The Hellish Truth that Plagues Chiropractic
Lacking good technology in practice is like being in a living hell. They say that hell is doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting a different result. A close 2nd would simple be doing the same thing repeatedly. Unfortunately, as chiropractors our job is based on massive amounts of repetition, which can lead to frustration, complacency, and eventual burnout. But this would all go away if we could use technology to streamline our most common tasks in order to focus on what was most important to the patient.
But what is that critical component to patient satisfaction?
I would argue that it is the doctor-patient connection or simply the relationship between doctor and patient that dictates our ultimate worth. In other words, it’s the same cliché that patients don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. If that is indeed true, then it’s critical that we don’t have anything distracting our ability to progress that relationship.
Simple mundane tasks can often clog our bandwidth and reduce our capacity to connect with patients. From documentation to recommendations to patient education, these tasks drain the physician and staff to the point of reduced outcomes. Obviously, that can’t happen if we want to operate a growing practice or enjoy a fulfilled lifestyle.
So what’s the solution?
Digital Streamlining
Hopefully you have a standard operating system for progressing new patients within your practice. If not, stop the bus – get off – and write them out! Assuming you do, you simply need to look at your process and ask, “what parts of this system do I continuously repeat?” The next question you need to ask is, “does this information go in one of the patient’s ears and out the other?”
I know it sucks to realize that patients don’t comprehend and forever remember each and every word that we say. But we have to say the words anyway for long term awareness and progression within our system. Combining these two realities leads to the inevitability of practice inefficiency, frustration, and even burnout.
The solution is simple. If you use technology to make a digital copy (video or pdf) of these things and make them continuously available to the patient (patient profile), then you simply need to reference them early on so you can remind the patient when it relevant. For example, you may discuss long term benefits of chiropractic care but the patient only wants to hear about their current problem. It’s probably best to just mention the concept and continue focusing on what matters to the patient in the moment. When you deliver great care and it’s time to discuss long term care, you’d simply have to summarize and then let the technology work. Simple – everyone wins!
Use Technology to Virtualize Your Practice
The previous example of streamlining your patient education with technology, specifically long-term treatment options, is one step on the path to “virtualizing” your practice. This term simply refers to creating a virtual representation of you, your staff, and/or your brand that is available 24/7. That’s right, good technology can allow any patient to reference a concept, an exercise, or a recommendation at any time. And they can easily get that information from any device with an internet connection. You can be asleep in your home, and they can be in their pajamas at 3 am, but your message is available, and your words can ring true in their ears when they need it most… how convenient!!!
It may sound amazing to you right now or a bit strange depending on your level of technology acceptance. Though the undeniable truth remains – healthcare is rapidly moving in this direction. You need to take steps to be on this path or risk being left behind.
To virtualize your practice, you just need to make a list of all the things you do repetitively. Then make them virtual through video or written format. If it’s a long list, simply prioritize the ones that are driving you or your staff crazy or pushing you toward burnout. When you think of it as such, it quickly becomes exciting to relieve yourself from these mundane tasks and the motivation to continue virtualizing your practice exponentially increases.
Think about it. How awesome would it be to just deliver your highly valuable service and leave the rest to a virtualized office? How happy would your staff be to focus on what they love and leave the annoying reminders to a virtualized system?
It obviously time to use technology to virtualize.
Digital Employee
Employees are expensive and sometimes quite unreliable. Even your best employee will eventually come down with the flu or potentially the next virus causing a global pandemic. Regardless of their history, they may experience tragedy in their family or suddenly need to move. Long story short, even the best humans are notoriously unreliable.
Now think of a digital employee that you can specifically program to do all the awful things no one wants to do. Sure, there might be a time that you lose internet connection, but digital employees never need a day off. They don’t experience family tragedy. They don’t care how much you stack on their workload. Nope, digital employees just keep doing exactly what they are asked to do. And they deliver 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Amazing, right?
I know its hard to bring you off that idea but let’s take it a step further. Think about the cost – or lack of cost. An actual employee that would work 24 hours a day for one month at the rate of $15/hour would cost you nearly $11,000 for that month. Not only that, you can probably imagine the lack of productivity and resentment coming from that employee. Now compare that to a digital employee that would do everything with 100% accuracy and no complaining for the rate of about $.41/hour… that’s right, roughly $300/month. Wow!
Your chance to break free of repetitive hell and significantly improve the bottom-line is at your finger tips.
TeleCare Rx Technology
TeleCare Rx was designed with chiropractic in mind. We saw the overwhelming need for technology in the chiropractic profession. Chiropractors are best suited to tackle chronic disease yet we are generally last in a prospective patient’s thought process. Take a minute to contact us so we can figure out if a digital employee and virtualization is the right step for you. We already know that it is so just take that step to improve your practice and the chiropractic profession.