August 2002

Then and Now
An Update on Dr. M.G. Lett, A Chiropractic Economics Success Profile from 1965
By Margaret Mulligan

Editor’s Note: We first profiled Dr. M.G. Lett as a successful doctor of chiropractic in the September/October 1965 issue of Chiropractic Economics. Click Here View the Article from 1965.

We recently caught up with Dr. Lett, and are happy to report that he is still going strong and is as enthusiastic as ever about chiropractic. The basic marketing tenets that served him well when we interviewed him nearly 40 years ago still hold true today. This special report launches a “Success Profile Updates” series that we will run periodically, giving you the scoop on the doctors we’ve profiled on the pages of Chiropractic Economics during the past few years.

[1965]

“The story of chiropractic and what it can do for a sick world is getting a thorough telling in the Gadsden, Ala., area. It is being told by a native of the area, Dr. M.G. Lett. He [received his chiropractic training] at the Palmer School in Davenport, Iowa, in the late 1940s, and returned to Alabama in 1949 to open his practice in Gadsden. He says [that] the only effective way to sell the chiropractic story is by ‘living example.’ “Lett is not only telling with words but actually showing that chiropractic can and will provide a better way to health and happiness. After [53] years in practice, Lett says: ‘The best advice I can pass on to a young doctor trying to build [a] practice is to tell the chiropractic story with sincerity and dedication and to be a living example of the precepts of our art.’ ”

These two paragraphs (with minor modifications) opened a success profile about Lett that ran in the September/ October issue of Chiropractic Economics in 1965. The advice Lett gave then is still relevant in 2002. At age 77 - and still in full-time practice after 53 years as a doctor of chiropractic - he has followed his own advice by being a “living example” of the positive power of chiropractic. Lett now practices in Glencoe, Ala., a town adjacent to Gadsden. The area is about 60 miles east of Birmingham, Ala.

Then and Now
Lett says that in many important ways, his practice in 2002 is set up similarly to how it was in 1965. “We still try to work with each individual patient, working one-on-one,” he says. “The biggest change from 1965 is our insurance situation. We had 15% of our patients on health insurance back then; now it’s approximately 85%. That creates a bit different type of practice, with a focus on receivables, rather than cash flow. Clinically, though, the practice is the same in that I still do all the manipulations. Any therapy that is done here, I do it. I take care of the patient from the time they leave the waiting room until they get back to the waiting room.”

Lett adds that the one-on-one method of care has kept his practice growing and thriving across generations. “As the years have gone by, we have built a backlog of former patients who continue to come as they need it,” he says. “We have got many second and third generations of families now coming in from when I first began,” says Lett. “They continue to send and bring their children, grandkids.

“Another thing we’ve done from the beginning,” he adds, “is to take patients as they come in. We do not take or make appointments. That allows someone with a back problem - perhaps he or she hasn’t been in for a year - that allows them to come in, sign in, and wait until it’s their turn to be seen. This has worked very well for me, and we are able to keep a good number of patients coming daily. They really do just drop in like that.”

Lett says small-town life has its advantages. “I walk down the streets here and see people I know, and who know me. In a large city, everyone is running fast and they never know who you are.”

Lett sees an average of 40 or more patients per day. “At 53 years in practice, that’s a pretty steady pace,” he says. He sees approximately 10 new patients per week. “Patients will come in and say, ‘So and so told me to come see you….’ or, ‘I looked in the phone book for your number….’

“However,” Lett says, “most people, unless someone has moved into the area recently... know we’re here.” That’s not to say that Lett takes his patient base for granted; he appreciates the value of marketing his practice, even after being established for so many years.

Community Ties
“I have a very small ad in the Yellow Pages,” Lett says. “It’s really just an inch block. Other chiropractors have half-pages, full pages…. In our ad, we point out that we are in the 53rd year of practice. And we are in the 50th year as the team doctor for the Glencoe High football team. People look at our ad and they know that I am the older practitioner in town. I think that small ad, showing our longevity, serves us better than a full page, because people don’t read all that anyway,” he says.

Among Lett’s close competition, “There are three chiropractors who do a lot of TV advertising, things like that. They are doing well.” He adds: “We all get along well, and I respect all of them. Across the area, there are 11 chiropractors now.”

Lett’s clinic stocks ancillary products such as pillows, braces, and supplements as a value-added service for patients. “At one time,” says Lett, “we had an herb shop, which my wife managed. We had a fire here four years ago (see related sidebar article on page 43), which destroyed the herb shop. We didn’t re-open it after the fire.”

Lett is supportive of the schools in his area. He takes out an ad in the sporting event programs of “usually two or three of the high schools close by.” He also is known for preparing a snack for the officials at half-time. “All the officials in the association here expect it, they know it, they all want to come to Glencoe to eat at half-time,” says Lett. “The word on this has spread far and wide: ‘If you officiate a game at Glencoe, Doc Lett is going to feed you.’

“For the football officials, I will start out the first game with smoked turkey and a cheese tray, things like that, so they can fix sandwiches. Then in the latter part of the season when it gets cooler, we’ll have things like chili.”Lett’s community involvement has been long-standing. In 1965, he told Chiropractic Economics about his wide range of activities.

A few examples:
• He became involved in Little League baseball and “Midget” football. He was elected to the Glencoe Town Council and became director of recreation there. He even became involved in a baseball program in Gadsden.

• He became involved in the Glencoe High School Athletic Club, serving as president for seven years. Under his leadership, the club renovated the Glencoe football field, built bleacher seats for 4,000, and put in a new [in 1965] $7,000 lighting system. “I find,” said Lett in 1965, “that almost anything I do helps me to tell the chiropractic story.”

