need to be reviewed regularly.

That, too, is not enough. We need to keep the practice environment fresh and lively while still maintaining those activities that are helping us grow and develop. We are not on an assembly line, and we are not robots!

I cover this in my book, The Goal Driven Business. (See Goal Driven Principle #17, Goals, Games, Groundhog Day). This is part of the Goal Driven System of practice development and includes checklists, reviews and coaching, and other components, such as gamification.

Gamification is a new term for an old principle: we like to play games! As video games became more prevalent, businesses saw that they could adapt elements of gamification to help engage employees and customers. Nothing new, really.

To make your office feel new again, you can think of a new promotion for this summer or new colors to paint the office. Spend a morning reviewing your goals, mission, and policies, and then go to a spa for a reward! One office creates a health theme each year and makes t-shirts promoting the theme for staff and patients.

Keep it fun — but stick to your winning ways.

Patient Management

ALSO… like practice management, patient management can also be affected by failure to follow through. Your patients need help to adhere to their treatment plan to achieve their health goals.

Stick-to-itiveness is simply being true to our goals.

Make improvements along the way and keep it fun. But help each other and your patients follow through.

Your goals are waiting for you!

Ed

Chiropractic Patient Education Prompters – Table Talk Grows Your Flock

Posted on by
Reply

Imagine this scenario:

Written on a white board near the chiropractic patient adjusting area:

Last to show and the first to go.

Patient: Hey Doc, what does that mean, written on the white board there?

Doctor: Hi Sam, glad you asked. Just a reminder for me to explain that pain usually shows up after a health problem is present for a period of time, and usually goes away or lessens during the early part of our program of care. In other words, the pain can go away but the issue that caused it can still be present.

Patient: Oh, I got you! So, even though I am feeling much better, I better stick with the program, is that it?

Doc. Yep!

===

You know patient education is important. It improves outcomes. It improves retention. It improves referrals.

This is a simple procedure to improve your patient education: Assign a creative staff member the task of writing images or sayings that prompt the patient, or prompt you, to talk about a health subject. That’s it!

It prompts TABLE TALK.

Table talk is the BEST form of patient education and, for that matter, promotion. It comes from you, the doctor, during the most transformative time in your office.

Here are a few sample subjects you could post on a white board near your adjusting table:

  • How does chiropractic work?
  • Above Down Inside Out
  • Dr. You
  • Does chiropractic help with headaches?
  • Last to Show First to Go
  • Time, Repetition, Effort! [It takes time to restore your health, it has taken a long time for you to get into this condition. It takes repetitive work, like orthodontics. We will give you our best effort, you will have to do the same,]

Add a drawing now and then:

  • How is pain like an iceberg? (Draw an iceberg. [Iceberg Symptoms on top of the water, cause below in the water.]
  • How is spinal health like a rusty hinge? [This is when your vertebrae wears away when it becomes stuck.]
  • What happens to your tires when they are out of alignment? [Disks wear out faster like tires out of alignment.
  • Car Parked a garden hose. [When the hose is stepped on or kinked the water does not flow 100%. The same is true when you have a subluxation and your nerves are impinged. This affects everything your nerves are connected to.]
  • Safety Pin.
  • Orthodontics.

Just so you don’t get too serious, add a joke now and then:

  • I had to turn down the landscape company today…

****They wanted too mulch

  • The bartender says “Sorry, we don’t serve time travelers in here.”

****A time traveler walks into a bar.

===

This procedure doesn’t cost you. Like chiropractic (or our consulting!), it pays!

But only do it for two months at a time, otherwise it will lose its novelty for you, the staff, and patients. Run it 2- 3 times each year.

Once a month, meet with your team and come up with some new patient education prompters. This is also another way to educate your team in the process.

Keep the conversation going.

The more they know, the further they’ll go.

And seize the future.

Ed

Improving Patient Follow Through: The new patient log and checklist

Posted on by
Reply

Working with different offices, we are always reminded of the fundamentals that apply universally. For example…

Once your patient has committed to getting better, it is your job, and everyone else on the team, to help them achieve their goals.

But in the busyness of everyday office interactions, essential steps along the way can become abbreviated or dropped out altogether.

At one office I recently visited, the patient visits and income were diving downward on a monthly trend. And this was occurring even though the new patient volume had been pretty steady.

When I inquired with the front desk staff, they told me that patients were sick, had money problems, were busy, and blah blah blah.

I asked if this was a new phenomenon. Did patients suddenly become poor, was there a new pandemic? What?

