I encourage all CHAs to get to know your patients. Spend time in the recep-tion area to educate your patients and bring to their attention anything new and exciting that is happening in the clinic. Let us not rely on our white boards and postings in and around the office to edu-cate our patients. As a CHA, you have two opportunities to make a positive im-pact on your patients – once on their way into the office and once on their way out. Use these moments wisely. tially this may seem impossible, it starts by simply evaluating your appointment book. CHAs must strive to make sure that the appointment book allows for flow, growth and harmony. BE READY FOR GROWTH The beginning of a new year is the per-fect time to sit down as a team – outside the office is always nice – and brainstorm what you want the new year to bring. Some ideas might be to create a calendar each goal you set. Remember this is also a time to set fun goals that allow the staff to connect outside the office. I suggest a bonus system for those offices that are not using one, as a key to help motivate and reward. As a CHA, you have two opportunities to make a positive impact on your patients – once on their way into the office and once on their way out. Use these moments wisely. PROPER APPOINTMENT BOOK MANAGEMENT When I visit chiropractic offices, I often find that much of a CHA’s day is spent scrambling to find time – finding time to get themselves adjusted; finding time to book a new patient for that day; find-ing time to fit in any emergency patients; and finding time to get their paperwork done. All these things can be achieved by managing your appointment book in a way that works best for the office. Make sure that patients are booked in clusters in a way that the doctor is able to handle the flow. Pre-booking patients’ next appointments before they leave the office can be an efficient way to minimize last-minute entries and ensure that there is always room for growth. While ini-listing all that you want to accomplish as a team. Set your monthly goals; pre-pare 150 new patient files in advance – that’s three new patients a week; set your team’s social calendar; and set dates for events that will excite and energize the patients. These are just few things that we do to prepare for growth. Once the calendar is designed, put it in an area of the office that is accessible to all the staff members. Being ready is the key to success for any chiropractic office. Once that is done, remember to take the time to discuss how you will achieve these goals – it’s not enough to say “we want to see 10 new patients a month in 2013.” Discuss ways to bring in these 10 new patients, and the role that each in-dividual staff member plays in achieving COMMUNICATION IS KEY You might say I have saved the best for last, but, actually, this last point is really the cornerstone of the previous four. In my 26 years in practice, I would have to say that communication between doc-tor and staff is the channel that allows success to flow. It is important to hold regular staff meetings and to take time to start, and end, your day with a team huddle. Doctors, you may want to ask yourselves, “Have I created an environ-ment where my staff feel comfortable giving their opinions?” Your staff have the opportunity to get to know the pa-tients at a different level than you do, and to listen to what the patients have to say about their treatment, wait times, décor of your office and, yes, even about your old magazines! Allow them the time to sit and brainstorm with you on ways to improve the practice. This al-lows the staff to feel they are an integral part of the practice and a key member to its success. In closing let me leave you with what I began with and that is that success in practice can only be achieved when all the team members are happy and in a good place. Giving them tools to succeed is your first step in securing that the of-fice will thrive and every patient receive the rock star experience. • news HARVARD REPORT ENDORSES CHIROPRACTIC FOR ACUTE LBP A 2012 report issued by Harvard Medical School endorses chiro-practic care for patients with short-and medium-term low back pain (LBP). Low back pain can be highly uncomfortable, debilitating and disruptive for those who suffer from it and has been implicated as a major factor in lost work time and health-care spending in North America. The Harvard Medical School Special Health Report, titled Low Back Pain – Healing Your Aching Back (published by Harvard Health Publications) outlines, for both health professionals and lay-readers, factors leading or contributing to LBP and suggests therapeutic options for patients who live with it. Amongst these, chiropractic is listed as a viable therapeutic option for patients suf-fering from acute LBP, noting that chiropractic relieves pain and reduces the necessity of medication for some of these patients. Page 26 of the report quotes “a 2010 review of 12 different stud-ies involving 2,887 people with low back pain,” which concluded that “…chiropractic care improved short-and medium-term pain more than other treatments, including exercise, physical therapy, and medication….people who saw chiropractors also reported being less disabled over the short term (one month) compared with people who received other treatments such as standard medical therapy.”* The report also states, “The best candidates for chiropractic manipulation are people who have no sign of nerve impairment. For them, chiropractic care tends to be satisfying and effective for acute low back pain” and notes that chiropractic can also be ef-fective in a team-based approach – including medical doctors and allied health professionals – for relief of LBP.” To receive this report – and other health reports – in full, and/or to obtain permission to distribute it to patients and/or colleagues, please visit www.health.harvard.edu/. *Excerpts reproduced with permission. www.canadianchiropractor.ca 30 • CANADiAN CHiROPRACTOR | FEBRUARY 2013
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