How To Build a Practice That Doesn’t Depend on New Patients

How To Build a Practice That Doesn’t Depend on New Patients- A webinar hosted by Dr. Miles Bodzin.

ChiroCorrect was fortunate enough to sit in on a top notch webinar 2 weeks ago hosted by Dr. Miles Bodzin, a DC from the San Diego area. Dr. Bodzin has operated a wellness practice for close to 9 years now. All who attended got to see firsthand his travel cards on patients that were anywhere from 700 to 900 visits strong.  What a truly successful wellness clinic and a truly successful, passionate chiropractor!

It was an honor to sit under his teaching and have him firm up, in my mind, ideas that I have placed at the fore front of my consulting business as being enormously successful business strategies.   

The main theme of the call was building a practice that truly doesn’t need to depend upon new patients. This concept seems so foreign to some, but to the REALLY successful DC’s, they totally get it! Why? Because new patients create up and down collections. You can never project 3 months out or further because it all depends on who walks in the door. Patient retention is the #1 factor to increase collections. With patient retention, collections go up, collections stay up and new patient dependence goes down. Dr. Bodzin is actually at the point in his clinic that he will choose to go a whole week without seeing anyone new just so he can focus on the existing patients that he has. What a concept! Wouldn’t you love to be in that spot? You can be if you’re willing to refocus and put these 7 principles into practice.

1.  Have a STRONG PHILOSOPHY!  Do you love what you do? Does it show? Do your patients know what you believe and get onboard with the wellness lifestyle or are you simply a “get out of pain” doctor? This is where the line is drawn.
2. Get your TEAM ON BOARD with you.  Train them constantly, get them excited about the vision of the clinic, and reward them for a job well done. Cut dead weight NOW!
3. Master your Visit 1 and 2 talks. Master your close. The bare bones of chiropractic is the treatment plan. You must do this well every single time!
4. Recommend long term care. Help them to understand that this can be a way of life, not just a back pain fix.
5. Offer affordable payment options.  When recommending anything over 10 visits, be sure to offer payment plans that help the patient reach the goal set before them. Have a few options.
6. Stop reminding people of paying! It‘s a proven fact, the frequency of the conscious purchasing decision influences your retention. The more frequent a patient thinks about paying for care, the lower the retention. (I have seen this with my own eyes! They won’t stick around! I’ve worked for BIG guys and small guys…the #1 distinction is always this one point. The BIG guys have working payment plans, the small guys have patients pay as they go. BIG small guy mistake!)  The more often you remind people they are paying, the more often they will leave. The leading cause of dropped patients is payment each time in the office. It doesn’t matter how great your education is, the wallet will always prevail, especially if they are out of pain.
7. Transition the patient to wellness care. If you have #1 solidly in place, this won’t be hard to do. Chiropractors who present their philosophy well have patients that follow them for years. They know that the doctor is representing themselves truthfully, they trust his /her care, and they feel the love the DC gives to his calling that in turn trickles down to the patient.

Let’s transition back to #6. Dr. Bodzin has invented this nifty piece of software called Cash Practice. Now if you know me, you know that I think ChiroTouch software is just about the best thing since sliced bread. Cash Practice falls into a close 2^nd.  It virtually eliminates #6! How amazing is that!  It’s something you should all check out for yourselves and see if it could be a working solution for your clinic. You can go to https://www.facebook.com/CashPractice?sk=app_4949752878 and watch the video.  You can also get a live demo at www.Cashpractice.com. If you are lucky enough to own Chirotouch software you can call Cash Practice and have them show you how it will interface with your CT program. Amazing stuff! This is the future of time saving, patient retention, audit proofing, going green chiropractic!

Are you ready to stop relying so heavily on new patients? Do yourself a favor, post these 7 steps on your wall and review them until you have them down. You WILL see your clinic take off like you’ve never dreamed. I have seen it first hand, the BIG guys, they know this stuff, and they’ve got it down. The little guys wish they did.

As always, ChiroCorrect is here to help you. We are in the business of helping DC’s reach their goals. We don’t work for ChiroTouch or CashPractice. We’ve just been around long enough that we know a good thing when we see one! www.ChiroCorrect.com

(All material quoted above is paraphrased and modest opinions added on to Dr. Bodzin’s webinar)