Kats Chiropractic Consultants CHIROpulse

207 The Struggle to Manage a Busy Practice and Patients Too

• Marisa Mateja

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Welcome to the KC CHIROpulse Podcast.  

This week’s topic:   The Struggle to Manage a Busy Practice and Patients Too

The KC CHIROpulse Podcast is designed for Chiropractic professionals ready to elevate their practice to new heights, and is hosted by Kats Consultants CEO Dr Michael Perusich and Dr Kelly Fredricks.  Michael and Kelly are both seasoned experts in Chiropractic business development.  This podcast provides invaluable insights and actionable strategies to help you create a flourishing and sustainable Chiropractic business.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • What is happening in your chiropractic business while you are busy seeing patients
  • How do we successfully manage both sides of the practice
  • The ever increasing importance of staff development
  • Why you needs someone holding you accountable
  • …and so much more…

In each episode of KC CHIROpulse, we delve into crucial aspects of building a successful Chiropractic practice, covering topics such as establishing a strong foundation, adopting a patient-centric approach, mastering marketing techniques, achieving financial fitness, fostering effective team building and leadership, integrating technology and innovation, and navigating common challenges in the field.

Whether you're a seasoned chiropractor or just starting your practice, the KC CHIROpulse Podcast offers a wealth of knowledge and personalized practical advice to help you navigate the intricate world of Chiropractic business. Join us on this journey as we explore proven strategies, share success stories, and connect with industry experts to empower you in your pursuit of building a thriving Chiropractic practice.

Don't miss out on the latest insights and expert guidance. Subscribe now and unlock the secrets to taking your Chiropractic practice to the next level. Your success is our priority at Kats Chiropractic Business Advisors.

DISCLAIMER:  The information presented in this broadcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to offer legal, investment, accounting, or medical advice, and represents the opinions of the speakers.  Seek the consultation of a professional for advice in those areas. And remember…your results using this information may be different than described.

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KC CHIROpulse Podcast. Helping Chiropractors keep their pulse on success. Thanks for listening.



Dr. Michael Perusich:

doctors, do you struggle trying to give patients great care and managing a busy practice at the same time? Hi everybody. Welcome to the KC Chiro Pulse Podcast, brought to you by Kats Consultants in Chiro Health USA. I'm Dr. Michael Perusich. I'm your host, and I'm joined with my guest host, Dr. Kelly Fredricks. Kelly, this is something we both know a little bit about,

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

a little bit. Yes,

Dr. Michael Perusich:

deliver great patient care, but at the same time, we know that going on behind us is this whirlwind of a busy practice. That requires business management. How do we manage it?

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Very carefully. It's funny that we're talking about this today'cause I, I literally just finished my morning shift and I had two people in my adjusting room. I had two people waiting and all of a sudden, here comes my assistant. She says, the cleaning company is here to talk to you. And I'm like, great, great timing, right? Like how am I supposed to do this? And I'm like, Hey, go get Christie. Christie's, my office manager. Let Christie talk to her. Christie had just left to go to the bank, so Christie's not here to talk to them, and I really needed to talk to them. So thankfully my sweet patient, she says, I'm okay. I can sit here for a little bit. Why don't you go talk to them? So I went.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

It's always a constant juggle though. There's always something happening like that, whether it's a, a behind the scenes emergency, an accountant calls and you gotta talk to'em real quick. Or the radiologist. Yes. Or you know, some vendor walks in and needs your attention for a couple of minutes.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Yes.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

You know, and one of the ways that that. I found success in managing those kind of things was, and you kind of just hit on this a little bit, is making sure I had people I could delegate to.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

A hundred percent. Yes. Yeah. You wanna make sure you a, you have that point person, so whether that's your ca or your office manager or whoever is in that day, you want to make sure you have that point person. So that way. When the salespeople come in the door, or when those phone calls come, it goes to that person first instead of them needing to come to you while you're adjusting somebody.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Right. So that delegation's hugely important. Yeah. Part of delegation is giving people the authority to say, Hey, cleaning people, Dr. Fredricks is busy right now with patience, which takes priority.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Yeah.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

And so have a seat, or how can I help you? Or can you come back at a better time when she might not be as busy?

