November 2003

When patients say 'no'

by Dr. Kevin Pallis and Dr. Ed Plentz

What do you do when your patients refuse to follow your recommendations?

If you're like most D.C.s, you do a predictable mental exercise. You rationalize that there are more patients where "they" came from, so you continue to work on your marketing skills rather than your communication skills ‑‑ a new screening, a new giveaway, a new promotion, etc.

Yet, by not developing your communication skills, you are sentenced to a career of high pressure, low return selling. When you do not possess communication skills, you'll score some new patients, however, they have little respect for you or your office, they force you to be completely dependant on third party pay, and they won't stay.

Isn't it about time we as a profession start learning to communicate the whole truth of chiropractic? Isn't it about time we create the public image that unites symptomatic care and wellness?

The public consciousness has already spoken on the subject of wellness, choosing wellness over disease and prevention over treatment. The longer we as a profession ‑‑ as well individual practicing D.C.s ‑‑ fail to recognize the penalties of selling short‑term care chiropractic, the more our image will be jaded and tainted in the public mind.

Welcome to the new renaissance of communicating to patients. It's more like two friends talking, with one friend knowing about a concept and the other eagerly listening and trusting while taking all the new information in.

Most chiropractic interactions are similar to two people on a walkie‑talkie with both pushing the "talk" button at the same time. They're not listening to each other. Instead, they're busy thinking up a rebuttal to make themselves right. Another waste of time since neither person gets anything out of the interaction besides frustration. What a shame.

When you understand the mechanics of communication you will realize that there are several reasons why patients balk at your recommendations.

First of all, there are three categories of patients: wellness, condition based, and pain in your derriere. Once you've grasped the mechanics of verbal and non‑verbal communication, you realize that there is no changing people. The art is in attracting people who are going in your direction, and creating an office environment and office procedures that include condition‑based care and wellness.

The second reason your patients don't accept your recommendations is that your exam does not reflect the seriousness of the VSC. Since birth patients have accumulated multiple layers of uncorrected spinal injury that has healed wrong, weakened their spines, damaged their nerve systems, and lessened their health potential. When you focus on spinal injuries that have healed wrong and not symptoms, you start living in the high country. By definition, to focus on symptoms is self‑defeating. When symptoms are gone, so are patients. If you don't relieve their symptoms in a visit or two, you're a bum.

There are so many ways to lessen symptoms ‑‑ drugs, surgery, therapy, herbs, etc., the list is as long as the imaginations of men and women. You must stand in line and in competition with all these practitioners. If you don't deliver the goods (symptom relief), patients will find someone who will. This results in the typical leaky bucket, low‑ patient‑visit average, high‑stress practice. The more this happens in your office, the further away the practice of your dreams fades, until it's just an illusion.

When you're a treater of symptoms, only YOU are clinging to a burning ship. The days of waiting for illness to manifest itself in order to "cure" it are over ‑‑ at last! There are millions of patients searching for someone with the certainty to tell them what they know deep in their hearts to be true. It took time to damage their spines and nerve systems and it's going to take time to correct that damage.

Another real life example of this way of thinking is in the world of fitness. There are people (millions of them) who know that in order to have sculpted bodies you need to put in a constant input over a period of time. There are no shortcuts. Then there is the burning ship of people who resort to liposuction, steroids, growth hormone ‑‑ those who will do anything to get short‑term results even at the expense of their own lives. They don't consider the future and don't care. They want results instantly. They are not your patients.

Every time you have a short‑term patient you are emphasizing a deadly form of existence. Get back on track today so your patients say "yes" to your recommendations and thank you for being truthful.

(The New Renaissance ‑‑ the next generation of office procedure, chiropractic mindset for success, and patient education for today's chiropractor ‑‑ is a complete system of practice based on science and philosophy working on the doctor from inside out. To learn more about The New Renaissance, and the Mentor IV Practice Development Program that takes 24 years of the pioneering experience of Renaissance procedures and combines it with the practical daily activities of doctors in the field, contact Dr. Kevin Pallis at 781/255‑7080, Dr. Ed Plentz at 517/592‑8208, or the New Renaissance world headquarters 800/525‑3879.)