It’s clear that Covid19 will forever change our lives and this is especially true of healthcare.  Telehealth will likely be here to stay and from a business and marketing perspective not offering Telehealth may be the discriminating factor between you and a competitor. 

Because many rules and regulations have been lifted temporarily by the government there are many opportunities to add Telehealth to your practice immediately without investing in Telemedicine software to see how it is received by your patients.  This would include options such as Zoom, FaceTime and similar options.  It cannot be emphasized enough that you must first check with your State Association to see any restrictions and regulations on implementing Telehealth which would include options such as Zoom and FaceTime. 

The good news is that many insurance companies are reimbursing providers and according to the Illinois Chiropractic Society, it does appear that this is limited to in-network providers. It’s also been noted that Telehealth usually offers more benefits with shorter treatment times, allowing physicians to see more patients in a shorter period of time while offering a new and convenient patient service. 

Chiropractors often see patients with severe pain and Telehealth allows the patient to remain at home without the painful ride and walk to a clinic office.  The full health history can be completed and some orthopedic tests can be observed as well. Instructions on acute pain management, icing, exercises can usually be delivered by example and explanation and in the presence of red flag warnings patients can be referred for appropriate emergency services.   

Be aware that there are forms that need to be filled out and I again emphasize the absolute need to reach out to your particular state to see what you have to do to offer Telehealth in your practice. 

Members may log-in for more resources and a marketing list on how to market these new services in your office as well as suggestions on what to look for in a Telehealth software solution. 

Communicating during a health scare falls under many boxes of responsibility  including marketing. Here are some tips and resources to help with your patient communication regarding Covid19:

1. Make sure your staff knows how to answer questions. We are a hands on, face cradling nation of chiropractors. Understandably that will cause some concern with patients who will likely call to reschedule or cancel appointments.  What are you doing to maintain the spread of virus in your office to protect your patients?  Educate your staff on how to answer these questions to help patients feel more confident when going face down on your table! Finally, make sure your staff does not report to work with any symptoms!

2. Share on social media, through emails and on your website how you're cleaning your office including the cleaners that you are using. Illustrate cleaning of office door handles, including the front door, arms of the chairs, treatment equipment, light switches and bathrooms. Provide santizing hand gel in your waiting roomand front desk  Be a leader in disinfecting!

3. Share on social media, emails and your website proper hand washing techniques. If you sell products and it's part of your practice share immune boosting supplements, botanical and herbs that are supported by the literature. 

4. Consider spacing patient appointments further apart so that you limit the number of patients in your waiting and therapy rooms and have time to disinfect between patients.  Let patients know you're taking this approach! They'll appreciate the effort. Another great option is to offer patients the ability to text you or call when they arrive, allowing them to wait in their car.  Your office staff can then let them know when to come in. 

5. Leverage slower office times by offering them to patients who are at higher risk so that they are not exposed to other patients.  Imagine an older person who feels like the office is open just for them!

6. Communicate with your patients asking them to consider rescheduling non essential appointments if they are experiencing any signs of illness. 

7. Do not make statements or claims that are not supported by evidence based literature! This can lead to heavy fines and I think it is reasonable to expect that agencies will crack down on fear mongering and misleading claims during a pandemic health scare.  I was told yesterday that someone saw a chiropractor claiming that spinal adjustments could boost the immune system by 200%.  This simply is not supported by the literature. 

8. Keep your office clean! Now is not the time to have overflowing garbage cans, old and dingy magazines and dusty shelves. Maintain a clear committment to cleanliness not only during a health scare but at all times. 

9. Update your website and leverage social media to communicate with your patients on any changes in hours or closures, especially in geographic areas with current closures.  Create a page or box on your website on Covid19, the early symptoms and your measures to keep patients safe while visiting your office. 

10. Resources:

Your State Association!

Handwashing: https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/when-how-handwashing.html

OSHA and Covid19: https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/covid-19/controlprevention.html#health

EPA's Approved Disinfectants:  https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2020-03/documents/sars-cov-2-list_03-03-2020.pdf

CDC Information for Healthcare Providers: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/index.html

World Federation of Chiropractic Covid19 Information: https://www.wfc.org/website/images/wfc/Latest_News_and_Features/Coronavirus_information_2020_03_12.pdf

 If you have any interest in managing personal injury cases, then you know that in today's PI environment having a multi-disciplinary approach is important. As such, building a team of mutually respectful and appropriate specialties is critical.

