Positioning- The Secret Sauce of Success. by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

Marketing guru's such as John Carlton teach 3 kinds of positioning.  Positioning your practice appropriately within your local community is perhaps the best long term path to success.  There are great, actionable, lessons that can be learned from each type of positioning. 

1-  The first type of positioning is establishing your "eye level".  In retail, this means literally having your product at eye level.  It is the best and most direct indicator of sales.  Relating this to interdisciplinary relationships; we should have our practice at "eye level" of other physicians in the community.  We should be engaging them on a consistent basis through Case Notes, Monthly Research Briefs, and occasional meetings.  This keeps your practice at "eye level" and not hidden on the back of the shelf!

2-  Second is where your "ad" appears in magazines and publications.  Ad agencies long ago learned to charge a premium for the first dozen pages of advertising in their publications.  Of course this is because while 90% of readers will look through the first dozen pages; not even 10% will make it to the end of the publication.  Our lesson to be learned from this is to keep our communication short and poignant.  Physicians are not going to read 10 page research papers, or 15 page case notes forms.  Quite simply, it is important to provide one page updates that grab their attention.  

3.  How you position your service in the "readers" mind.  This is perhaps the most obvious with how it relates to your practice.  Does your practice exude professionalism?  Do people in the community know that your office works with (not against) other physicians in town?  Have you positioned your office as the only logical choice for primary care physicians to make chiropractic referrals?  

As you can see, how we position our office will make a huge difference in our success not only with interdisciplinary referrals, but also with our friends and neighbors.  

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-The Evidence Based Chiropractor is the fastest growing chiropractic marketing group in the profession.  The service, founded and run by Dr. Jeff Langmaid, is dedicated to increasing chiropractic utilization by showcasing research.  Marketing to medical doctors through research is proven, cost effective, and can dramatically improve your incoming referrals.  Join us.  Lets grow chiropractic together.

The Importance of Sending Case Notes- by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

On nearly every implementation call for members of The Evidence Based Chiropractor I receive questions about case notes.  Doc's are concerned about the how, what, when, and where about sending them to other physicians.  

Download a FREE Case Notes Template!

Often, they have been reluctant to do so because they don't want to send something amateurish or incorrect.  (Top priority is always to be in compliance with HIPAA and government law regarding sharing protected health information)

Research shows us that Primary Care Physicians received case notes approximately 70% of time when referred a patient to another MD.  PCP's only receive case notes 50% of the time when a patient is referred to a chiropractor.  

By sending case notes you are able to:

1. Show off the results of your care

2. Show that you are co-managing with the Primary Care Doctor

3. Get an additional touch point of communication for branding/name recognition  

We recommend our members send case notes at 3 different times- Initial Evaluation, Re-Evaluation, and Discharge from Active Care.  Often these notes can be process and faxed directly from your EMR/EHR.

Your Case Notes should include:

• Who- who is the patient? (patient name, DOB)

• When- when did they visit your office? (date of service)

• What- what did you find? (diagnosis)

• How- how are you going to move forward?  (treatment plan)

As you can imagine, these items will usually take up less than a full page.  If a doc requests additional information, then you can by all means supply it; however, a vast majority of physicians prefer just the basics as they will look at this page in the patients record prior to entering their exam room.  

By supplying case notes you are increasing communication and "touches" with PCP's in your community, they can see the progress of your shared patients, and you are assisting your patients with keeping an accurate health record.

If you would like more information regarding case notes I recommend reading my book, "Marketing Chiropractic to Medical Doctors" which is now available worldwide on iBooks and Amazon. 

Download a FREE Case Notes Template!

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-The Evidence Based Chiropractor is the leading DC/MD marketing and outreach group in the world.  Our service is dedicated to increasing chiropractic utilization by showcasing research.  Marketing to medical doctors through research is efficient, cost effective, and can dramatically improve your incoming referrals.  Join us.  Lets grow chiropractic together.