Do you steal from patients?

When you encroach upon a patient's responsibility or attempt to rescue patients from themselves (in the hopes of secretly receiving admiration) you're stealing. You're not taking their watch or wallet, you're taking the lesson their body is trying to teach. By making their problem, your problem, by attempting to fix rather than facilitate, you're making the relationship about you and your precious reputation.

Their symptoms are a lesson. Will you obscure that lesson by taking credit for the results chiropractic care so consistently produces? Will you steal the limelight by hiding the meaning of their ache or pain? Will you steal their freedom by attempting to create a dependency? Will you steal their self-esteem by elevating the adjustment and your delivery of it?

Patients are so accustomed to having doctors step in as the hero to save them from themselves, few will even notice. Nevertheless, it's still stealing.

If you don’t have at least a few patients choosing not to begin chiropractic care at the conclusion of your consultation, you’re probably not casting your net wide enough. If your new patient lead generation system (do you have one?) produce prospects who all begin care, you may be playing it too safe. Without a rejection or two on a regular basis, it means people in your community are prequalifying themselves before showing up. This probably means your new patient numbers are down, and the ones showing up are largely those with neuromuscular-skeletal complaints. If you want a wellness practice; if you want to see more visceral complaints; if you want to see more miracles—you’ll want to create a larger opening to your practice.

What's your creation story?

Virtually every religion has a story to explain how the world was created. Many businesses do as well. Hewlett Packard started in a garage. Dell computers began in a dorm room. Patient Media started in my guest bedroom and the garage was our warehouse.

So it's not surprising that the most frequently-requested slide from my seminars is the Welcome to Our Office paperwork coversheet. It's an example of how you could more deeply connect with new patients by revealing a bit about you and your practice.

Did you have a miraculous experience that prompted you to become a chiropractor? Were you skeptical? Were you originally going to be an MD? What was it that inspired you to snub the conventional to become a chiropractor? When did you receive the affirmation that you had chosen the right career?

Share your creation story. Virtually every patient is craving to hear it.

One of the common themes of my most recent speaking gigs is the idea that many chiropractors get into trouble by caring too much. It’s the occupational hazard of being a professional caregiver.

Caring too much produces a variety of practice pathologies, among them, taking patient behaviors personally, thinking their headache is your problem, resenting patients for poorly prioritizing their health and ultimately burnout, in which patients become the “problem” of practice. So, my advice has always been, “Care, but don’t care too much.”

Last night, just as I was about to drift off to asleep, I was struck by the thought of caring as a continuum, with three general types of caring.

Round up everything you expect new patients to read and watch during their first two visits.

Start with your website or yellow page ad, include your admitting paperwork, office policies, videos, brochures, wall charts, report documents—everything. You've probably forgotten what all these communication devices are saying. Moreover, since each piece has likely been added over time, see them through "beginners mind," like someone new to your office.

Are they all congruent with your philosophy? Can any of them be consolidated to reduce the amount of paper? Do they advance your purpose? Do they enhance your ability to create the type of patient relationships you want? Do they project the quality, attention-to-detail and aesthetics that would attract the caliber of patients you enjoy seeing?

While it's convenient to complain against the mainstream media, this week become more mindful of the media and messages you're sending new patients within your own office.

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I got a call yesterday morning from a chiropractor who wanted to ask me a couple of questions. I love questions and I especially enjoy fielding these sorts of calls. This type of one-on-one interaction is one of the reasons I’ve created The Conversation.

This chiropractor had recently introduced some new systems in his practice and the results had been phenomenal. But now his numbers were in decline. “Do I need a new system?” he asked.

“What’s changed in your personal life since the big numbers?” I queried.

After a pause, he explained that he and his wife had a newborn baby and were looking at buying a house.

“Sounds like you’ve switched from offense to defense,” I observed.

“I don’t understand.”

Things change.

When change becomes disorienting it may be a sign that our internal compass is set to the wrong reference point (admiration, pride, looking good, money, etc.) rather than the truth. When we allow circumstances to dictate our attitude (we're up when the business is up—we're down when the business is down), we've become a victim. Naturally, patients have little interest in consulting someone so unanchored!

If you find yourself in this pattern, it may be helpful to create a list of what you believe is true. Here's a head start:

The sun will rise tomorrow.
I can't control patients.
Income is an effect of my service.
Patients do the healing.

List as many as you can. Then test them with someone you trust. Do they stand up? When we align ourselves with the truth we are free to be a humble servant and have the faith to rise above petty circumstances that are constantly changing.

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