This last week, the American Institute of Personal Injury Physicians hosted my talk on building medical referrals and have made it available in their store at no cost. The webinar runs just under an hour. I hope you'll check it out and while you're there take a look at the services they offer - if you have an interest or specialize in personal injury this is a company that can ensure your success in all things personal injury. 

Thank you AIPIP for hosting and making this presentation open access to everyone!

Links: 

Webinar Presentation

American Institute of Personal Injury Physicians

A New Year is upon us, and with it the opportunity to make some new resolutions. Here are some MD Marketing priorities to firm up for 2020:

1. Capitalize upon chiropractic successes & targeted market opportunities
2. Optimize & grow core customer business
3. Generate great brand & market awareness to support strategy and vision
4. Develop a world-class experience for our patients
5. Create a high performance culture with excellent outcomes and lower costs of care

1. Capitalize upon chiropractic successes & targeted market opportunities. Chiropractors excel at managing acute and chronic lower back pain, some forms of headache and neck pain and it’s well documented in the research.  These successes serve as open doors to begin conversations with medical doctors. Each encounter with an MD should have the goal of sharing with providers’ key points of our care for these open door conditions and achievements of proven success including:

• mechanism of action of manipulation
• efficacy/outcomes with emphasis on pain and disability measures

It should be a priority that once an MD triggers a referral that you monitor your statistics to ensure that you optimize the referral rate of that MD through discharge reports of referred patients and consistent education and outreach. It cannot be underscored how imperative this step is to success, and consistency in communication efforts plays a large role. Make sure you have a plan in place to track your reports, outreach and your statistics with an emphasis on consistency.

2. Optimize & grow core customer business. In most instances, land with the expectation to build referrals with lower back patients and plan to expand into neck, headaches and other appropriate conditions you excel at treating. Of course there are exceptions but remember that while we may start with the lower back, it doesn't limit you to the lower back. This is a relationship that will be fostered for the lifetime of your career and there will always be opportunities to expand the physician's horizon on what patients are suitable for referral. Land with a plan to expand!

3. Generate great brand awareness.  When looking to your brand you immediately think about your logo, color themes and tag lines. Those things don’t make your brand strong, they can only support the message of a strong brand. When you think about your brand, think about what you want your brand to reflect.

Target Audience: The obvious starting audience for most chiropractors are patients with lower back pain. However, some of us go broader in our marketing and target musculoskeletal conditions, others prefer an emphasis on sports, ob/gyn and many other conditions.  In order to sell a strong brand you have to sell it to the right audience. If you cater to extremities, your brand shouldn’t be built on headaches. If you excel at managing the lower back, you shouldn’t build a brand on shoulder pain. The best part of marketing to MD’s is tapping into large groups of patients with conditions that interest you, through proper branding. Think about the conditions you are passionate about treating and build your brand with that audience in mind.
Great Customer Experience: Results are a top contender in patient experiences and great patient experiences build a strong brand. But results don’t define the experience. It starts immediately at first contact and continues a lifetime through proper patient education and contact.  Strive to anticipate concerns and meet expectations beyond the standard expectations.
Office Environment: Your office environment (cleanliness, organization, wait times etc.) reflect your brand. Your bedside manner, your front desk and other staff all support your brand. If any of these are lacking or can be improved upon make it a priority to do so now.
Social Media: You should market your social media sites in your print material. Any social media where a patient can post a comment (think Google etc..) about your care must be carefully monitored. One bad review can outweigh a host of good ones and instantly put doubt in the readers mind. To remain HIPPA compliant it's advised you shouldn't respond directly to the review, rather contact the patient directly and see if you can resolve the complaint - hopefully they may consider taking it down once they feel they have been heard.
Material: Your marketing material must reflect your brand and should broadcast key features of your care. It’s worth promoting your commitment to MD communication and referrals as it will build patient confidence to know that their providers are communicating and taking a team approach. Materials should be fresh looking, modern and provide a clear and concise brand message.

4. Develop a World Class Experience:

Patients: Chiropractic care has incredibly high rates of patient satisfaction which is definitely a selling point to MD’s. At the time of patient discharge, ask the patient to fill out a patient satisfaction survey (or consider having it via an email survey format). Accumulating this feedback helps with marketing, it also provides invaluable feedback on whether or not you’re meeting your desired patient experience. Make sure you collect your own office satisfaction rates and broadcast them appropriately in print material and in medical conversations.

