Chiropractic Team Meetings – Staff Meetings – Weekly Huddles. Whatever the name, I assure you that the regularity and importance of these meetings to your chiropractic practice’s well-being should not be underestimated.
Your chiropractic team consists of the chiropractor(s), the Front Desk CA, the business office administrator(s) and the technical CA or patient advocate. You can add any massage therapist or marketing person and even consider your accountant, attorney and insurance advisors, if you want.
Regular Team Meetings only include the personnel who work in the office on a daily basis. My experience tells me that Mondays are far and away the best day to hold the meetings – it is the start of the week, everyone is rested, the energy is higher and you get the balance of the week to take action on what was discussed and found to be important.
Meeting should be restricted to one hour. All personnel are not only required to attend, but they are required to be prepared and ready to participate. The head doctor needs to quarterback and lead the meeting and he/she is responsible for setting the Agenda for the day.
In our office, our luncheon break on Monday’s was from 1:00 – 3:00 PM. So considering that patient hours rarely ended exactly on time and the fact that we need a few minutes to refresh before afternoon hours started, we scheduled our meetings from 1:30 – 2:30 (You may modify these times, but you get the idea – right?) We brought in lunch and all ate lightly and quickly just prior to the meeting.
All Team Meetings commence with everyone standing proudly and saying the Daily Affirmation in unison and with energy and excitement. Then the head chiropractor starts off by briefly recapping the past week’s successes and setbacks and giving appropriate acknowledgement when and were it was due.
We always include a review of the weekly and month-to-date practice statistics, paying particular attention to the important stats such as New Patients, Office Visits, Collections, percentage of misses and cancellations and any ATH’s (All Time High records) that may have been set.
Keeping the team informed and up-to-date is ultra-important and chiropractic staff meetings are the best time to fulfill that function. Each meeting needs to allow time for each member of the chiropractic team to report what has been going on in their department. For instance, the Front Desk CA might report on the number of new patients for the week and where they came from – or that the missed or cancellation percentages are better, or that this week’s Monday morning email to all patients drew raves from patients, or that new business cards have been ordered for each CA and that the computerized appointment book is working better.
One by one, each team member reports until the ball gets back to the chiropractor who asks questions, gains clarity, assigns new tasks, suggests new action steps and recaps the meeting.
A unique and interesting part of the team meeting is when the chiropractor briefly discusses a “Patient of the Week” that has made significant progress in their quest for better health. The case is reviewed with doctor providing the team with a sense of the how and why Chiropractic was so valuable to this person and the value of the contributions that each team member makes to the wellness paradigm of the office.
Finally comes the famous "TO DO" list for the next week or the weeks to follow. For instance for this next week it might contain an order to send out 3 thank you notes to patients for whatever reason you can think of – or a reminder to have the x-ray unit services – or to book airline tickets and make hotel reservations for the next Markson Connection Chiropractic Seminar – or to cut the chiropractor’s time 30 seconds with each regular patient visit.
For the future – it might say to start interviewing for another CA starting next month – or to do the research with regard to purchasing a digital x-ray unit (2 months) – or updating the webpage to allow new patients to complete the New Patient Questionnaire and HIPPA Form online before they even arrive at the office.
So use team meetings as a fantastic tool to help you organized and grow your practices.