Are you willing to be a practice specialist?
By Susan Hoy

Becoming a practice specialist requires a specific patient-oriented mindset. It also requires willingness to learn new skills and to execute them to help make your practice the best it can be. Here are some of the things you should be willing to do:

• Pay attention to patient results. Ask the practice members about the benefits they have received from long-term chiropractic care.

• Become a student of chiropractic philosophy. Remember: You are an extension of your chiropractor. Ask your chiropractor for a simple explanation of the philosophies he or she follows. Read a chiropractic pamphlet every day.

Develop your own explanation of chiropractic philosophy, write it down, and practice saying it.

• Build your practice-management skills. Ask to attend workshops on insurance coding, marketing, and patient relations. If seminars are not an immediate option (or if you want to reinforce what you learn in workshops) listen to tapes and CDs on these topics.

Read chiropractic magazines for appropriate articles that will help you do your job better. The more education you have, the more confidence you will have which results in more respect from your chiropractor and your patients.

Finally, cross train with other staff members. Each of you should learn the specific responsibilities of all jobs in the office, so that the practice runs efficiently, even if someone is out for illness or vacation.

• Be able to answer patient questions. Patients ask CAs questions just as often as they ask the chiropractor. Educating patients is a team responsibility. You, your team members, and your chiropractor should agree on how to answer commonly asked questions.

For example: When a patient asks why she’s not getting the results she expected, here are examples of how to handle that question:

“Are you following through with the doctor’s recommended care plan?”

“Are you doing your exercises as prescribed?”

“Are you applying ice as instructed?”

“Are you taking the supplements the doctor suggested?”

“Are you doing new activities? Sometimes when patients begin to feel better, they start doing things they haven’t been able to do in a long time and they try to do too much during the healing process.”

Of course, you would instruct the patient to discuss their concerns with the chiropractor.

• Practice and role play. Part of eliciting a positive association from our patients is to appear efficient and professional. Therefore, at least once a week, you and your teammates should role play difficult scenarios, such as how to act when a patient becomes irate; how to handle scheduling issues; and how to deal with the doctor and patients when the doctor is running behind schedule.

The more professionally you attend to your job duties, the more your patients will treat you as a professional!

Susan Hoy is an award-winning team trainer and consultant. She presents training seminars for teams throughout the country and is the author of two team training manuals. The newest is entitled, Systemize, Organize, Simplify. Susan can be reached at 215-674-0130, suzzhoy@aol.com or through her website at www.beefitup.net.