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Just giving your staff that authority to say those kind of things and help manage things behind the scenes for you.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Absolutely, and I think also keeping them abreast too at what's happening, the staff. So for example, in the huddle in the morning, if we're waiting for a phone call for from somebody or we have something that we're working on, making sure that the whole staff knows, Hey, we're accept, we're, we're waiting on a phone call from the banker or. I'm expecting somebody to come in from here, so that way they are as prepared as possible, you know, and, and know how to handle those situations instead of being blindsided and not knowing what to do.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Right? And you'd hate to be waiting on a call from a radiologist about a patient's x-rays at 9:00 AM and then you, you get done at five 30 and your staff says, oh yeah, the radiologist called about nine 15. Did you need to talk to him? And you know, in their mind because they didn't know they were calling. Mm-hmm. They're gonna take a message until you later. So yeah, you have to make sure that you keep your staff plugged into what could be important, that you need to lay eyes or ears on at some point during the day. So. Absolutely, we, we gotta take a quick break. But we're talking about the struggle and it really is kind of a struggle sometimes of managing a busy practice, taking care, great care of your patients, and still making sure that the business whirlwind is running behind the scenes. So we'll continue our discussion. We'll be right back.

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Dr. Michael Perusich:

Alright everybody, welcome back to the KC ChiroPulse Podcast. We are talking about the struggle of managing that busy practice and trying to see patients at the same time. And you know, this is one of those things where the struggle's real.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

It is absolutely real.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Docs out there with busy practices, you know what we're talking about here. And so you have to find this balance between making sure that the. Business behind the scenes is being run properly. Mm-hmm. While you're still able to deliver patient care. And the risk is always that something's gonna fall through the cracks. Either you're gonna neglect patients for a minute or two or too long, or you know, something you really needed to take care of or really needed to happen behind the scenes, didn't get taken care of, so Right. You know, part of that is, and we talked about this already, part of that is delegating some of those duties to our staff.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Yeah. Yes. Part of it I

Dr. Michael Perusich:

think is just planning ahead too.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Yes. I was just gonna say that planning ahead and communicating are really the, the biggest key factors and making sure that, that they know what's important. So getting back to what you were just saying with that phone call, you know, normally we'd tell our staff. We are not taking phone calls during patient care, or if it's salesperson push them off. So communicating what is important and, and. Anticipating what could be happening is, is key too. So planning out for something for, for example, I have another example today. We are having a doula speed dating in our office on Saturday. So we have been talking about this all week because we have things that we need to be preparing for. While patients aren't here on the off times, you know, to get ready for this event. So, but also we've got people walking in the door because the doulas are coming. They need to assess the, the space. They're gonna be planning for these things as well. But this is something that we've had on the books and on the calendar for a while, so. Right. It's something that we've been anticipating, but then also as things happen, we realize, oh my gosh, we forgot this, or we forgot this. So I had to send my office manager out to Dollar Tree to pick up a couple things for a raffle basket that came up this week that we decided we wanted to do. So we do our best. We plan for what is to come, and then you just know that things are gonna happen, things are gonna pop up here and there, and then you just delegate.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

You delegate and you know, yeah, things do pop up, but sometimes they're emergencies. You know, I can tell you a great story about a patient that I had in my practice one time that, that she walked in the front door, she went to the front desk to check in, and she turned to pivot to go sit down and. Her, her femur shattered.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Oh my goodness. Right there

