3 Big Hindrances to Chiropractic Referrals | Podcast Ep. 42

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Hello, welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. This week we are going to switch it up just a little bit. We are going to dive into a little bit of chiropractic marketing. The spin on it is that we're going to look at a little bit of research behind chiropractic marketing. Specifically, we're gonna talk about the three big hindrances to chiropractic referrals. So if you are like a vast majority of chiropractors out there, you certainly could use more patients. We are all looking to grow and develop our businesses as time goes on. The number one way to do that as a healthcare practitioner is through referrals. So today we're gonna focus on one aspect of that. We are not going to focus on patient referrals, but we are going to focus on interdisciplinary referrals. Also. Before we dive into the three big hindrances to chiropractic referrals, this upcoming Thursday, in just a few days, I'm going to be hosting a live webinar event. It is free and it is the five secrets to MD referrals. So if you'd like to right now go to the evidencebasedchiropractor.com on the front page you will see a link to save your seat. There are only a limited amount of slots available for this webinar and if you are interested in learning the five secrets to MD referrals, please go to the evidencebasedchiropractor.com directly after listening to this podcast, click reserve your seat and you will get registered for that event. There will be a live Q and A as well. So today we are gonna touch on the three big hindrances to chiropractic referrals. And, and really what we want to get to the heart of are what are the limiting factors that are preventing other physicians from sending patients into your practice? I know if you are like a majority of chiropractors, you may have visited an md, spoke with an MD and just not got the result that you desired and you felt as though it may have been a waste of time. I would say it wasn't, but you probably just didn't have the tools or the plan necessary to build that bridge and to build that relationship. On a different episode, we'll touch on really using the Socratic method to dive into how you can bring value and best Suit your practice to their practice. But today we're going to focus on kind of the second half of that equation, which are, what are the questions that they have in their mind that are preventing them from sending patients into your clinic? And often if you go in and you give your whole spiel on chiropractic care and how wonderful your office is, which I'm sure it is, and at the end you say, do you have any questions? The doctor might look at you with a blank stare or say, no, not really, not at this time. And that's not what you want. You really want to engage that other physician in terms of understanding where they're at in their practice, but then also proactively address those three big hindrances, the three hindrances themselves. Number one, it's communication. They're scared that if they send a patient to you, especially as a primary care doctor, if they send their patient to you, they are not going to know what's going on with that patient. The research shows us the communication between primary care physicians and chiropractors is very poor. So we often don't know the treatment that the patient's getting in their primary care doctor's office except when the patient tells us. And the same can be said of that primary care physician. They don't know what's going on in our office unless the patient tells them. So we want to establish proper communication, number one. Number two is we want to ensure that that physician knows we want to work together. We're not going to quote, unquote, steal their patient. The days of the AMA versus chiropractic are long since passed, but there still remains a little bit of cloud as far as many doctors are scared, especially if they're not intimately familiar with your practice, they can be a little bit apprehensive because they don't know where you stand unless you tell them. So many doctors of all types, all kinds, all are fearful of a patient not going back into their office because they were told something else somewhere else. So that is a huge concern and a huge hindrance to chiropractic referral. The other thing that they are very interested in is the initial treatment plan. They're scared and they've heard many things and I am for whatever you want to do if it's in the best interest of your patient. However, there are many doctors out there that are scared or fearful and of that long term treatment plan. So if they refer a patient over and that patient is prescribed, let's say six months, eight months, one year, worth of care on that first visit, you might have great justification due to the chronic nature of that patient's complaints. However, when that gets translated through the patient back to that provider, it seems suspect as at best. So the big three hindrances to chiropractic referrals from a primary care perspective are a lack of communication, a lack of understanding of working together and the treatment plan duration. The best way undoubtedly to go about quenching or calming those fears in my opinion and through the hundreds of chiropractors that have worked with the evidence based chiropractor is, is to address them in a proactive fashion. And here's what I mean by that. After I go through the Socratic method, I understand after speaking with that MD that do I understand where I can bring value to them, value to their patients. That's when I'll make a proactive statement regarding those three items. Here's what that looks like. Often what I will say is, hey Doc, for our referral partners in town, I want you to know that we find the research supports when chiropractors and MDs work together, the patients achieve the best results. With that, we're going to make sure we keep you informed with case notes on the patient progress in our office. And also everybody starts out with an initial trial course of care to make sure we are hitting our goals and expectations as dictated in that evaluation note. So you can see right there, I touched on all three items in a proactive fashion. I let them know that the patient's going to have an initial trial course of care and that initial trial course of care is going to be well documented or well dictated in that evaluation case note that they will be receiving. So I'm letting them know there's going to be communication. I'm letting them know we're going to start small and make sure that we're achieving the goals or expectations that that we desire. I started it by letting them know that I intend on working together. So I'm putting the branch out there and basically informing them in a subtle way that I'm not about taking their patient, I'm about working together and co managing the patients that we have for the betterment of their health care. And at the very top of that sentence I started by saying with our referral partners in town. So that's just again a subtle way to show social proof that you already have referral partners in town, you're working with other physicians and you're used to how they want to communicate and you know what will get the best communication, the best patient care, and ultimately the best coordination of care between your offices. And when that's accomplished, the patient is absolutely going to have the best outcomes possible. So these are just a few tips that you can use the next time that you go in for your MD meeting. One of the other things that we talk about frequently with members of the evidence based chiropractor are the three legs of the stool. And really those three legs of the stool to MD referrals are the case notes. The monthly research is absolutely crucial as well as that MD meeting. So all of these avenues have different branches by which you can use subtle clues, techniques and value add to make sure that you're building that relationship in the most effective fashion possible. But specifically with that MD meeting at the end of it, addressing the three big hindrances to chiropractic referrals will go a long way towards bolstering your referral relationships. Furthermore, it also helps position your practice in terms of where you how you go about things, what you do and and what patients can expect when they come into your office. All of these items go a long way towards forging long term referral relationships. So I thank you for tuning in to this week. Also, as we touched on at the top, I am hosting a live webinar this Thursday, the five Secrets to MD Referrals. You do not want to miss it. It is free, it will have a Q and A and and it is gonna be fantastic. I already have a bunch of docs signed up and there are a few seats still available online. So once you finish this podcast Momentarily please visit theevidencebasedchiropractor.com and on the COVID page you will see a small button that says Save my Seat. Click there Save your seat and I will talk to you soon.

We appreciate you joining us for this episode of the Evidence Based Chiropractor. Learn more tips for explosive pract development@the evidencebasedchiropractor.com youm can also join the Premier MD monthly membership, enabling you to use what you just heard to maximize results in your office. We look forward to providing you with more dynamic communication tools for immediate growth right here on the Evidence Based Chiropractor.