Chris from Patient Centered Training argues that patients actually do value their health, but healthcare providers often fail to build trust and communicate value effectively. The real problem isn't patient commitment, it's how providers understand and talk to the people they treat.
Hey, guys, it's Chris from Patient Centered Training and today's video. I wanted to challenge some of you a little bit here. This came out of some conversations I had with some colleagues at a seminar on the weekend. And something that I often hear from people quite a lot when they talk about patients not sticking with the plan or following their advice is they'll say, oh, the problem is patients, people just don't value their health. And they're using that to say people aren't prepared to pay for their care. And there's an element of truth to this, particularly in the uk, because we have an NHS system, most people are used to getting health care for free, and quite a few people are just used to feeling that health care should be free. And if you work in the private sector, that's a little bit of a barrier when they're the ones having to pay. However, I would say that if the patient's already walked in your door, they have already committed to investing in their own health because they know that you're not on the nhs. So the patients who come to see you are prepared to pay for their health. So it's not strictly true that those patients who aren't coming back or aren't following the plan just don't value their health. They do because they've already invested in it. What's actually going on a lot of the time is they don't value your proposed solution. They don't see whatever it is that you're offering as valuable enough for them to take you up in care. Often this happens because what we're doing is we're trying to sell them ethically and altruistically and not hard sell, but we're trying to sell them on chiropractic or adjustments or wellness care or the Big Idea, whatever it is. We're trying to logically convince them that we have something that they don't even know they need. And that's incredibly tough. It's incredibly tough. I tried it for years. It really doesn't work that well. Then patients don't value their health becomes the excuse for why they don't do it. A much, much better solution, and one that's changed my practice. Why bang on about it in all these videos is to make it about them. Because if you can find out what it is they really want, and often they don't know that when they walk in, but if you can find that what it is that's missing from their life because of this pain, and then you can connect with them and build trust and rapport and show them a path where working with you to get them from where they are now struggling to where they want to be, achieving their goals. And if they trust you and they believe that you can get them there, they are going to invest in care, I guarantee it. All that's happening when they're not doing it is they feel either that you don't really know how to get them where they want to be, or often you're not trying to get them where they want to be, you're trying to get them somewhere else, or they just don't trust that you've got their best interests at heart. So you need to get over those barriers in order to build that trust and rapport and have patients commit to getting better with your care and actually getting the results that you want to deliver them. So that's what my stuff is all about. That's what communication is all about, really. If you're finding that you're saying this to yourself a lot, it's probably time for a little bit of reflection and maybe think, what could you be doing to change that? Is there some way that you could help demonstrate the value of what you're offering to them in their terms? And if you could improve that, maybe you'd find a lot more patients are suddenly willing to pay for their health. So little bit of a challenge for you guys there. See what you think, you know, have a think about ways, maybe some specific cases where you're not quite sure about it and pop them in the group. You know, if there's somebody you're stuck on or a particular patient, go to patient centered Chiropractors on Facebook, put it in the group, we'll have a discussion about it. But I hope that's helpful for some of you. And any questions, as always, get in touch.
