Can Chiropractic Software Create Peace of Mind?
Over our last posts, we’ve been talking about a theme….It’s About Time. Today, I would like to continue on that path but in a way that is a little more personal for each of us as Chiropractors. I want to talk about how we feel each night when we get home from our office, when taking care of patients is over for the day because I think that it’s about time that we all have peace of mind. It’s about time that when our day is over, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that everything that could have been done to make our day successful and our patient experience the best it could possibly be has been done. It’s about time that we don’t have to lay in bed at night and try to remember if every chart was updated and wonder if every no-show was rescheduled. Most of the Chiropractic systems that we put to work in our offices are reactive in nature. If a patient doesn’t show up for an appointment, someone has to remember to call them and then actually do it. We have to look through report after report to see if all of the insurance claims have been filed, followed-up on, and paid. There is another report to look at to see if re-exams have been scheduled and another one to go over for follow-up calls. These reports may give us insight into our businesses if we have time to read them but they also create a paperwork nightmare. As a Chiropractor, we already have to wear so many hats as a business owner, manager of employees, and doctor and educator to our patients. Adding on the necessity to read multiple reports every single day just to make sure the necessary actions for the day have been taken is overwhelming. Even worse, systems like these mean that your mind can never really leave your office because you have to memory manage every little detail. I believe that it is time for a change, a complete shift from these reactive chiropractic systems that leave us overwhelmed and stressed out to a proactive system that gives us the peace of mind we’ve been searching for. I know that when I shifted my own office from my old, outdated processes to a new proactive chiropractic software EHR system, the relief that came with it was immeasurable and created peace of mind for me in my practice. With a proactive chiropractic practice management software system in place, each and every day can be distilled down to one number. That number tells you how many tasks that should have been completed were left undone so your goal for this number is always zero. That zero at the end of the day tells you in one number that every task that needed to be completed for your day to be successful was done. That is peace of mind. Even more, if the number isn’t zero, it tells you specifically which task was not completed and whose responsibility that task was. This lets you better manage both your own time and that of your staff and assign the people to the tasks that best suit their abilities. There is no better way to make sure your practice is running smoothly each and every day. As Chiropractors, we face many challenges both as a profession and in our day-to-day practices. This is one area that we can control. We don’t have to live with the worry and stress that those old, reactive systems cause. We don’t have to search report after report, memory manage the details, and still wonder at the end of the day if everything has been done. We can choose to eliminate the worry, manage our offices better and easier than ever before, and improve the care and experience of our patients simply by changing our system. Proactive chiropractic EHR software that distills our days down to one report, one number is the answer because isn’t it about time for peace of mind.
Can We Just Focus on the Chiropractic Principles?
Note: As a Chiropractor, I founded Genesis chiropractic software as a way to provide the tools for Chiropractors to focus on building their practice through focusing in on chiropractic principles. We have been talking about getting back to basics, the root of why we became Chiropractors in the first place and about supporting businesses who are pro-Chiropractic. Today, I would like to talk about getting back to basics in another way because I believe that it’s about time that we get back to focusing on the principles of Chiropractic and teaching those principles to our patients. As we all know, Chiropractic is not just about relieving pain, correcting postures, and mitigating symptoms. Chiropractic is definitely not rooted in the reactive type of care insurance companies promote. Chiropractic is about removing interference to the bodies innate ability to heal and self regulate. We all know this. We all learned this in school and for most of us, it is one of the major reasons we chose to become Chiropractors in the first place. We believed in these core principles of Chiropractic so much so we’ve based our our professions and our livelihoods around them. The problem is that in the day to day grind of staff management, chart updates, insurance billing, patient visits, chiropractic software, marketing, and all of the other hundreds of tasks we perform, we often forget about what Chiropractic is truly about. In fact we started Genesis chiropractic software to help you remove the interference in running the day to day operations of your practice, with systems that enable you to grow and profit more effectively. We can begin to think of our patients by their symptoms or lack of symptoms rather than about the natural, healing power that is released when subluxations are corrected and the profound impact this delivers to the lives of our patients. Now is the time with the new year ahead of us to re-focus on the principles of Chiropractic. Each time we see a patient we should remember why and how Chiropractic works. Even more, we have to take the time to educate our patients and our staff on the principles of Chiropractic. A staff that is fully educated and informed about how Chiropractic began and how it changes lives, not just by relieving pain, is a staff that can deliver more to your patients and your practice. We have to take the time to train our staffs to not only handle billing and appointments but to also explain Chiropractic to our patients. Each interaction a staff member has with a patient is an opportunity to further the message of Chiropractic and create a patient for life. Patients that understand the philosophy behind the Chiropractic care they receive are not only more likely to follow-through with care, they are more likely to continue with maintenance care as well. Additionally, these are the patients who refer their friends and family members because they understand the profound impact of their health on their lives and their family’s lives. Let’s make 2016 the year that as a profession, we get back to basics, re-focus on the principles of Chiropractic, and build a patient base that understands the importance of Chiropractic. It’s about time we stopped letting the insurance companies and the medical community force chiropractic into the mold of medical doctors and instead return to the reason we became Chiropractors in the first place.
