This is a YouTube video titled "How to get busy by turning patients away" published on October 9, 2023. It features a single speaker, Chris, sharing advice on building a successful chiropractic practice by referring patients to other specialists when appropriate. The video includes a detailed story illustrating how referring a patient to an acupuncturist led to better health outcomes and strengthened the practice's reputation. The content focuses on practitioner mindset and communication strategies in healthcare.
Hey, it's Chris. Today's video is a little counterintuitive. I wanted to share one of the things that I found has really, really helped build our reputation in the area over time. It's one of the things that I credit a lot of our successes of practice to, and one of the reasons why we get such great results with patients and that is that over time I've got quicker and quicker at turning patients away. And although that sounds counterintuitive, I'm going to illustrate it with this story. This was somebody, they came to see me last week, actually, and I've known them for a long, long time. They came to see me last year, actually, going back a little bit. And, you know, they came in to get their neck loosened out. They had some recurrent neck issues, but they were asking about other things as well. They were saying, well, I know you're, like, really into nutrition and diet and things, and I've had some, like, digestive issues going on and some other health things. They're like, you know, they had a few things going on for a while and they were going, what do you think I should do? Could you recommend. There are certain supplements I should take. Do you think I should change my diet around a little bit? And we know each other a long time. They knew this is a particular interest of mine. And I was chatting to them and because I'd known them while I knew they had these other health things going on, and I was thinking, yeah, I could probably help. Like, I've got some ideas, some things I could do. But what I also thought was, actually, they reminded me of a few cases that I'd seen acupuncturists in the area get great results with somebody who I've worked with on a number of cases there. I said, you know what? Like, I think I can help. I've got some ideas and I'm happy to share them with you. But if I were you, I would go see Dan, because I don't know what it is, but I've seen him get really great results with some cases like this. He'll let you know if he can help or not. The nice thing is he's got a medical degree as well. He worked in A and E for 10 years, so he's got like the traditional Chinese, holistic, Eastern approach and he's got the Western medical approach as well. But I said, go chat to Dan. I think he might be able to help you a bit more with some of this stuff. And, you know, that's the end. And I followed up with an email saying, here's Dan's details, let them know I'm happy to chat to him if you want. And then didn't hear from them a while. And then they came in last week again just for a bit of a loose note for their neck, but they came in with a big bunch of flowers and a lovely bottle of wine and they were so, so grateful to me for having made that referral. Because what it turned out had happened is they'd gone to see this acupuncturist, Dan. He had pointed out during the history that all these different things they had that were going on over the years that were all connected from a traditional acupuncture point of view. I don't fully understand it, but to him, he's like, yep, that makes sense. And she was saying, he was asking if I had this. I was going, yeah, and said, oh, have you also got that? She's like, I'm going, yeah. How did he know that? How did he know to ask those questions? She was really impressed with that. And at the end of it, he said, look, this is coming from a medication that you're taking, that this medication, you have every side effect from it and they all affect this particular system within acupuncture, and this is why that's going on. And he said to her, I'll give you some treatment today as you're here, but I don't want to see you again unless you're prepared to try coming off that medication with medical supervision. You know, make sure your GP's on board. You know, don't do this on your own, but if you're not going to come off that, I don't really think I can help. And that gave her the kick to go, wow, you know what? She was considering surgery to deal with what were actually side effects from this medication. And she did. She went to a GP and they created a plan and she's been off this medication for about six months and came into me saying, I've never felt so good, I don't need that surgery. You know, all these other things I never would have known were connected to this. And she said, I never would have known this guy existed. I never would have got this help and felt so good if you hadn't recommended that I see him. So thank you. You know, have this flowers and this wine for me. And was getting a little emotional at one point, was really, really grateful. And this is the lovely thing, when you actually send somebody away to somebody who can help them, you get the credit. Some of my best referrers in the area are people who I never treated, but there are people who I said, I think I might be able to help with some of this, but I think this person can help you more. I would recommend starting with them and if they can't help you or they're not the right person, by all means come on back. But often it's the people who never come back who end up leaving lovely reviews and testimonials and end up sending everybody they know to me, even though I couldn't help them and this other person could help them more. So I thought I'd share that because it sounds a bit counterintuitive, but I found the more we've done that, the more, the better the reputation our practice has got and the more referrals we have from that and also the better results a lot of these people have got. I no longer feel like I have to be the one trying to fix all of them. I'm going to follow up with this with another video next week for another strategy where you don't necessarily have to send them out to people, but how to work with people and co manage in a way that adds so much value because it's a concept that's completely missing from the chronic pain world, from the MSK world, and it's really not that hard to do. And I think us as chiropractors are uniquely placed to be able to do this so well. So I'll share that with you next week. Any questions? As always, drop me an email. Otherwise I'll see you soon.
