Do you have a successful “specialty” treatment program?
I like Specialty Treatment programs! From a marketing perspective, they are excellent tools. They effectively target a VERY specific audience. They are relatively easy to promote and are often associated with a very large support group from which to attract referrals.
Perhaps you invested in our AcupunctureWeight Loss Program last month? This blog is Part I of a two-part series that will help you improve the Patient Retention rate of whatever program you offer.
The only drawback to these programs is that they end. Programs like those listed below are traditionally marketed and treated for a fixed time period. They have a beginning and an end.
These are all great programs but unfortunately, they come to an end…which means the income stops…and we have to go out and find new patients all over again!
How to transition participants from a specialty program to Recovery or Preventative care.
Ask yourself: What do my patients REALLY want?
According to Abraham Maslow’s Heirarchy of Human Needs theory, he suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher level needs.
Maslow wanted to understand what motivates people. He stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfill the next one, and so on. This five-stage model can be divided into basic needs and growth needs.
The basic needs motivate behavior when they are unmet. The need to fulfill such needs will become stronger the longer they are denied. For example, the longer a person goes without food the more hungry they will become.
We must satisfy lower level basic needs before progressing on to meet higher level growth needs. Once these needs have been satisfied, we may be able to reach the highest level called self-actualization.
What “level” are your patients at when they come to participate in your specialty program?
If they are in pain, they are clearly at the bottom level. Nothing else matters to them more than ending the torture. What about Weight Loss, Infertility or Cosmetic programs? These aren’t as easy to determine are they?
A Weight Loss participant could be at level 1, 2 3 or 4! If their excess weight prohibits sex, or adequate sleep (level 1). Their weight may affect their job or family (level 2). Perhaps they’re seeking better friendships, family relations or intimacy and believe losing weight will provide that (level 3). It’s possible they are fulfilled on all lower level needs and they now see mastery of their body as one of the final steps in self actualization (level 4 or 5).
Be assured that, in doing this analysis, you are not judging or labeling your patient, rather you are searching for their inner motivations. Knowing WHY your participants come to you is important to helping them make the transition to Recovery care and progress on to Preventative Care.
Now that you’re thinking about your patients’ unspoken needs…
I want to share with you a pattern I’ve noticed as I’ve worked with practitioners and hundreds of patients.
Once a patient’s primary problem is resolved, they appear to have a dramatic personality shift. In reality, they are simply returning to their prior stage of progression. Take a look at the pyramid to the right.
A patient might be coming to see you for an inability to sleep (level 1). While their progression in life is actually at level 4. Once their problem is fixed, ALL of their motivations return to the prior level; like a bungy cord snapping back after being stretched!
Once you understand this concept, you can create a tailored system of information delivery that reaches your participants at their ACTUAL level of personal progression.
For example, compare how different the following emails would read.
• Example 1: an email explaining how continued care will improve the security of their job, home and family. (level 2) • Example 2: an email explaining how continued care will improve their confidence, help them reach their goals and command the respect of others. (level 4)
In the examples above, each email is targeted to patients at different levels of progression. If you’ve properly targeted the message, it WILL resonate with them and motivate them to act.
Planting Seeds
As you get to know your program participants during the initial orientation, collect the necessary information for the NEXT stage of their progression, and begin the teaching process.
For example, if you’re running a Biggest Loser competition, you’ll want to take Height, Weight, Circumference, Body fat and AcuGraph measurements. The first 4 measures are specific to the weight loss program and should be measured once a week.
You’ll also want to perform an AcuGraph exam every visit. The participants will look forward to seeing their improvement. They will subconsciously come to measure their health by the improvement of their meridians, not by their body fat percentage or weight.
Different measures would apply to each unique program. For example, Stop Smoking participants would report to the group and receive recognition, Pain Relief participants would fill out a Pain Intensity survey, Infertility patients would turn in a body temperature log…etc.
Regardless which program you are running, performing an AcuGraph exam each visit will give them a new, enduring measure of health.
Give the participants something to identify potential problems that may hinder their progress. You want the participant to start thinking about more than the short-term goals of the program. AcuGraph reports create a new measure of health, apart from the goals of the Specialty program.
Today let’s bring together the patient retention principals talked about in my blog Patient Retention – Part I and demonstrate how the AcuGraph exam can serve as the bridge to move your specialty program participants to regular care.