MD’s: If an MD asks for information make sure you or your staff prioritize the response. Reports are part of this. Quick responses and timely reports instill trust, professionalism and generate high levels of MD satisfaction. If you asked the patient for permission, share their survey results with the physician by sending a copy along with the discharge report. If you know an MD has an interest in a certain clinical condition and you see a report or article about it from a chiropractic perspective send a copy to them. If they know you’re catering to them, they’re certainly going to know how important it is for you to cater to their patients. Be quick in your responses and look for ways to keep communication flowing.

5. Create a High Performance Environment.

Front Desk: The front desk is a patient’s first experience. Make sure that you have proper procedures and protocols in place to ensure a high level of patient confidence and a smooth running experience. These days, it’s not that hard to stand out from other health practices. All too often we can hear the fatigue in a receptionist’s voice, wait weeks for a first appointment only to spend a limited time with the physician. With little effort you can provide a friendly, warm environment that caters to patient comfort the second they step into the front door adding value to their experience.

Employees and Other Staff: Hire A-players that will support your vision. A friendly, outgoing and energetic receptionist, a professional, firm but fair billing specialist have primary roles in patient experiences. Any other practitioner in your office should be on board with your vision for the ultimate patient experience. You, as the owner, are in complete control and if you place these expectations upon your staff they will carry it through with you as the ultimate role model. It will certainly make for a more uplifting and positive work environment and your patients will be sure to notice. Hire exceptional people and provide them with the opportunity to learn from mistakes and with the skills and materials to do their job to the best of their capabilities.

It’s a New Year, start if off right!

Getting Started in 2020

The start of a New Year is always an opportunity to set new goals, review office policies and put new plans in place. Here are some ideas for jumpstarting your medical outreach for 2020:

1. Plan your public talks! Look at dates, occasions (such as health observances) and put them on your calendar. Add to your January to-do list notes to book any necessary venues and reach out to other physicians you may wish to present with.

2. Make your list and check it twice. This is especially important to new chiropractic practices and for those who may be reflecting on areas of improvement. Look to your own patient base, Google Maps and Yelp to ensure you have a targeted list of MD’s that you want to expand, renew or begin a professional relationship with.

3. Plan your lunches. If lunches are something you are interested in doing why not take the opportunity to work the phone lines and plan some lunches for the first quarter?  

4. Prepare your marketing material. As you meet doctors, as you plan a paper marketing campaign or as you write patient reports, have marketing material on hand. Consider printing out 3 medical newsletters – one each for January, February and March.  Have your staff address all of them to your target list, and note in your schedule on which dates they should be dropped in the mail. Keep extras on hand as you add doctors to your marketing list. Getting this out of the way now puts your mind at rest, minimizes the task and allows you to focus on other areas of marketing and business operations. Other items – practice brochures and a curriculum vitae which are great to attach to patient reports for doctors you have not yet met. Premium members – please review my tips on creating simple, effective, unique and personal newsletters available in the members blog. 

5. Have systems in place! Having a system in place makes the task of jumbling medical outreach seem less over whelming. Noting in your schedule when a newsletter should be mailed along with knowing it is already prepared and ready to go, removes clutter from your brain by removing the need to wonder when the next one is coming up and scrambling to get it done and out. Consistency is critical in this type of marketing.  Equally important are having systems in place for tracking medical outreach. If you have a patient come in, are you getting their medical doctors information and consent to share their progress? If you do, are you taking time to write a summary report? Keep in mind, reports should not be overwhelming or lengthy.  A one page summary of what the patient presented with and your treatment plan keeps it short and simple (unless of course this is a workers comp or medical-legal situation).

Start 2020 off right by making sure you have systems in place to maintain consistency and ease of marketing.

Most chiropractors didn't choose our profession because they wanted to be in sales, but the reality is sales is part of running a business. It's important to promote our business and continue to gain access to the majority of the public who may not otherwise consider our care. This requires medical outreach or a "sales" approach to the profession who holds the largest piece of the musculoskeletal market.

Sales in the basic, traditional sense is often epitomized in many popular movies with sales focused on numbers and being "sold" to conjures up on an image of being persuaded to buy something you don't really need. That is far from the type of sales we want our profession to represent. Chiropractic services are needed and our level of professionalism requires a higher ethical standard and sales approach.

Much of what I write about and teach, helps break down a conversational method designed to understand physician need, build mutual respect and uncover objections so that they can be addressed immediately and the foundation to MD/DC relationships can be strengthened. 

One of the most important components of sales is closing, but before you can do that you need to trial close. Trial closing involves asking specific questions to understand the level of engagement or interest a physician has in your clinical approach and it can start on your first visit to the physician. This type of closing allows physician's to voice an objections, ask questions and enhance their understanding of what chiropractic care can do for their patients in need of our services. When properly asked trial closing sounds nothing like a "close" in the traditional sales sense.

