FEATURE PRACTICE BUILDING THE BIG LEAGUES Keys to building and sustaining a successful multidiscipline practice F BY DAWN ARMSTRONG or the people of the City of Nanaimo, the spirit of Christmas is a really big deal. Each year, all of the community-minded businesses take part in a friendly competition for the coveted ‘Best Decorated’ award. Right about now Dr. Stacey Scott is settling in to an annual ritual of her own. She is imagining, sketching and planning out the large-as-life designs for another one of her original Christmas decorations. Soon, she will enlist the help of a trusted adviser (who knows everything there is to know about fancy carpentry and table saws) who’ll see to building it according to the plans – shaping and assembling the pieces. Then, Scott will apply the finishing touches – a stunning paint job with fine details and intense colours that bring her characters to life. Two years ago it was Santa and Rudolph. Picture Santa Claus, lying prone on a chiropractic table outside his little northern house (10’ x 12’, complete with wooden shingles) with Rudolph the Reindeer standing over him, doing an adjustment. Rudolph looks as though he really cares and Santa, in his red and white striped boxer shorts, is obviously appreciating the attention. In November, with the support of staff and a handful of loyal patients, she will spend two full days installing Santa and Rudolph and the entirety of her growing collection – the princesses and the elves, the minions and the superheroes will all be dressed in strands of twinkling lights. The clinic entranceway and the second storey balconies will become a showcase of beauty and joy that all can appreciate. Every year, Dr. Scott presents this generous gift of goodwill to the people of her community, shining a light on her contributions to the wellbeing of the citizens of Nanaimo. How much is your practice a part of your community? How much does your health-care business give back to your city or town? How visible are you? For more than a century we have struggled to establish and defend our place as primary providers of safe, effective health care. However, we’ve mostly done it from the margins, the fringe; and we’ve done it all by ourselves. Health-care facilities such as hospitals and nursing homes are an essential part of every community but almost none of us are salaried employees of a public institution. We are compelled to be players in the world of private health care and many of us are fiercely independent. More than a third of DCs are solo practitioners ( Canadian Chiropractor , July/August 2016, “Survey Says”). DR. DAWN ARMSTRONG is a graduate of CMCC and has been in practice for nearly 30 years. She is currently focused on promoting life-long learning and professional development and has created a continuing education course – Clinical Record Keeping: A Hands-On Approach. Learn more at www.auroraeducationservices.ca. 22 Canadian Chiropractor October 2017 Most of us will build our practices from the ground up, just the way past generations of DCs did. In the world of the ‘old-fashioned’ chiropractor – and there are many of us who continue to practice this way – the first rule is to keep the overhead as low as you possibly can. You rent a second floor walkup or convert the lower level of your home or, like Dr. Kay MacDonald, a pioneer chiropractor who moved to the Yukon after WWII, you could (temporarily) run your practice out of a 5th wheel parked at the campground just outside of town. Your spouse works the front desk, you do your own books and your cousin does the cleaning. You’re available pretty much seven days a week. It can take a long time to build a practice this way – sometimes a decade or more. What if, after spending years building a loyal patient base, you have to move to a new community on the other side of the country? Or, what if you’ve decided it’s time to change things up? Maybe you are a little lonely – it would be great to have some other professionals around to bounce ideas off of. Perhaps you are thinking about getting into a better place than you’re used to – something a little more upscale, more visible, more parking spots. It sounds suspiciously more expensive, but if you bring in some other health-care practitioners, you could afford it. And then another thought pops into your head. “Go big or go home!” You could make it a multidisciplinary clinic, a wellness centre. What a great idea! www.canadianchiropractor.ca
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor October 2017: Page 22