Didn’t get any real answers, as they were busy on the phones doing recalls trying to get people back in the office. The doctor wasn’t sure what was happening. To his credit, he loves adjusting and focuses on providing outstanding care – which he does, usually at a high volume.

Long story short, after investigating, I discovered that the doctor had changed up his treatment procedure slightly, and staff positions had changed. As a result, new patient financial consultations had dropped out. The patients had been getting excellent care but had no idea about their payments and were only scheduled for one visit at a time.

This was a pretty big change! A critical procedure just silently disappeared without anyone really noticing. (Sometimes it is hard to see the forest for the trees. Plug: Consulting doesn’t cost. It pays!)

Everyone at the office is a veteran, hard-working, and goal driven. A great team. But this missing procedure was costing them thousands and preventing patients from getting the full benefit of care.

We implemented several solutions that have worked for other offices.

One solution was the New Patient Log and Checklist. I gave them a sample to customize. It is a lined sheet on a clipboard. Each new patient is listed vertically on the left column, followed by other columns stipulating key actions that should occur on each patient. The Log would include such things as:

  • Report of findings and Tx Program.
  • Multiple appt. card.
  • Financial Consult.(When, by whom.)
  • First adjustment call.
  • Attend NP workshop.
  • Source.
  • If referred by patient, what is pt.’s name?
  • Thank you card to referring patient?
  • Type [ WC, PI, C, etc.]

You could add more columns, but the most vital aspect of this Log is this: it must be assigned to someone. You and the team can review the NP Log during your morning meetings or at weekly team meetings.

One of the lessons here is to always look for what you and your team are doing or not doing before you look to the environment for why your practice may be slipping – or booming!

And help your patients achieve their health goals by ensuring that they complete all the steps necessary along their health journey to achieve their goals.

Stay Goal Driven for a happier future!

Ed

Call Your Mom: The most important person in your practice

Posted on by
Reply

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

Selling the Invisible — Patient Education: An Inexpensive Marketing Procedure with a Big Return

Posted on by
Reply

1

[Link to a checklist of patient education procedures below.]

Educate your patients!

There are so many reasons why — let’s look at a few of them. Then, I will show you how your team can implement your patient education procedures.

1. Selling the Invisible. Unlike buying a refrigerator, your patients are purchasing something they can’t see.

They are receiving a service for which there are no concrete, tangible references for them to judge whether the services were excellent, complete, or long-lasting. Outside of immediate relief from their symptoms, they may wonder if you provided a great service, shortchanged them, or are recommending more than they need.

On the other hand, you know the length, breadth, and depth of what you provide. Virtually, you can see the outcomes, know the measurements, understand the symptoms and know what they point to. But to your patients… it’s all an illusion. They have to trust you and what you say.

Typically, once the symptoms are relieved, many patients believe that the condition is resolved. But through education, your patients can understand how your treatment recommendations are a pathway to fully resolving their condition.

2. Beyond Your Services – Your Patient’s Optimal Health. Beyond your services and the treatment program you suggest, your patients will benefit from general health knowledge. Health is a lifestyle, including exercise and nutrition, but the healthy way of living is distorted by unrelenting drug advertising and propaganda.

Low-fat diets, diet soda, statins and other drugs are still an accepted part of the conventional health model. Pharma is increasingly pouring billions into advertising — $328.6 billion in 2016 from $116 billion in 1997.(1 ) In addition, there are untold sums spent on lobbying your elected officials and paying for their election expenses.

Health reality is being manufactured for corporate profits rather than for personal and family health and longevity. Your patients and neighbors in your community don’t have a chance without your calm teaching of the facts on how to achieve a healthy and long life.

3. Customer Education — From a strictly commercial point of view, other businesses are seeing the advantages of customer education. According to learning industry analyst John Leh, “In a world where customer success increasingly determines overall business success, customer education has become an imperative.”(2)

Studies support the idea that customer education pays off. According to studies by ThinkJar, a customer strategy consultancy, “Customers are thirsty for more information and knowledge.”(3) And a study by Eisingerich and Bell conclude that customer education improves the trust in the company.(4)

Major businesses are investing large sums in educating their customers, and a leading customer education platform, Skilljar announced it has raised $33 million in funding. That is a significant investment! Their goal is to provide tools to companies to better onboard, engage, and retain customers at a large scale.

So if you want healthier patients and a healthier community, and if you would like to generate more profit, simply spend more time educating your patients. It is not that expensive! But as with most value-added programs in a practice, projects rarely start, and when they do, they are abandoned almost as soon as they begin.

To avoid this, use a checklist!!

