UPFRONT | News Practice management takes centre stage at second annual Canadian Chiropractor Business and Professional Growth Forum Chiropractic professionals gathered at McMaster Innova-tion Park in Hamilton, Ont., for a full day of practice man-agement and business educa-tion at the second annual Ca-nadian Chiropractor Business and Professional Growth Fo-rum held Saturday, June 14. The forum featured guest speakers covering everything from community involvement, positive risk management and building practice excellence, as well as a panel discussion on using social media for practice building. New this year were the 15-minute Business Briefs, featuring best practices, inno-vative products and services designed to offer chiropractors the tools they need to grow their practice. validity of insurance, Freedman urged every chiropractor to get educated and get involved in the risk assessment and management of their practice. “There’s a value to your practice if you look at the issues, if you look at the risks,” he said. “All this takes is a checklist, it’s not an aggravation – it’s an aggravation if you don’t pay attention to it.” Freedman encouraged all chiro-practors to keep up to date with ever-changing legislations and to look at the business aspect of their practice. “The best of intentions means nothing,” he warned, citing instanc-es of chiropractors facing legal troubles. “Every decision you make should be an informed decision.” He advised everyone in the room to go back to their practices and assess them for the worst-case scenario and asked them, if Murphy’s Law were to take place, “will you be ready or would your life be over?” BUSINESS FORUM PRACTICE “DROWN PROOFING” First to the podium was Dr. David Leprich, who spoke to the audi-ence on the importance of raising their chiropractic profile in their community. Leprich graduated from CMCC in 1977 and has been practicing in St. Catharines, Ont., ever since. He is a member of the board of directors of the Canadian Chiropractic Research Foundation and is a chiropractic consultant to the Niagara Health System and Mentholatum Canada. He spoke to the audience – a mix of new and experienced chiropractors – about how to “drown-proof” their practices, by making slow and steady steps forward. “You want to set your practice up in a way that is going to get the ball rolling,” he said. “But longevity is key.” Currently the theatre chiropractor for the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Leprich stressed the bene-fits of looking for opportunities to get involved with the community through sports teams, theatre groups or ser-vice clubs. He also suggested that chiroprac-tors perform safety talks for local businesses, or hold their own health and wellness seminars, as a way to get their names out in the communi-ty and get people interested in chiro-practic care. “They’re fun to do, it gets us out of the clinic and into the community, and it generates referrals for the practice,” he said. Once these building blocks have been established for a practice within the community, Leprich’s next piece of advice was to nurture long-term relationships, both with patients and staff. He states that once these long-term relationships are in place, a chiropractor can stop worrying about bringing new people in and focus on enjoying the work they do at their practice. “It’s easy to forget why you’re there, but when you do that, it makes it more difficult to do what you need to do,” Leprich said. “The bottom line is that you have to really care about the people that you’re working with.” TELLING IT LIKE IT IS Attendees were also treated to some hard-hitting risk manage-ment advice from Toronto-based lawyer, Allan Freedman. Having been an instructor at CMCC since 1976 where he was also a course coordinator until 2008, Freedman knows the ins and outs of the legal-ities of the chiropractic profession and presented the audience with a no-nonsense approach to manag-ing risk within their practices. “You have to hope for the best, plan for the worst and expect the unexpected,” Freedman warned the audience. “You can’t deal with willful blindness.” He outlined the many types of risk facing the chiropractic profes-sion, from external to operational, and urged attendees to do everything in their power to protect their practices in the event they come up against risk. From filling out forms properly, to backing up office computers, from keeping staff up to date to institut-ing office policy and ensuring the Dr. David Leprich provides tried and tested approach to practice building 10 Canadian Chiropractor July/August 2014 Allan Freedman offers risk management advice www.canadianchiropractor.ca
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