Early Patient Attrition - How To Detect And Handle

"Where does the time go?"

If you're like me, you're constantly asking yourself this question. It seems like the hours, days, and weeks fly by so quickly - leaving little time to accomplish what we want (or need) to do.

One of the oldest "time management" tips is to simply track your time, much as you'd track your business expenses.

Of course, this is a time consuming task in and of itself, and I rarely recommend it - but the principle behind it is very useful.

Instead of tracking each minute, let's instead look at WHAT you spend your time on. And, to make it easier, we'll just look at how you spend time with your patients.

The "Patient / Time" cycle

Take a second and answer the following 2 questions. Take as much time as you need:

How much time does it take you to see a patient on their 50th treatment?
How much time does it take you to see a patient on their first treatment?

You didn't have to think about it at all, did you? Of course you spend a LOT more time with a patient during their first few visits, than you do after they've had dozens of visits with you.

Now, let me ask you 3 more followup questions.

How much revenue do you generate spending an hour with a new patient?
How much revenue do you generate spending an hour with existing patients?
Who is more likely to come in for a future visit, the patient with 50 visits, or the patient who's on their first visit?

The necessary evil of front loading

If you're like most of my clients, your answers to those questions are something like this:

"I'll generate a LOT more revenue per hour by spending time with patients who have been in dozens of time before, and those are the patients who are likely to continue their treatment with me."

So, if you generate more revenue by spending your time with existing patients, and you're more certain they'll continue to be members of your practice, then why in the world would you spend so much time up front with new patients?

Well, that's simple, right? Because you have to.

It takes time to assess a new patient. It takes time to answer their questions. It takes time to ensure they understand the treatment course you're recommending.

It takes so much time, in fact, that it's only natural to try to find ways to speed it up. ESPECIALLY if you've scheduled the assessment in the middle of the day, and have a waiting room full of patients to attend to - When that happens, every minute is precious.

And since you'd never dream of cutting time out of the assessment, it has to come from somewhere else. Either in answering their questions, or walking them through the treatment process steps, or in ensuring they understand the importance of following - to the letter - your prescribed course of treatment.

When things get rushed, they don't come back

You've surely heard the old carpenter's saying "Measure twice, cut once." What that's telling us, in far fewer words, is that it's better to take a little more time up front and be SURE we're right, than to make a mistake and be left with a disaster on our hands.

In the case of new patients, the "measuring twice" piece is in making sure you've answered all of their questions, dug deep to see if they had any questions they weren't asking, and made sure they understand the full treatment process.

In other words, they might come in expecting that you can magically "fix" them overnight, but by the time they leave, they'd better be fully disabused of that notion.

The only way you can do this is to help them understand WHAT you're doing, and how it works. To help them understand that in most cases, what brought them in was the result of years, sometimes decades of accumulated problems, and that it'd be impossible to solve that over night.

When these things aren't focused on - when things get rushed, and patients walk out without these understandings - new patients are far less likely to come back.

When new patients don't come back, you've effectively robbed your existing patients of time they could have had with you, and you've robbed yourself of that time. Because there's nothing more frustrating than spending so much time with a patient, and then never seeing them again (well, okay, maybe there is, but it still ranks high on the list!).

Invest the time to secure the patient

So, oddly enough, the way to get the most out of the time you spend with new patients, and the way to generate MORE time for yourself overall, is to spend MORE time with new patients.

When you ensure that every new patient that sees you walks away with a real understanding of what will go into their treatment, you're much more likely to keep them and have them become long term patients. Which means that you don't need to spend so much time with a lot of new patients who will very quickly quit your practice.

Ultimately, of course, this means more scheduled visits in your practice, more long term patients, and a decreased reliance on "new patients" to drive your practices revenues and growth.

It also means you'll have a good answer to the question "Where did all the time go?"

It went to helping new patients see the value in following the prescribed treatment plan, and it went to growing your practice.

Want to learn more?
Time Management is one of the many strategies covered in Real World Growth Strategies for Your Practice an exciting new marketing program for Chiropractors. To find out more e-mail info@svachiro.com.

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Shawn Veltman is a marketing consultant and the creator
of the highly acclaimed Real World Growth Strategies program
for Chiropractors. To find out more, e-mail info@svachiro.com
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