Failure to address objections, concerns or simply to estimate the value the physician see's in your services often leads to a lack of referrals for what felt like a very good meeting. Rather than be frustrated, learn to ask questions that help you understand exactly where you stand in the physician's treatment algorithm enabling you to uncover and overcome objections on the spot.

If you need help understanding how to ask these questions or need more insight on a professional level sales process please consider joining our monthly members only blog memebership or taking my e-course series for a deeper dive into the process.  For more information click here.

Maintaining consistent contact with MD’s means you remain in the forefront of their mind for possible services for their patients. But how do you maintain appropriate contact without being a pest? We’ll try to capture some of our more popular ideas in this tip of the week.

• Topping the list - patient reports. Why?  Nothing sings your praises louder than results in a patient that an MD has seen struggle. Your discharge report should be limited to one page if possible and produced in a timely manner.  Try walking the report in and in under a minute you should be able to summarize the care directly with the MD. A phone call also works, but nothing beats a face to face interaction and it provides an excellent excuse for personal outreach. 

• Grand Rounds. Google your local hospitals “Grand Rounds” or lecture series which take place anywhere from daily to monthly to quarterly depending on the size of the hospital. These are free lectures open to the health care community where you can sit shoulder to shoulder with the medical doctors in your community enhancing professional relationships.  This is a great way to maintain contact and to establish new relationships. Even better – consider presenting a lecture or case report of your own.

• Literature. It is always a plus to point out pivotal research. It places you as the expert in your  field, illustrates your commitment to continued education and underscores that chiropractic is a research based profession. Whether you simply send a paper or visual aid referencing research via mail or email, it’s one avenue for maintaining contact between face to face encounters.
  

• Holidays. The holidays are an excellent opportunity for face to face interactions where physicians are more likely to be relaxed and open to casual conversations and rapport building. Small gifts (branded or not) provide the opportunity to arrive unannounced - just make sure it's during a time where you can get a quality hello, such as the beginning of lunch. Gifts aren't a guarantee you'll get time, so make sure you are prepared and have a personal card attached.

There are multiple ways to maintain contact. Find what works for you so you don't find yourself 8 months down the road with lackluster results and  awkwardly trying to reestablish contact.

Has a medical doctor ever said to you "You are comparing apples to oranges?" It's a common phrase so what do they mean?

It means that what you are trying to compare maybe similar but not so similar it is fair to compare them. In medical outreach, this would usually come up during a conversation where you try to compare one research paper to another to make a claim. 

For example: You have one research paper that shows chiropractic is effective for managing headaches in 80% of patients treated.  In another research paper it shows that physical therapy is effective for managing headaches in 50% of patients treated. 

If you try to make a statement that chiropractic is more effective than physical therapy for managing headaches the doctor would rightfully state that you are comparing apples to oranges. 

For comparisons to be made correctly, they must stem from the same research trial or be a meta-analysis otherwise you're just comparing apples to oranges. 

Nerves and anxiety are a normal process no matter how experienced you are but can greatly hinder efforts of medical outreach.  If nerves are paralyzing you from acting try applying the following 3 tips:

Tip 1. Start with baby steps. Select smaller offices with 1 to 3 providers and have a goal that is attainable. Maybe it’s simply to open the door and drop off an introductory package with the staff. As you get more comfortable you’ll be able to build confidence and take your outreach to the next level (meeting the doctor or trying larger practices).

Tip 2. Research the physicians you are calling on prior to meeting with them.

This can be done through a simple internet search. Pubmed can provide insight from articles the MD may have published or responses to other published research. Google searches can bring up professional activities, patient comments and of course the MD's own practice website. Each of these helps you understand clinical rational, bedside manner (or personality) and professional interests or memberships.

Nothing helps quell nerves more than having an idea on the type of person you are about to meet. More importantly, it helps you prepare for a more meaningful conversation. 

Tip 3: Have a meaningful conversation

Many doctors trying to forge MD Referral Relationships make the mistake of overwhelming the physician with every condition they treat and every service they provide. Unfortunately its not memorable and its not conversational. Utilizing a conversational method to have a strategic conversation that focuses on meaningful information the doctor is interested in hearing about and uncovering and responding to specific objections. Tip 2 above can provide insight to help you determine your conversational path and apply a conversational sales approach.

Log-in to read more about the conversational sales approach.