WELCOME TO ICA'S NEW PRACTICE MASTERY WEEKLY HELP LINE. 

This new service is designed to give ICA members important practice management and development information on a regular, practical basis via e-mail, and to support and assist all DCs in the complicated task of building a successful practice.  Some of the best minds in chiropractic are volunteering their time to help you through this program because we at the ICA believe in YOUR FUTURE and are committed to YOUR success.  Over the next 52 weeks, questions ranging from how to finance a new practice to how to obtain a Medicare provider number will be addressed.  We hope you find this information helpful and we look forward to your input and feedback so we can better address the issues on which YOU are most in need of information.    We have chosen a very basic question for this inaugural edition.  We hope you find today's communication and the on-going program useful and interesting.  OUR GOAL IS TO HELP!

 

Yours in Chiropractic,

Patricia G. Gayman, DC

ICA Practice Mastery Committee Chair 

 

 

Q:  What are the essential qualities of a successful chiropractor?

 

A:  Who you are and how you show up are the most important factors.

 

You have graduated from chiropractic college with a great education, been tested (ad infinitum), licensed, and have proven through these qualifications that your clinical skills are sufficient. Now, all it takes is work and determination. Every successful chiropractor looks for weaknesses and seeks to turn them into strengths through effort.  If your technique skills are weak, WORK ON THEM! If your business skills are weak, WORK ON THEM! Find a mentor who will work with you.  Do whatever it takes to become fully proficient in the full range of skills you need. The chiropractic profession is a serious, important endeavor through which YOU can change the lives of thousands.  Honor it at all times with your best efforts.

 

Here are some of the important qualities you should consider:

 

1.      CLARITY OF PURPOSE:  A successful practitioner has the energizing benefit of a profound and positive sense of mission.  Why are you in practice? To help and heal, utilizing the unique and powerful science and art of chiropractic.  Patients will see and respond to the totality of your commitment to your profession. Your belief in the power of chiropractic is an important element in the healing process.

 

2.      PASSION FOR CHIROPRACTIC AND FOR SERVING:  Your love of what you do will spark an impressive positive response in your patients.  If you love and believe in chiropractic and project and communicate that love, everyone you come into contact with will recognize that chiropractic has value and is worthy of your dedication and their confidence.

 

3.      GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS:  Decide what you want to share with every patient and work and practice your communications so that you always get right to the heart of your intended message. Avoid confusion by learning to listen and make sure that you answer your patients' questions with clarity, dignity, integrity and in light of their clinical realities.  If you need to research an answer, be honest and tell them so, but always follow through.  Don't be shy about asking patients questions, but always listen and work to understand not just what they say when they answer, but what they mean.  Don't make small talk about the weather or baseball scores.  Tell every patient that you care about them and their health and ask, from the heart, about important matters related to their health and healing needs.

 

4.      CONFIDENCE IN YOUR ABILITY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE THROUGH CHIROPRACTIC:  Every patient has a spine and every patient needs spine care.  Only the doctor of chiropractic is trained and qualified to correct subluxations.  Honor your science and apply your unique talents with all the clinical skill and knowledge you can, but give them the added healing benefit of your belief in what you're doing. However, never make promises or give false hope -- but share the chiropractic story with confidence and pride because the record of chiropractic is so compelling that you can have that confidence on the basis of over one-hundred years of life changing success stories.  

 

5.      FOCUS:  Be with every patient one-hundred percent.  Give every patient your undivided attention, even if you are only with them a few minutes.  Make sure that every patient leaves your office knowing that they had your complete attention, with no distractions or disruptions.  Plan your office operations with this important goal in mind and make no exceptions.

 

 

6.           WILLINGNESS TO LEARN:

a.      marketing.

b.      finances.

c.      personnel management.

d.      office procedures.

 

7.            INVOLVEMENT:  Join and support ICA, support your alma mater, and be involved in your community.  There is strength in numbers and through organizational involvement, you have so many valuable resources available to you.  Use them, but also give back to the profession you have chosen as your life's work.

 

8.            KNOWLEDGE:  Attend seminars, listen to tapes and c.d.'s, read, and stay on purpose.  Chiropractic is a complex science and it deserves your lifelong study.  There are no limits to what you can learn and all new knowledge helps you better serve every patient.