feel worse again. But, if a patient is en- tering into a neurological or functional correction plan of some kind, then the CHA’s function is to recall the patient to remind him/her of the agreed upon plan, as people’s lives do get in the way of chiropractic when they leave our offices. THE PATIENT AND THE PLAN Getting the patient to agree to the plan, during the results visit, is critical for the patient to understand their active role in the healing process. As well as agreement to the plan, acknowledgment of your of- fice policies is important. For example: how much notice does your office need for changing appointments? Does the pa- tient have to make up the appointment in a certain period of time? What hap- pens if they don’t? All of these questions can be covered both with written policies and verbal discussion with the patient. In order to understand recalls, we first must start with the beginning in mind. This conversation is not a one-sided agreement. It is within this period of time, that any objections to following through with care can be discussed. Do they have a time, money or interest chal- lenge that may impede their healing? Can you do anything about it? Time and money can often be negotiated, but in- terest is a deal breaker. If a patient truly understands their health problem, and the plan to correct it, and still chooses not to, they would not be a candidate for recalling. If the team or CHA knows this from the second visit, their time and en- ergy in recalls can be much more focused on patients who have made the decision to take action. IMPLEMENTING A RECALL SYSTEM A great recall system in your office is sim- ple to implement and requires answering a few questions: 1. What is the prior agreement with the patient regarding following through with a treatment plan? Does your CHA know it? 2. Have you role-played your re- sults visits with your team so that they can support your plans more www.canadianchiropractor.ca effectively when recalling? 3. Can your CHA be more involved in the results visits? For example, can they go over office policies, booking appointments, etc.? This way, when they are recalling pa- tients, they have previously talk- ed with the patient and are em- powered to empower the patients to follow through. 4. Do you have a system that tracks patients who said they would call for an appointment, or patients who have missed or cancelled ap- pointments? Also, can you keep track of recalls: when the person is called and how often? This should exist so that any CHA can follow the system regardless of who is working. 5. Do you have a script for recalls? If a patient is due in for one ap- pointment that week, can your CHAs cover that effectively? “Hi, Mrs. Jones. I see here by your file that you are due for your week- ly checkup with Dr. Smith. We have appointments available this afternoon or tomorrow morning, which one would work for you?” 6. Do you train staff on the underly- ing purpose of recalling patients? Role-play, role-play, role-play your visits and the phone scripts, and train staff on the purpose of recalling patients. The purpose is caring. We care that patients get results with chiropractic, we care if something has happened to the patient, we care if there is some- thing we can do to help them. That is the purpose of recalls. If the CHAs see no purpose behind recalls, they will feel like they are harassing the patients. But, recalls are symptomatic enti- ties in a practice. This means that they have to be dealt with in a timely manner, but are not the real issue. Patients who make prior agreement regarding their plans, and understand their health goals in relation to chiropractic, have a much higher probability of following through with care, thus decreasing the need for recalls. The big picture of following through is not only patient retention, but patient healing and satisfaction with chiropractic – and that is a good thing for everyone. • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | JUNE 2010 • 15
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