• He ran for the Etowah County Board of Education in 1964. He lost the race, but gained patients. In the process, he was once again the “living example” of chiropractic, and he added several patients directly from the contacts he made during his election campaign.

These are impressive forays into the community, but necessity was the “beginning” of invention. When Lett opened his first practice in 1949, he wasn’t sure where to start when it came to marketing his practice and getting involved in the community.

“We tried advertising through newspapers and on radio,” Lett said in the 1965 Chiropractic Economics article, “and we built a very good practice. But when we let the advertising die off, our practice dropped way down.’

The 1965 article also talked about Lett’s affinity for athletics: “He started to build a referral practice, concentrating on selling his patients on telling the chiropractic story. Always interested in sports - a football player in his high school days - Lett in 1952 became associated with athletic teams as the team chiropractor. At first it was with the Glencoe High school through caring for the brother of a patient hurt in a football game. Through the years, this has spread, until last year he cared for athletes from 10 different high schools in northeastern Alabama. It was just a step then for Lett to get into other recreational and sports activities.”

Lett’s children and grandchildren also seemed to inherit his interest in sports. His sons Ed and Kenneth were both quarterbacks at Jacksonville State University (in Alabama); both are in the JSU Hall of Fame. His son Dr. Gary Lett is a successful chiropractor in Mississippi, and he was a member of the JSU golf team. Lett’s daughter Judy is married with a family and still receives regular chiropractic care. His younger daughter Lanola was a member of the basketball and softball teams at JSU.

Today, the tradition continues - Lett’s grandchildren are actively involved with sports and cheerleading. “I’m very proud of all my children and grandchildren,” Lett said.

His tradition of community involvement extends far beyond local sporting events. “In addition to my meals for the football officials, we also are the hospitality people for our church,” says Lett. “Say an evangelist is coming to the church; we’ll invite as many as 40 or 50 people to our home after church.”

Lett has been providing the meals for football officials for 18 years. The events are low-key, he says. But “sometimes when an official is there, they’ll say, ‘I have a stiff neck, would you check it for me?’ ” says Lett. “They know that I go to the field house prior to the game, and any of the players who want an adjustment receive it before they get dressed to play.”

Pat Lett, Lett’s wife and office manager, says he “has a heart of gold and hands that heal.” She says Lett’s involvement in the community has the bonus of helping people learn more about the benefits of chiropractic, but, “He gives away more than he’s ever gotten.” Lett is always there for his patients, and when they have needed it, he has provided pro bono care in a quiet and gracious way that so many in the community admire.

Educating, Retaining Patients
The patient education and retention at Lett’s office are rooted in providing quality chiropractic care. “That’s what we do. We just tell them after they’ve gotten their problem under control, that when this begins to flare up, to come back, or to come back every few months, just to keep it in check,” says Lett. “That’s worked, and continues to work, for me.”

In 1965, Lett stressed the importance of educating patients about the importance of chiropractic. What has he seen in terms of patients’ responsiveness to that message today? “There are so many things today that distract people - drug, alcohol problems,” he says. “You lose some of the younger people for awhile because they get into that. Also, maybe as I’ve gotten older, I haven’t sold the sizzle like I used to.

“But longevity has helped me maintain the flow of these patients through my practice,” he says. “They have heard about me for all their lives. It’s not as hard for me as it would be for a less-established chiropractor, to tell them that they need to come back in a month or whatever. They know about me, as opposed to the guy whose only been here less than five years, say.”

Lett says he remembers vividly what it’s like to be the new doctor in town, even after all these years. “You must sell yourself and sell the sizzle, and believe that you can get the job done,” he says. “Another issue for the younger practitioner is the fact that there are so many physical therapists and athletic trainers who are vying for the same patients as chiropractors. That distracts patients, especially for the younger practitioner. They have to get out there and fight. The older people I’ve had all these years, they’ve come to know that I'm here and they still come.”

Another distraction is the glut of health-care information available to patients today, from the Internet and many other sources, Lett says. How can doctors of chiropractic cut through that glut?

Says Lett: “Continue to tell the chiropractic story. I’ve been doing that since 1949, and it works because I still think the sick person is looking for an alternative method to healing. Just keep it basic.”

He adds: “The principle of chiropractic is very simple: mechanical, relieve the nerve interference, and the patient gets well.”

Overcoming Obstacles
On June 20, 1998, a Saturday morning, Dr. M.G. Lett went to the office as usual. But this day would turn out to be anything but usual.

“As I entered, someone was already in there, and they knocked me out,” Lett recalls. “When I came to, the office was full of flames, and the smoke was hip high. I crawled out. Once outside, I stood there and watched everything I had ever worked for go up in smoke.

“We had to start over,” he says. “We had a pool building at our house, which is about six blocks from the office. We cleaned it out, and created a waiting area/work area to see patients. We worked out of that building for about eight months until we [could secure another building]. My wife Pat worked with me, and it wasn’t easy for either of us.”

Lett adds: “Many people thought we had retired at that time. We had to struggle for a couple of years to get people to know that we were still in business. It’s been a little rough, but we are back on track and things are looking real good.” One lesson learned: “We found out that you don’t know how good your insurance is until you have to use it,” says Lett. “We had replacement insurance on the structure and equipment when we bought it. But the agent had taken the replacement [portion] off [the policy] and we only got discounted reimbursement on the equipment. But we have fought back, and have gotten our patient base back. Everything is running well.”

Why not retire after such a catastrophe? Says the 77-year-old Lett: “I’m in good health. What would I do if I quit? I love this work. I feel that there is still a need and that’s where I want to be. I have no plans for retirement.”