Anatomy of a high performance practice
By Bob Levoy

A high performance practice is one that has above-average patient satisfaction, referrals, productivity, profitability, and practice growth. That's a tall order, but definitely doable — as countless DCs have proven.

Here's a sampling of some of the strategies used in high performance practices — and how you can put them to work in your practice.

• Long-range strategic planning. Strategic planning is the fundamental process by which an organization determines specific action steps to achieve future goals. It's the map that guides your activities on the way to your destination by identifying what needs to be done, by whom, with what resources, and by what date.

Planning allows an organization, as a whole, to focus on the right priorities and activities to accomplish its goals and is one of the key management activities that will allow an organization to proactively manage its growth.

Strategic planning starts with deciding where you and your practice are at the moment, where you're headed, where you'll be a year or two from now, and how you'll get there.

Will the focus be the same? Will you be serving the same patient base or different segments of the population? Will you continue to offer the same mix of services or shift gears to incorporate, for example, physical therapy, massage, acupuncture, exercise physiology, or nutrition?

Will you become an integrated healthcare practice? Become a cash-only practice? Acquire hospital privileges? Join a managed-care network or remain independent?

Your answers to such questions will influence everything in your practice, starting with what you do and how you do it, the kinds of patients you attract, your standards for quality and service, the location of your office, your fees, equipment, continuing education, whom you hire, the size of your staff, how you promote the practice, the pace of the practice, and the overhead.

Reality check: Choose your strategy carefully. There's no point rowing harder if you're rowing in the wrong direction.

• Competitive advantage. High performance practices offer something better or different from average practices and, therefore, achieve a competitive advantage.

You can differentiate your practice in a number of ways, starting with developing a niche specialty, such as sports medicine, personal injury, or industrial medicine. Or, achieve diplomate status in such specialties as orthopedics, neurology, or diagnostic imaging.

Reality check: If what you're doing in your practice is no better or different (or perceived to be no better or different) from what's being done in other offices, then what incentive do patients have to be in your practice — especially if comparable services (or again, what's perceived as comparable services) are available elsewhere at lower fees?

But, consider what's involved in specializing. "Specializing in sports chiropractic is considerably different than occasionally treating athletes for sports injuries," says Thomas Hyde, DC, DACBSP, who has served as the chiropractor coordinator for the United States Powerlifting Federation, International Powerlifting Federation, and United States Weightlifting Federation.

He continues, "Chiropractors who choose to pursue the Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician (CCSP) degree or go further to obtain the diplomate of the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians (DACBSP) must take numerous additional hours in post-grad education in sports-related subjects and pass a national board admin-istered exam. Additional requirements include a practical exam and submitting a paper to a peer-reviewed journal."

• Focus on excellence. High-performing organizations don't settle on satisfaction.

"There is considerable evidence," William Andres, former chairman of the Dayton-Hudson Corporation, told the Harvard Business School Marketing Club, "that the very best businesses concentrate almost single-mindedly on serving the customer. Pleasing customers is an obsession. Service is an obsession. Quality is an obsession. Dependability is an obsession. Attention to detail is an obsession.

His advice is dead-on for any service-driven business, chiropractic included.

The word obsession is the key. It implies not just a "lip service" promise to do these things, but rather a no-excuse, unswerving commitment to quality, service, dependability, and attention to detail.

For many practices, growth is king. For high performance chiropractic practices, excellence is king.

From the success file: "Our office has a purpose," says Dr. Kari L. Swain of Altoona, Iowa, "and that is to provide clinically competent, service-oriented, excellent chiro-practic care to the individuals and families of my community. Helping patients regain and maintain their health is an awesome responsibility, one that we take very seriously."

Bob Levoy's newest book, 222 Secrets of Hiring, Managing and Retaining Great Employees in Healthcare Practices, is published by Jones and Bartlett Publishers. He can be reached at b.levoy@att.net.