Doctor's Report: Love and Hate
Is a 30 min DR still the best way to build a practice in 2024?
Whether they are called new patient orientations, lay lectures or doctor's reports (DRs), many large chiropractic practices have been built on the classic Doctor’s Report. Love them or hate them, these 30-minute educational talks and their subsequent referrals used to be a great marketing tool but have recently fallen out of favor.
Popularized by Dr. Reggie Gold in the 1960s, every DR I’ve sat through follows a general format like this:
Introduce yourself.
Thank everyone for coming and committing to learning about their health.
Teach people about the spine, nervous system, and chiropractic.
Explain how these spinal problems interfere with health and healing.
Show x-rays.
Show a nerve chart
Give some examples
Finish with a heartfelt story and a call to action to get the rest of the family checked tomorrow.
Doctor’s reports can be a powerful educational tool, but can also be used to force, manipulate and scare a patient into accepting their doctor’s recommendations.
For example, some clinics require attendance at a DR a condition of treatment. Some offices make it mandatory that you attend with your family. Some even hold your x-rays hostage until you attend.
Picture it: The chiropractor won’t show you the x-rays until you sit through a mandatory 30-minute sales presentation. What a perfect way to create a bad reputation in your town! Like many issues in chiropractic, it seems we have a few bad apples spoiling the bunch.
As chiropractors, we walk a delicate line between educating our patients and convincing them to stay and pay. Unscrupulous chiropractors can overstate their patients' condition or engage in “medical bashing” during the DR. I was guilty of this early on in practice when trying (and failing) to emulate other chiropractors. I have grown up since then.
Done properly, the DR can benefit both chiros and patients. A well-designed report answers common questions, clears up misconceptions, educates patients about their spines, and increases compliance and results.
The doctor's report is a great way to educate clients about the benefits of chiropractic care and why they should keep getting their spine checked after their initial pain is resolved.
While I still believe in patient education and communication as the cornerstones of ethical chiropractic practice, I no longer believe the doctor's report is the best approach.
There was a time when people had longer attention spans and more free time, and would give up 30 minutes on a Wednesday night to learn about chiropractic. I don't think it's possible today, especially in large urban centers like where I practice.
Don't get me wrong, in a small rural town with limited evening activities, a good DR can provide a service as well as entertainment. DRs become a meeting place of sorts. I often hear about successful chiropractors in the middle of Nebraska who do no marketing and get steady new patient referrals from their DR. Maybe they should start a coaching program? (Kidding).
Chiropractors need to get creative with patient education and leverage technology to replace the DR. Note: This doesn’t mean a posting a 30-minute YouTube video instead.
Instead, I find email and SMS messaging invaluable for patient education. In our office, we’ve distilled patient education messaging down to four main concepts:
The central nervous system controls and coordinates all body functions and repair.
The spine, skull, and pelvic bones protect the nervous system.
Lack of spinal movement from trauma and habits causes inflammation, tissue damage, and inefficient neural inputs/outputs.
Chiropractic restores proper function of the spine and nervous system.
Our messaging from day one is focused on these four concepts. We'll send text messages and emails at regular intervals to share these messages. Essentially, we have broken down our DR into smaller, more digestible chunks.
Also, our conversations at the tables have become more educational. I ask patients about what they've learned and reference the emails. It's a good conversation starter and helps me gauge who might follow recommendations for care. The key is to be repetitive but creative.
It's unreasonable to expect a patient to get all their care information in a single 30-minute session. Dripping smaller chunks of content over time is more effective. Now, I save time and the patient gets what they need without the Harvey Lillard story and Silent Killer posters.