Let’s assume you’ve done your target marketing and have a group of new specialty program clients coming in your door. They are hoping you can quickly fix this particular problem and then they’ll be DONE!
Patients want to believe they’ll be better in no time, even if they’ve been fighting the problem for years. Does anyone believe the ads that claim “Rock hard Abs in 6 minutes a day?” Logically no, however, the quick-fix message resonates with us, or marketers wouldn’t keep using it.
The point is…people don’t want to hear that regaining their health takes time and a lot of careful work. You have to give them a little time before they’ll accept this truth. Focus on one month at a time and begin the teaching process along with their treatments.
You want to educate your new clients to understand that caring for their health is ongoing. They will have many conditions that surface as you care for them. Some may have occurred many years ago and are long forgotten.
Take half an hour during the initial AcuGraph exam to discuss each patient’s graph. Click on the deficient, split or excess meridian. A picture will pop up that shows the channel. Ask what happened to them in the past that would create this situation. As you describe events that could cause such a result you will be surprised by the stories of old injuries, surgeries, or chronic problems! (see box below)
It never occurred to them that an old injury could still be plaguing them. You can give them proof through the graph!
When the channel is pink or split, it means the energy is out of balance. Start with either the high or low side and ask them what might be the cause. I was conducting a training exam and I asked this question. The patient surprised me when she said she had a ruptured breast implant! Sure enough, the channel on the ruptured side was excessive.
Her body was working hard to cope with the rupture..and AcuGraph found it!
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Take good notes about the conditions and ailments as they describe them. Maybe even print the graph and meridian channels and make notes on each one. This will become a great reference in a few months when the symptoms now bothering them daily, will have disappeared and been forgotten.
After about a month of treatment, have another sit down and go through the graph again. It shouldn’t take 30 minutes this time; maybe 15 or 20 because they understand the purpose. There will be changes and you can explain that acupuncture has created these changes and begun the healing process.
At this time discuss any RECENT activities that may have affected the graph. This will help them understand that daily activities, bumps, bruises, displacements, etc can impact their long-term health because of internal, unseen, effects.
Help them understand the need for ongoing treatment to keep them at their peak. Just like regular maintenance to a car, regular maintenance of energy meridians can prevent problems that might develop into far worse conditions.
Talk about their PIE score and how it has changed since the first visit. Set a goal for what score they’d like to achieve and maintain. Then discuss a plan to help them reach that goal.
You are planting the seeds with each patient to transition them from an Acute care to Recovery care and finally to Preventative care.
When you begin each session with an AcuGraph exam, it creates an opportunity for the patient to open up and share. It is an opportunity for you to teach how the Meridians are impacted by musculoskeletal problems. Teach how Qi is delivered to the organs and how emotions affect and are affected by this energy flow.
As your participants learn these things, they come to understand that success is possible. That the road back to vibrant health isn’t easy…but it’s worth it!
They feel HOPE again…for the first time in years!
Help your program participants transition to long-term patients. Utilize the AcuGraph every session. As they learn about Meridians and the flow of Qi, they’ll come to understand and appreciate all that you do…and your practice will grow.
Ideally, monthly wellness treatments account for 40% of your patient visits. The teaching process previously outlined, using the AcuGraph, will help you hang onto those patients because they will understand the value of the services you provide.
If someone leaves after recovery, invite her back after 3 months for a free AcuGraph checkup exam to compare her PIE score. If it has dropped, (and it likely will without regular treatment) reiterate the importance of frequent treatments.
The AcuGraph makes the transition from Specialty Program patients to full-time patients smooth and natural.
For 20 years, Alan worked in the corporate world as a director of sales and marketing. He made a career change in 2003, returning to complete his Masters degree in Exercise and Wellness from Arizona State University. As a marketer and Exercise Physiologist, Alan spent the next four years working with Healthcare practitioners to increase patient volume, satisfaction and retention. He now works directly with clients of Miridia Technology to promote their practice and patient experience. In addition to English, he is fluent in Spanish and assists in developing our Latin-market presence.
View all posts by Alan Gifford MS, Practice Coach
One Reply to “Patient Retention: Keeping Your Practice Full”
One Reply to “Patient Retention: Keeping Your Practice Full”