Issue 7 - May 2004

Practice pointers

How to hire a patient as a CA

Some coaches caution against hiring patients as new employees. But the right person for your job opening may be in your patient database. If you choose to recruit “from within,” here are some tips:

• Post a ‘help wanted’ sign in the waiting area.

• Require cross training.

• Recruit patients who are excited about their chiropractic results, participated in your new patient class, took the time to learn about subluxations and read the material you provided.

• Consider patients who refer others to your clinic.

• Test for job skills.
In a nutshell: A patient may make a good employee, if you hire for the right reasons.

— Tom Morgan, DC
Volume Practice Seminars
www.volumepractice.com

Judge yourself by your ‘cover’

Develop regular and routine maintenance habits that let you appear at your best. Like it or not, patients form opinions based on appearance.

Pay attention to your personal appearance. Some things that should scream for attention:

• Clean hands (no dirt under the nails from gardening!).

• Tobacco-stained teeth (they can be whitened).

• Calloused hands.

• Unprofessional or ill-fitting clothing.

If you are not sure what to change, ask a good friend to be honest and tell you what needs to be improved, reworked or up-dated.

— Sherry J. Davis
Wake-Up Coach
shervival@aol.com

Define your goal

If you don’t define your ultimate outcome, how can you ever achieve it? One of our doctors learned the benefit of writing down goals— and getting his team involved in the process.

He requested his staff to design their ultimate practice. It was their homework for the next team meeting.

Their design was a volume practice comprised of “ideal” patients and a perfectly organized appointment book. One year later, he was able to claim that the ultimate dream practice had been achieved.

— John Hinwood, DC
Powerful-Practices.com

No time for negativity

A clear indicator of when it is time to terminate an employee is when you are taking the person “home” with you at night! If you are creating a positive work environment and the person continues to bring in negativity, it is time to make a change.

Your willingness to confront these issues and move through them has incredible impact on your practice success. You owe it to the other team members, patients and yourself to clean this situation up. u

— Janice Hughes, DC,
Palmer Institute for Professional Advancement