En garde! Dr. Peter Cox manages his clinic like an Olympic event


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Issue 12 - September 2004

En garde!
Dr. Peter Cox manages his clinic like an Olympic event
By Todd Stumpf • Photos by Mark Fortenberry

Peter Cox was determined to become an Olympian and he was determined to become a chiropractor. Not to be denied either pursuit or passion, he grabbed a pair of career bifocals and kept his sights set on both goals, simultaneously chasing each.

A team approach

Cox’s Chiropractic Care Center is a $1.9 million enterprise. To provide service to the patients who visit this clinic, Cox has a staff of approximately 14, most of whom are full-time employees. The staff is structured into four teams, each led by a chiropractor and supported by a front-desk assistant and a CA.

A number of marketing and support associates support all four teams.

Cox explains that the team concept works well — but only if the right team members are in place. With the right team members, he says, productivity soars.

The lesson: Hire the best qualified person for the job.

He chased with an extreme amount of dedication, hard work and — perhaps most important — a supportive and understanding wife (Heidi), who stood by him throughout his dual pursuit, helping him in any way she could.

“We got married and moved to Kansas City to train with the world’s best fencing coach and to go to Cleveland Chiropractic College,” says Cox, who achieved both goals virtually concurrently. “We decided to do [everything] at the same time — to go to school full time, train full time, fund-raise full time, make the team, become No. 1 and graduate as doctor by 1996. Luckily, our plan worked out.”

Saying “our plan worked out” may be an understatement. Cox rose to the top of the United States fencing rankings and earned a berth in the 1996 Olympics in the process. And after graduating from chiropractic college, he started a practice that in its seventh year is on pace to do $1.9 million annually, with a goal to service $200,000 per month by year’s end. The practice has enjoyed 30 percent financial growth annually since it opened in October 1997.

The plan worked out, because Cox developed his plan based on sound decisions — answers to the question, “Why?”

• Why did he want to become the country’s top fencer?

• Why did he want to be on the Olympic fencing team?

• Why should he change professions (he had been in sales and marketing) to become a chiropractor?

• Why did he want to become a doctor? Cox and his wife were able to answer all of these “why’s” to their satisfaction:

• He wanted to find out what it was like to be on the Olympic team and represent the country.

• He wanted to be able to speak to young people about following goals and dreams. He knew that being an Olympian would make him a credible role model.

• He wanted to help people.

• And he wanted to be part of a profession that makes a difference in people’s lives, just as it had in his.

Olympic dream was a road to chiropractic

It took a chiropractor to keep Cox’s Olympic dream alive. Indirectly, that Olympic dream led Cox to become a chiropractor.

In 1988, Cox, an All-American fencer at Penn State University, felt something pull in his back. When he woke up the next morning, he couldn’t move his left leg.

He was told he had disc damage, but nobody was sure how to treat it. He was put through a protocol for sciatica, then went through eight months of rehab.

“I got better, but it took eight months. I was able to win most of the collegiate tournaments including the NCAAs I was in and that’s what we worked for. But I never wanted to experience that level of discomfort again.”

Four years later, however, almost the exact same thing happened. His hopes of one day making the Olympic team were in jeopardy.

At the suggestion of his mother-in-law, Cox went to Stephen Tosk, a chiropractor in Pittsfield, Mass.

In three treatments, Cox felt better. Within three months he was back, his problem was under control, his Olympic dreams rekindled and his career goals changed. Cox decided to give to others what chiropractic had given to him. He became a chiropractor.

CLINIC MANAGEMENT: A SPORTING AFFAIR
Although Cox knew he wanted to be a chiropractor, he didn’t know if he would enjoy running a clinic. But he found out that he does. He enjoys it because running a practice is competitive and involves individuals and teams. It involves working separately and working together. Cox, a competitor all his life, sees his troops as one unit working together.

“I don’t think running a sports team, like the Charlotte Panthers, is any different than running the Chiropractic Care Center,” he says. “I think you’re trying out for your position every day, as a doctor meeting a patient. If a patient doesn’t like you, you just got canned. And if you’re a doctor and you can’t help the person, you send them where they need to go. Staff members … it’s the same thing … they’re on the team.

“The organizational structure has the same hierarchy. You’ve got a coach, players, starters, back-ups, varsity and junior varsity. Everyone comes on with certain skills and you work on developing those strengths, work on those weaknesses or put more energy into your strengths. All of the things your coaches told you along the way apply. It’s all the same concepts.”

Cox sees himself as both player and coach. He’s good at the latter when it comes time to encourage, but admittedly struggles when it’s time to criticize. He does, however, know it’s necessary.

“I find it difficult personally to be hard on people,” he says. “That can be a strength and a weakness. People want to know where they stand — if they’re doing well, if they’re not doing well. But sometimes you don’t want to hurt people's feelings. I like people to like me. I’m a very open person. I don’t like to make other people feel bad and I like to know that people are OK. That doesn't do very well in a business atmosphere when certain things just have to occur.”

HIS ROLE: TEAM COACH
Cox pictures himself as a coach. His players have uniforms and roles on the team. He has expectations of them and wants them to have expectations of themselves.

