Integrated practices are a hot topic right now, but more than the latest healthcare trend.
This mode of practicing is truly revolutionizing the way patients tackle pain, heal from injuries and deal with chronic conditions by combining the best of chiropractic care with elements of traditional medical practice. Welcome to Issue 4 of Chiropractic Economics, which takes a look inside chiropractic specialties.
Transform healthcare
Now is the time to redefine how you approach patient care through integrated practices, and that redefinition can utilize any tools, new or old-school, you choose.
“By embracing tools such as low-level laser therapy and combining them with chiropractic adjustments and active rehab,” writes Chad Woolner, DC, “we can lead the way in building a healthcare system that prioritizes outcomes, addresses root causes and empowers patients to thrive.”
With the industry’s move toward value-based care, the focus is on quality outcomes, personalized care and patient satisfaction. “When you integrate, you’re setting your practice up for long-term success while delivering the kind of care patients truly deserve,” says Mark Sanna, DC. “When you combine your expertise with that of other professionals, you create a practice that’s innovative, patient-centered and impactful.”
Some unique opportunities are out there. Michael Coates, Esq., gives you actionable steps for getting into the business of taking on personal injury cases, Anish Bajaj, DC, runs down the latest in neuroscience and the increasingly nuanced ways it offers to approach subluxation treatment, and Misty Green, DC, talks about an exciting new chapter in cannabinoid therapies and how you can weave their benefits into your current treatment options.
Always be marketing
Also in this issue, industry veteran Ray Foxworth, DC, explains how marketing strategy, whatever your specialty, is what positions you as the go-to expert in your integrated practices field, and Naota Hashimoto, DC, emphasizes the importance of developing marketing campaigns for new services you launch, both as a heads-up to patients and a way to get new revenue streams flowing.
Strategies are critical to long-term marketing success but remember that everything you do is marketing. The personal touch goes a long way. For example, do you routinely take patients’ vital signs? This may not seem like a big deal, but it is, says Mark Studin, DC. That’s because it demonstrates your commitment to patient safety, which equals patients loving it, which equals increased word of mouth, which equals a marketing win.
If you need a more dramatic example of personalized care equaling a marketing win, look to a recent Wall Street Journal article about a certain January semifinal football game between Notre Dame and Penn State that was tied 24-24, with seven seconds left to play. Mitch Jeter, the Irish’s star kicker, nailed a spectacular 41-yard field goal that swept Notre Dame to victory. Just a few weeks earlier, he’d suffered a debilitating groin injury but made an amazingly rapid recovery thanks to his personal DC, dad Andrew Jeter, whose focused, intensive series of chiropractic adjustments supercharged his son’s recovery and got him game-ready in a matter of weeks rather than months. You can’t buy a better marketing strategy than the ringing endorsement of a happy patient (and about 50,000 happy Notre Dame fans).
Final thoughts on integrated practices
I hope the articles in this issue inform and inspire you to integrate a chiropractic specialty into the way you practice. Patients in today’s healthcare system are already used to care customized to their preferences, so most will be delighted by the idea of a custom approach combining tried-and-true chiropractic care with cutting-edge technology and the specialty areas and techniques in which you excel.
Crossing disciplines with that care adds another dimension and reflects your embrace of the treat-the-whole-patient approach that people need to get out of pain, regain health, maintain health and truly thrive. If you want to make an impact, think multidisciplinary!
To your health, prosperity and success!