Download the Patient Education Checklist for some ideas on what you can do to educate your patients. Assign a team member this checklist and give them 1-3 hours per week to work on selected projects and report on them at your meetings. They can take on the role of Patient Education Coordinator and help everyone on your team up their game in patient education.

The more your patients know, the further they (and you) will go.

Ed Petty

1. Consumer Reports, January 14, 2019 
2. Avramescu, Adam. Customer Education: Why Smart Companies Profit by Making Customers Smarter.
3. Interview with Kolsky, Foundoer of ThinkJar. Huffpost, 10/15/2015
4. Andreas B. Eisingerich, Simon J. Bell, February 1, 2008 
Photo from UCLA

Selling the Invisible – a favorite book of mine by Harry Beckwith

Patient Education: A Simple and Fun Method for Chiropractic Offices

Posted on by
Reply

Patient education is definitely a clinical function.  But… it is also good marketing.

And note that your entire office IS the marketing department and each team member has a marketing role.

To help everyone on your team better participate in patient education, use this simple and fun method:

Get a whiteboard and place it where patients can see it.  Assign someone to write something on it each day so that your patients, or you, can comment on it.

For example, you could write:

  • What does this mean?

“Pain is the last to show
… and the first to go.”

This will be a cue for the doctor or a team member to talk to your patients – and can also provoke your patients to talk to you.

Here are some other examples:

  • “What does a chiropractic ADJUSTMENT do?”
  • “How is pain like an iceberg to your health?”
  •  What does A.D.I.O. mean?

At your morning team meetings, or weekly meetings, go over each subject so everyone has a better idea on how to educate patients on the topic.
For active PM&A members, go here for a more complete list:  PMAmembers.com

Where Are All Your Patients?

Posted on by
Reply

Where Are All  Your Chiropractic Patients?

What would your daily volume of visits be like if ½ of all the NPs you have ever seen still came in to see you once every month? Or even every other month.

Let’s take a look: say you have been in business for 10 years. Each month during these years you averaged just 10 new patients per month. (Pretty low, I know.) That would total 10 x 12 months = 120 new patients per year and in ten years that would be 1,200 new patients.  If half of them saw you every two months, that would be 600 patient visits every two months, or 300 visits per month.

How would that be? Pretty nice, right? And do you think they would refer more family and friends if they saw you more regularly?

Aside from whether you recommend wellness care or not, it would make sense to retain your patients on some kind of schedule simply as a sound marketing strategy. From an economical point of view, both in terms of time and expense, it is much more cost effective to take care of existing patients than to promote for and process new patients.

Some Chiropractic offices we work with have a visit average, or a retention rate of 20. (This is calculated by dividing office visits by actual new patients.) And for some, the Patient Visit average is 50 – or more. This means that the patients come in an average of 50 times.  Very few of their patients drop out of care.

How can your office achieve a visit average of 50 or more?

We will go over at least 8 practice procedures to help your office increase its patient retention on our next webinar this Thursday, August 23 at 12:30.  (Office managers, marketing coordinators, and doctors should attend.) Go here to register: Register Now

Here is the first tip: Patients come to you for only two reasons – results and good feelings.

You have to deliver the results equal to or better than their expectations. (Frankly, compared to the medical and pharmaceutical alternatives, you have an unfair advantage!) But even if you miss here and there, what is amazing is that they will stick with you if you – and your office team – make them feel good!  I will go over examples of this in the webinar.

As an example in the world of management consulting, I was asked once to help one seminar company, years ago, provide private consultations to their clients. The seminar speaker was busy and asked me to help. He was very popular and charismatic. I agreed and saw about four of his clients.  I gave each what I considered to be relevant and practical advice for their unique situations. But what struck me was that the majority of the doctors I saw had declining numbers: their practices were getting worse by objective measurement. However, they all loved the seminar speaker and his program!  I didn’t understand it at first until I realized that he made them feel good.

So, get results on your patients. But, at every patient encounter with every team member in your office, make sure the patient walks away feeling better than they did before the encounter.

I will explain more about this in the webinar but it is something you can work on now with your staff. When the patient calls, are the front desk staff truly interested, or are they too busy with their computers? On their 6th visit, is the doctor genuinely interested in the patient as a special person, or just as another “case” to see before lunch.

Review these “moments of truth” with your team. You can practice and roll play and even tape record different types of patient encounters.  You will be amazed at how, sometimes, you sound hurried, disinterested, or less than friendly.

We all get so busy that we can lose the moment – and just that one moment with that patient can make all the difference.  It has been called “Present Time Consciousness.”  But it is really just paying attention.

That moment you have with that patient is unique and you will never have it again.

Make the best of it.