If they fall short of reaching those expectations, he knows he has to speak out. Part of the challenge for him is to find constructive ways to make his points.

“When I start looking at the situation as the captain or the coach, I can more easily give criticism and not have it make me feel bad,” he says. “I expect my captain or my coach to give me criticism, otherwise I’ll never learn. It definitely challenges me. The better I get, the better the team gets, and hence the better the business gets.”

Focus or fail

One of the greatest lessons Cox learned was in his 1996 Olympic competition.

He had competed in hundreds of fencing events since he was very young, but none compared to the thrill of the Olympics, where 3,500 or 4,000 people were screaming “USA, USA, USA.”

“To know they were screaming it at me at that time, it was awesome,” he said.

But those cheers were his downfall. After winning his first match to the chants of “USA, USA,” Cox heard the refrain again while building a lead in his second bout. He was leading 12-9 (he needed 15 to win), when he knocked his foe’s shoe off. He was “on a roll.” And the chants increased.

As the crowd’s roar grew, his confidence grew and he began to picture himself winning that match, then the next two. He saw himself in the medal round, an historical accomplishment for an American fencer.

But those “pictures” interfered with his focus. His opponent rallied. And he lost the match. Cox’s Olympic dream was over.

Cox has kept the lesson he learned alive in his practice: To build a successful practice, he says, it is imperative to focus and “stay in the now.”

It’s all well and good to think about building a big practice, but what it all comes down to is focusing on that single patient in front of you. Give that patient your best and you’ll be able to do the “next right thing.”

While a practice, big or small, is a team, a chiropractor is still just one person. And, just as in a fencing match, each patient — like an opponent — poses a new set of challenges.

So while the one-on-one aspect doesn’t present a direct competition, for Cox it does — with himself. He is his own greatest opponent. With that in mind, he strives to excel in preparation to meet his expectations and the “competition” he provides for himself.

“In fencing, the only thing faster than the tip of a saber blade is a bullet,” he says. “You can’t react that fast. It all has to be pre-planned. So I only compete with myself. I know that if I go with my plan, I will have a consistent outcome. It’s a machine at work. If you’re having an off day or you’re thinking about something else, you’re going to be off.

“I’ve taken that into chiropractic. I don’t compete with any other doctors. I love the profession. I love the challenges it presents. I love seeing people get well. From a business perspective I think it's a wonderful way to make a living. It’s a noble purpose. I don’t take patients from anybody. If I lose a patient to another doctor, I didn’t lose him, as long as he went to the other doctor. It’s just another patient for chiropractic.”

Ultimately, though, success comes down to the team and how it works together. With a staff of 14, the Chiropractic Care Center needs plenty of teamwork. Despite Charlotte’s ever-expanding borders, clearly this is a practice that needs to be running on all cylinders to get things done.

“That's a lot of staff,” Cox says. “There better be a lot of patients coming through to have all that staff! I don't charge any more than anyone else does. The overhead still has to fit, however you like to run it. If it works for you, keep doing it. If it's not working, ask your friends what works for them, then think about how to apply their success into your work. I'll spend time [doing things] and when I run out of time, I hire people to do it. I know what works for me. I have a passion about it.”

Tom Stumpf is a freelance writer from Akron, Ohio. He can be reached at TStumpf22@yahoo.com.

Patient recruitment key: Meet, greet and treat

Cox has a marketing budget, but his basic marketing philosophy is simple: Meet, greet and treat.

• Meeting and greeting. “I believe there is a need in the community to speak on chiropractic,” he says. “But I don’t always know where those needs are.” His marketing department solves that problem by identifying speaking and screening opportunities and booking the right people into them — either a staff member (if a chiropractor is not needed) or one of the DCs.

Cox himself makes frequent presentations. Despite his role as official chiropractor to the PGA and Senior PGA and as a former Olympian, his most frequently requested speaking topic isn’t about sports. It’s about coping with stress.

Regardless of the topic or who makes the presentation, the result is the same: The clinic meets and greets potential patients and shares enthusiasm about chiropractic.

• Treating. Cox uses protocols to provide the right care to patients. That care may include using the 20+ diagnostic and treatment tools he has in the clinic, including five different types of electric stimulation units.Cox’s treatment rooms are essentially open-concept. Patients talk to each other and, in essence, recruit each other.

Cox says, “It would take me forever to convey certain ideas. But when the guy next to you says, ‘Yeah, it’s getting better,’ it makes a big difference. I just like to get out there and listen to them talk.

Success Keys

Practice management consultants:
Motivational Dynamics Corp. (MDC), 800-821-4310
Financial planner:
Heidi Cox (vice president/operations director)
Technology:
More than 20 types of diagnostic and treatment tools

Vital statistics

Chiropractic Care Center
Seneca Square Plaza
5125 South Blvd, Suite C
Charlotte, NC 28217
Telephone: 704-525-6288
Fax: 704-525-6384
E-mail: staff@chirocarecenter.net
Web page: www.chirocarecenter.net

Office hours
Monday through Friday: 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m. - 11 a.m.

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