To have a thriving practice, you must have patients. While it is great to get new patients, it is important to focus on retaining established patients, too. If you create loyal patients, they not only return to your office for appointments, but they promote your practice to their friends and family which is great for business.

All healthcare professionals like to receive positive online reviews. It’s a great way to let people know about you and the exceptional care you provide. Which, in turn, can help send new patients your way. 

Patients are important for chiropractors. They allow the chiropractor to keep a steady stream of new patients and inject meaning into their practice as they help relieve symptoms for individuals in their community. Of course, patients also keep the clinic running profitably and allow the clinic to expand patient services. Retaining patients is important, too, for gauging success metrics like patient satisfaction and referral sources.

The Need for Fairness in Healthcare
In a perfect world, healthcare access and provision would be fair for all people, regardless of ethnicity, race, religion, gender, socioeconomic status, geographic location, language, age, disability, and other variables. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. To help address disparities in healthcare and improve patient outcomes, here is some guidance for practicing patient-centered and culturally competent healthcare. 

You may have staffed your practice with well-qualified people, but now they need proper training to understand your practice and its culture, their role within your practice, your policies and procedures, patient population, state and federal requirements such as HIPAA and OSHA, and other office practices. (If you need help with hiring, read our blog article, “Hiring the Best Staff for Your Practice”!)

To provide the best care for your patients and run an office practice, you need help. You need a staff that reflects your values, fits in with your office culture, increases the efficiency of your practice, and helps maintain a positive working environment.

Therefore, it is crucial to hire staff that are well qualified for their respective positions, can work effectively as part of a team, and adapt to the dynamic nature of a chiropractic medical office. They must be able to effectively communicate with patients, families, other members of your healthcare team, other healthcare professionals, and foster relationships with all these various parties. Staff members should be customer service-oriented, dependable, friendly, compassionate, flexible, able to manage conflicts, willing to learn, and deeply committed to patient privacy.

A patient suffers cardiac arrest while waiting in the exam room. An elderly visitor falls in the waiting room, is complaining of leg pain and is unable to get up. A diabetic staff member passes out from hypoglycemia. These are just a few examples of unexpected medical emergencies that could happen in a medical office.

Start with Informed Consent
As a practitioner, you use your knowledge, experience, and medical judgment to determine the best course of treatment for your patient. However, adult patients (and those having decision-making authority for others) have the right to choose to follow or refuse to follow your treatment plan. When a patient refuses a necessary treatment, what can practitioners do to protect themselves and their patients?

If you’re thinking about retirement, it’s prudent to start planning well in advance. If you are a solo practitioner, will you sell or wind down your practice? If you are in a group practice or employed, what are your obligations regarding providing notice of retirement? What are your state licensing board’s requirements regarding retirement? How will you retain your medical and business records? How will you notify your staff and patients of your plan to retire? What do your contracts with health insurers require when you retire from practice? Do you need to purchase professional liability insurance “tail coverage”? 

Review all contracts pertaining to your practice and consider seeking the advice of an attorney who specializes in business and/or healthcare law, your professional liability insurance carrier, your state board, and your state association for advice regarding these questions and the many other issues that arise in the retirement process. 

Here, we will discuss a few issues related to retirement from a risk management perspective.