• What does your office ‘say’? Does your office say “wellness” or does it look like every other doctor’s office in town with generic waiting-room chairs, brochures and posters on the wall, mind-numbing magazines strewn out over the coffee table, and the local “soft hits from the ’70s to today” radio station playing music that nobody can really hear.

If your patients’ first impression is that your office is like every other doctor’s office they’ve ever been to, then their expectations are that your service and care will be the same as every other doctor’s.

Wellness care is different from sick care. Your office has to be different, so set it apart by having “real” furniture, art on the walls, and different and upbeat music playing at a level that can be appreciated.

Make your office look like anything but a typical doctor’s office — something that gives the patient the “wow” factor. You can achieve that “wellness look” with:

Think “nature.” People associate natural things with wellness, and they do not expect to find these amenities in a “medical” office. Natural, relaxing waiting-room facilities will impress new patients that what they are about to experience is different from what they are used to.

• Are your procedures wellness-oriented? Are your procedures like those used in every other healthcare office? What is the intent and purpose of each of your office procedures? What message does each send the patient?

Make your office procedures reflect your wellness philosophies. On the first visit, after you listen to and address the concerns and conditions that brought the patient into your office, take the time to ask questions about his or her lifestyle, health goals, and understanding of wellness vs. illness.

This short introduction becomes the next brick on the path to wellness that started when the patient walked into your office and experienced that “wow” impression.

Continue the wellness-orientation process in your report-of-findings. Discuss the current problem and explain what needs to be done to correct it. Then lay the groundwork and plan for a lifestyle change toward wellness.

Be straightforward and honest. Don’t exaggerate nor sugar-coat your findings. Your patient needs a leader to achieve wellness. Regular visits and progress evaluations are another key procedural opportunity.

Ask questions to find out what your patient knows, how he thinks, and what she is learning in your office. Focus on increasing health, not decreasing pain. Use instrumentation and technology that show changes in function, not merely the absence of pain.

If you are wellness-based, your procedures have to be different from the sickness based industry for the patient to accept that your practice is different.

• Are you offering classes in wellness? In addition to your regular new-patient seminars, consider offering an advanced healthcare class or a wellness workshop, complete with a workbook for your patients to use.

Wellness workshops cover the physical, mental, social, spiritual, family, career, and financial aspects of wellness. You can even offer goal-setting workshops to teach patients how to set goals that complement — not stress — their lives. You don’t have to be an expert in all of these areas; you just need to be a leader and explain how they all tie into the total picture of wellness. You can also invite experts to lead the workshops.

• Do you reward your patients’ wellness? Think about how many wellness patients you have. How long have they been coming in and how regular are they?

Are you rewarding them? Start a wellness club.

Decide on the criteria for belonging to the club, such as “the patient has been coming in for at least one year of uninterrupted care.” Provide benefits to the patient, such as a discount from 10 percent to 20 percent on products or services your office offers; a wellness club newsletter; special inclusion or free admission to upcoming wellness workshops; and specially negotiated discounts at local gyms and natural food stores.

A bonus: As you negotiate group discounts for your wellness-club patients at local businesses, you establish relationships with the owners or managers of these businesses in your community, and they become very aware of your services and the fact that you are the “wellness resource” for the community.

Most people today have never been taught principles of wellness by their doctors. People currently in or headed toward crisis care in your community are there because they don’t know how not to be there.

But, as you know, it’s never too late to learn how to be healthy, and it’s never too late to become a wellness leader in your practice and your community. You must decide, “If it is to be, it’s up to me”!

SIDEBARS:
1) These questions cause patients to think ‘wellness’
2) What should your classes address?

Stuart Cayer, DC, is a 1997 graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic and currently practices in Scarborough, Maine, where he operates a wellness-based family practice (www.scarboroughfamilychiro.com). He can be contacted at 207-885-9415 or at drcayer@scarboroughfamilychiro.com.