It’s About Time For Us to Show Our Support for Chiropractic
We’ve been talking about a theme, “It’s about time…”. There are so many things that we can say about that when it comes to our profession, but today, I want to talk about one of the most important ones. It’s about time that we as Chiropractors show our support for Chiropractic and the place to start is with our pocketbooks. We have to begin giving our money only to companies that support Chiros and stop funding companies that support anti-Chiro legislation. Chiropractors and the Chiropractic profession itself have been under fire for a quite a while now and make no mistake, it is not over. In order to preserve our livelihoods, our profession, the message of Chiropractic we bring to our patients, and the good we bring to their health and their lives, we are going to have to take a stand for what we believe in. Too many of the companies that Chiropractors give their money to every day are not pro-Chiro. Instead, they not only support legislation that is damaging to Chiropractic, but many of them want to turn us into medical doctors, forcing us to give vaccines in our office and ignore the basic principles of health that Chiropractic was founded upon. When we choose to do business with these companies, whether they handle our phone service, our billing, or our electronic health records, we are helping them in their fight to mold Chiropractic into the medical model, make us subservient to the MDs and the insurance companies, and even put us out of business completely. We need to choose where we spend our money more wisely and use our dollars to show companies that we as Chiros will stand together. We can and should do business only with companies who support Chiropractic and by extension support who we are and what we believe. There are so many good pro-Chiro companies out there that it is not hard to find them. We must be diligent in researching and choosing with whom we do business. By choosing to spend our money only with businesses who support our profession, we can send a message that we will no longer tolerate these companies attacking Chiropractic and by extension ourselves and our practices. Let’s start putting our money where our mouths are and start spending our hard earned dollars where they can do some good, with companies who are clearly pro-Chiro, who work to advance our profession and who believe in the power of Chiropractic to change the lives of our patients. It’s about time that we support Chiropractic by supporting the companies that work so hard to advance the profession every day.
It’s About Time for Chiropractic to Become the Profession to Choose
In my last post, we talked about getting back to the beginning and starting with why…why we became Chiropractors in the first place, why Chiropractic works, why we do what we do every day. Now, I want to take a look at the next generation of Chiropractors and whether or not we are doing enough as a profession to make Chiropractic an attractive choice for those students that are trying to decide what to do with the rest of their lives. Don’t you think that it’s about time we made Chiropractic a great career choice? Yes, it should be about the satisfaction of helping others but we also need to make Chiropractic an economically viable choice as well. Let’s face it…getting an education today is expensive and most students who come out of college are carrying student loan debts, probably in the tens of thousands of dollars. In fact, according to an analysis of government data, the average amount of student loan debt for a graduating college senior is a little over $35,000 and 71% of these graduates have loans to pay back. Add to that the statistics from a 2014 study published in the Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association estimating that 88% of Chiropractic students graduate with between $100,000 and $175,000 in student loans, a massive burden to any Doctor first out of school. In order for students graduating from college to decide to go to Chiropractic school, spending more time, and taking on more debt, they have to be able to see a future where Chiropractic not only allows them to pay off their student loans but also provides them and their families with a nice life. The problem the Chiropractic profession has experienced for many years is that so many of us struggle just to make a living, much less the nice income that we should be able to expect in return for the number of years we spend becoming Chiropractors, the risk we take opening and running our own business, and the hours we devote every week toward improving the lives of others. In fact, in 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a median wage for Chiropractors at just over $67,000, not much in comparison the $140,000 to $300,000 incomes reported by Osteopathic Physicians. I think that it’s about time we made Chiropractic an economically viable profession choice for future students. This means that not only do we need to see more patients, we need to price our services to reflect their importance to the health of our patients. We also have to put systems in place to manage and improve the patient experience so that more people continue Chiropractic care not just through corrective care but also to maintain their health. We must also scrutinize our processes to ensure that every step we take each day is done in the most effective and efficient way. Our offices should function smoothly and at the end of the day when we go home, we should know with 100% certainty that everything has been done and done to the highest possible standards. Making the choice to become a Chiropractor has never been and never will be solely about money. I firmly believe that myself and my fellow Chiropractors have a calling to help others and improve the health and lives of our patients. Still, we can no longer ignore the economic realities and disparities of income experienced by Chiropractors in comparison to other healthcare professionals. We have a duty to future Chiropractors to increase the income of our profession as a whole and make Chiropractic an economically viable choice. It’s about time.