Patient education is vital to retention, as people have been raised within a medical environment with the belief, "When you're free of symptoms, you're healthy." When people adhere to this belief, once they're out of pain, they will no longer recognize the need for care and drop out.

Patients will not follow through with your recommendations unless they recognize the value of care and can see firsthand, what impact the treatment is having on their health. Likewise, you won't know what type of recommendation to make unless you know the magnitude of their problem and can estimate what is needed to correct it. You have to have confidence in what you do in order to recommend the plan a patient really needs.

You not only have to educate patients so they understand chiropractic, but you also need to educate yourself about every patient under your care. You can't simply rely on what patients initially say is their problem, you need to probe further until you know what other troubles they are having and what falls and accidents happened to cause the symptoms they face today.

Recognize that each patient is going to be different, even if he or she has similar symptoms. One patient may only need 15 visits to correct a problem, while for another, it could take 25.

Many patients will walk into your office with the "Can you fix me today?" mentality. These people will only consider care while they're in pain. You need to know how to shift their viewpoint so they understand chiropractic and adhere to your recommended treatment program.

How does this happen?

First, a thorough consultation is needed. Be sure to address negative misconceptions about chiropractic and educate the patient as to how chiropractic can help his or her health problems.

Once patients see that chiropractic can improve their overall health and well-being and that it may be able to improve a health concern they've "lived with" for years, you have just doubled your value to them and at this point you have increased their commitment -- which will increase patient retention and expand your practice.

Also, take the time to have each patient explain every accident, tumble or fall he or she ever had and demonstrate how the trauma of an early accident can weaken a specific area of the body, and trigger problems later on in life.

Building a health history will allow patients to realize just how long their body has "lived with" their problem. This will make them more willing to accept that correction isn't going to happen overnight, that they may have to continue treatment for another 20 visits or more.

When they recognize they have a problem that's going to take some time to correct, you are halfway toward getting them committed to a corrective care program.

This can be done by asking, "How old did you think you would be before you feel the way you feel now?" In other words, how old do they feel? This gets them to realize how significant the problem is and makes them willing to commit to care.

Then comes the "missing link" to getting a patient to commit. You have to give your patients a new way to know that their body is healthy. They must be able to see for themselves that they're making progress in order for them to continue with treatment. Chart their progress and let them see the results firsthand.

This is an easy procedure. In the beginning of care, create a graph for each patient and chart the results of tests such as range of motion. Evaluate progress after every 12 visits so that you and patients know where they stand in their treatment program. This not only shows them how chiropractic is working, but will also increase your clinical certainty so that you are more confident in recommending long-term plans and will certainly double your retention.