In 2022, Being ‘Good Enough’ just doesn’t cut it. For practitioners and practice owners, every day is a chance to better themselves, thrive in their practice, and to reach higher levels of chiropractic success. Otherwise, they could risk witnessing a slow, painful decline in their chiropractic business and eventually being forced to close shop for good. The good news is that you can make subtle but significant efforts toward improving your chiropractic practice. Every little change counts. Here are ten methods for making improvements to your practice :
- Time spent learning how to manage your chiropractic business is time well spent. Learn to prepare, read reports and analyze data. Do periodic business checks. Evaluate all aspects of your business and note what may need fixing.
- Don’t try to do everything yourself. You can’t. Instead, delegate. Delegate as much as possible without impairing your understanding of how the practice runs. Delegation is about passing actions, not responsibility. Help your staff develop the needed skills to handle the tasks you delegate to them effectively, and you will be building future leaders within your chiropractic business!
- Work on developing an efficient patient flow system. Regardless of the number and type of patients you have, the goal is to have an efficient schedule. The schedule has a noticeable impact on productivity and efficiency. Concentrate on providing timely, appropriate care to as many patients as possible. The system needs to be reformed if you feel overburdened by seeing a patient every 20 minutes or experiencing significant gaps in your schedule. One way to do so is to use a sound scheduling system. Effective scheduling can boost patient flow by two or more patients per day, which is incredible for the practice. If you use a manual system, you must consider computerizing it.
- In the examination room, dictate or otherwise record progress notes. Dictating takes some getting used to and may not always be practical or appropriate. However, dictating notes saves time, improves communication, provides a good summary of the visit to the patient, and provides you with more legible notes without the need to invest dictation time outside of the appointment.
- Take the time to confirm appointments. It may be a labor-intensive task in small outfits. In that case, you can focus on selected appointments — perhaps those requiring lengthy time blocks or new patient appointments. Remember, no-shows, are no-good! They create idle time and waste resources.
- Build and stick to a budget. A focused effort to build a budget is a valuable experience, and it offers an opportunity to measure performance and progress by analyzing up and downs during the year. Analyze published industry data to help establish budget goals, but remember the data only serves to be a rough guide. After a couple of years of budgeting your practice, you will see it as a valuable tool to achieve chiropractic success.
- Pay close attention to salaries. A common mistake is to reduce costs by being stingy on wages. You must pay well to attract and retain good employees, but it should be for how they perform, not how long they stick around. Be ready to reward exceptional staff, but make sure they are outstanding. It has been observed that a competent back-office employee can boost patient flow and strengthen patient communications, thus saving time.
- Reduce or eliminate overtime. There is no good reason to have overtime happening regularly, and it often stems from poor organization and time management. Investigate the causes for overtime closely. You might find it being done out of convenience, not necessity. Overtime can be reduced by reassigning duties and don’t allow employees to see over time as part of their regular compensation.
- Make sure your systems work well. Get professional help to provide the guidance required to systemize and optimize your practice efficiently. Having data sheets for histories, physicals, and progress notes should decrease documentation time. Use check-off forms where possible to avoid writing — like a prescription form for your most often prescribed medications if that makes sense for your practice.
- Closely evaluate the need for new services and equipment. Don’t invest in a new service or buy a significant equipment item without a cost-benefit analysis. Make safe-calculated assumptions about how new equipment or assistance would benefit your practice. Some investments can produce poor results if not done cautiously and prudently.
Please take note that changes will continue to happen in our industry. Taking the correct initiative to improve your practice and make it future-ready pays actual dividends. The above suggestions could help strengthen your chiropractic practice greatly.
What’s even better?
Having access to work with an experienced Chiropractic practice coach who can work closely with you to create those best practices that will accelerate growth and bring stability to your practice and your life, too!
Are you ready to create your own Chiropractic success stories?
Go ahead and book a complimentary consultation call for the MIND, BODY, BUSINESS program!