Dr. Michael Perusich:

in the lobby. And you know, so talk about planning. Had we planned for that specific incident? No, but we did have contingency plans in place that we practiced and rehearsed. Yeah. In case something did happen. And so I'm not out there. Obviously I'm back taking care of patients and, but my team is managing this issue. As somebody's coming to get me to come up front and, and help out with the situation. So, you know, I think part of this managing this, this struggle, if you will mm-hmm. Is planning ahead and it's trying to plan as much contingency into things as you can.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Running through scenarios, right? Like as a group discussing what are potential things that could happen and, and things will happen that you're not expecting. And then once that does happen, you better believe our next staff meeting we're having that discussion. I. Okay, this is what happened. What should we have done differently? Is there a new procedure that we need to be putting into place so that way we are prepared for when it happens again or if it ever does happen again.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Sure, sure. And you know, part of management of your business is sometimes things like patient flow. Mm-hmm. And so as the doctor, you're busy, you're head down with patients all day long, who's managing that patient flow. Mm-hmm. So, you know what, if you get off track during the day, you've got a. Emergency patient that comes in and now your patient flow is getting backed up. Who's managing that? Who has that authority to manage it? And when you get done at the end of the day, are you discussing what happened? How could we have done it better?

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Yep, yep. Exactly. We call that person the hostess. So, or host, you know. So we choose, okay, who is for this shift? And we discuss that in the huddles. Who's the host? Who's the hostess for the shift, who's running? You know, running the flow. Who's making sure things are moving? Who's making sure that people are in the right rooms when they need to be, and if something happens, who is that point person?

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Right. Right. You know, and I think too, having staff help manage things is incredibly important. So, you know, what is your staff doing? Doctors, what is your staff doing to help you really manage? So for example, we've all have built in times of the day where we're not seeing patients. Let's take lunchtime for example. Mm-hmm. Now, are we not busy during that time? No. Of course we're busy. We've got notes to catch up on and phone calls to do, and blah, blah, blah. Staff meetings probably from time to time to have and and so forth. But I know when I would come off the patient floor and was getting ready for that downtime during the lunch hour, Marissa would hand me a piece of paper that outlined everything I needed to get done, phone calls, I needed to return meetings, I needed to be in notes I needed to do, you know, whatever it might be. Yeah, she would hand me a list, so. What was great about that was it helped keep me on time and using my time wisely and effectively.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Yeah, definitely.'cause it's hard when you come off shift, you're, you've been in a whirlwind, right? So you kind of, right, whoa, I need to decompress a little bit. And that can take a little bit of time, and then you find out that all of a sudden you just wasted. 10, 15, 20 minutes and you could have been getting a couple things accomplished. So I, I think that's such a great idea that you're just, you're shifting right into to that downtime and knowing what it is that you're moving into next.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah. You can

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

be productive. Yeah. So, and intentional.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah. Well, and that's true. You, you do, you, we use that word a lot around here. You have to be intentional, and part of that intention is knowing that you as the doctor and a busy patient. Load practice are not gonna be able to do everything

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

right.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

So we have to have success partners behind us.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Office managers, great front desk people, you know, all these cogs need to be in place. And so how do we build those people? Well, it's. Team development and I wanna, we gotta take another break, but I wanna come back and I wanna spend a little bit of time on that topic and how it helps us with the struggle of seeing a high patient load and still trying to manage the successful business. So hang in there everybody, we'll be right back.

Kats Consultants:

Kats Chiropractic consultants, your partner in chiropractic success. We are dedicated with one-on-one guidance to bring you all your practice management needs. Let's supercharge your practice. Give us a call today.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Everybody, welcome back to the KC Chiro Pulse podcast. Today we're tackling the tightrope that all of us deal with in our practices and that tightrope is managing a good patient load and managing the practice all at the same time. And Kelly, we just, we just started to dive into this topic of the importance of team development and how that helps us manage both ends of the practice.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Definitely team development is, is key. So making sure that you have time in your month, in your quarter where you're meeting with your team and you're discussing goals, you're discussing, you know, what's silly around here? That's a big thing that we use often. Yep. You know, always good. That too. Yeah. So that way as a team you can come together and then you can figure out. What needs to be done and who is the best person to handle that particular task? And that's what's, that is the key point in team development. Because if you have a person that is an introvert. All of a sudden you're trying to have them help you with some events or some marketing or talking to patients at the front desk. That's probably not the best person to be developing in that role. But if you've got somebody that's an extrovert and they like to do those things, that's the person that you wanna develop into that role. So you need to really dive deep into who you have and what their strengths are so that way you can build a position for them around what needs to be done.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah. And I think as the practice grows too, you have to redevelop and reshift. Mm-hmm. Some duties sometimes. So, you know, part of what's silly around here is, is okay, let's all define who's doing what. Yeah. Even though we may think we know, it's always surprising to write it down on paper and see where we imbalanced a little bit and how can we shift things around to spread the load back out.'cause it, it has a tendency to accumulate. Towards your more impact players Sometimes. Yeah. And so we have to make sure that we, we redistribute so that we keep the team fresh and congruent. Yeah. As well as cross-trained.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Yes, absolutely. Well, because that's so true. It's very easy to pick your go-tos, right? To load them up with your tasks because you know that they can handle that. But then you may have a newer ca that is. Wants to grow and they want to contribute and they want a chance, put me in coach. Right? So right. So writing them out on a big whiteboard or what are, whatever it is that you guys are working on, and you can see who's handling all the load and a lot of times the staff, they'll be overloaded and they won't tell you. We don't think about it because we're just like, we're trying to get to the next thing, right? So we're just like, you do this, you do this, you do that, and then all of a sudden they're overloaded and then they're starting to get a little upset, and then they're starting to get a little burnt out. When, you know, when we set it all out and realize we need to shift some of this to this other person, to this new person and make it more congruent, then everybody's happy.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Right. Exactly. You know, so doctors, if you're listening out there. And, and you've got a busy practice, which I'm sure most of you do. You've got that busy practice and you're trying to manage the entire thing by yourself. I'm telling you right now, you can't do it effectively. You are great at patient care, you're great at managing patient cases. You're probably great at running the business side of the practice too. But you can't do it alone. So we have to develop our, our success partners in the practice. And this is also where sometimes coaching and mentoring can really help you as well, to help kind of be the sounding board or the the, the board of directors, so to speak, just to help provide some oversight and how can we manage this thing better and more efficiently and ultimately more profitably.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Yeah, absolutely. Sometimes you just need that extra voice to, to push you along and to guide you along and be like, it's time, it's time for you to hire somebody else, or it's time for you to allow yourself to delegate that off so that way, so that way you as a doctor can continue to grow in other,

Dr. Michael Perusich:

in other, I think one of the. Exactly. I think one of the problems of being an entrepreneur owning your own business is we have a tendency to push ourselves to the top of the food chain. Mm-hmm. And that actually is a little dangerous because we lose accountability when we do that. So it's always good to have that extra set of eyes looking down on you and making sure. You're not only holding yourself accountable, but you've got somebody truly holding your feet to the fire so that you're constantly pushing yourself. You know, Michael Jordan always said he'd had never been the success he was, had he not had multiple types of coaches. I think if I remember his story right, it was like nine coaches or something that he had.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

You know, so, so even the great ones need a coach. Hundred.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

A hundred percent. A

Dr. Michael Perusich:

hundred percent. So go check us out at katsconsultants.com. See all the great things that we're doing to help our clients and help the profession develop not only practices that are busy and seeing lots and lots of people, and taking lots of great care of all those great spines out there, but also managing their practice so it's profitable and fun, and not just pushing you under and burning you out.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks:

Yes, yes. Not just the grind. We gotta have a good time.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Right. Absolutely. Alright everybody, thanks for tuning in today to the KC Chiro Pulse Podcast. On behalf of all of us here at Kats Consultants and Chiro Health USA, we thank everybody for tuning in. We'll see you next time.