When it comes to running a chiropractic clinic, chiropractic assistants are often indispensable. A chiropractic assistant (CA) not only ensures that the clinic operates well, but the position is also highly sought-after in the job market. Between now and 2024, the chiropractic assistant field is predicted to grow by more than 20%, according to relevant studies.
As your practice becomes busier, most chiropractors hire assistants to handle the “busy work” so they can focus on delivering the chiropractic adjustment. Are you optimizing your CA’s skill sets and utilizing their maximal value? Let’s see how you are doing compared to best practices.
What Is the Role of a Chiropractic Assistant?
The better question in most offices is, “What doesn’t a chiropractic assistant do?” It is common to hire and cross-train assistants so that they can help wherever they are needed throughout the day. That is helpful and convenient, but it leaves the team without clarity on who is responsible for specific roles and duties. If something is missed or done incorrectly, it often leaves the team pointing fingers. Cross-training is vital in a practice and optimizing a team, but is there a better way?
Yes! Think of your services as a series of systems in a practice that produce a specific outcome:
Now think of having an assistant who becomes an expert in one of those roles. They never look to pass off responsibility and instead own their deliverable and are consistently looking for ways to improve. With this model, we still want a team looking to help each other and even step in to help during busy times when needed.
This makes it clear about which roles and duties need training, and no one is pointing fingers if something is missed.
Required Skills for a Chiropractic Assistant
Do you have the right personalities in the right roles? While training can provide many of the abilities needed to work as a CA, a potential chiropractic assistant should have some innate skill sets and personality attributes to ensure the position is a suitable fit. Contact with the public is an important aspect of the job, so your chiropractic assistant should enjoy working with people and be able to communicate effectively. The capacity to remain calm under pressure is a valuable skill, such as when a patient has a complaint. When dealing with a patient with a delinquent account or other uncomfortable situations, the CA must have the necessary finesse.
Along with these innate skill sets, look at the personalities of assistants and the roles they play. If we want someone to help patients make and keep appointments, we need someone who values the care we deliver. If you have an assistant who helps with scribing, that person needs to pay high attention to detail. Getting the right personality in the right role is key to a successful team.
Training and Developing a Chiropractic Assistant
Your chiropractic assistants will help you keep your practice’s administrative side running well, so make sure they have the knowledge they need by offering them intensive training. Develop your assistant so that it is a win-win situation for you, the assistant, and the patient. The best way to develop chiropractic assistants is to teach them about your practice, your mission, and why you do what you do. Then show them how to use your approach to get patients healthy.
How do you keep track of their performance after they know and comprehend this? Well, you can easily track your assistant’s metrics for delivering services to patients using software. The software you use should also be able to show reporting on their metrics for the front desk system and the rehab system. EHR and practice management software are two of the most prevalent forms of software used by chiropractors today. This software can help you increase your practice’s productivity and efficiency, but knowing the differences between them will help you choose the ideal software for your needs.
The purpose of an electronic health record (EHR) system is to document and store a patient’s health information. It automates the entry of patient health data, allowing doctors to make more accurate diagnoses and deliver better overall care. On the other hand, chiropractors use practice management software to help manage both the clerical and clinical sides of their practice. This software serves as your all-in-one practice management solution, allowing you to document patient information, schedule appointments, document CPT codes, automate SOAP note entry, verify insurance, and manage billing activities.
To manage administrative aspects and patient information securely in one centralized spot, look for the best chiropractic software with an integrated EHR system. The software you choose should also keep your clinic organized and efficient.
One way to provide continual learning in your chiropractic clinic is to dedicate a weekly or monthly meeting to EHR training. Staff members can take turns hosting meetings, each bringing a new EHR tip, a practice record to enter into the system, or another software concept to consider. Consistent training meetings will help your assistants be proficient.
You can structure your training in a variety of ways based on the demands of your chiropractic clinic. You can choose one or more staff members to receive EHR system training so that they can train others in your clinic. You also can develop specific training based on each employee’s tasks and job descriptions. Consider the exact job responsibilities given to each employee and create a concise learning plan that outlines the EHR domains you’ll cover in your training sessions. You can then equip each of them with the appropriate learning tools that are specific to their job.
Create a workflow based on the activities that take place in your chiropractic clinic. Then separate the processes that use EHR as part of that workflow. Each process can be used as a focal point for training sessions and to teach skills based on the unique EHR techniques that your staff members perform throughout the day. It will also help your chiropractic assistants comprehend how their role fits into the overall patient experience.
Final Words
To wrap it up, training and monitoring your chiropractic assistant with the appropriate software can help you get positive outcomes. Make sure your employees are as comfortable and confident as possible while using the software. However, you should be aware that this process might necessitate a lot of patience as your team adjusts to new methods, tactics, or ideas.
Dr. Cory Frogley is a second-generation chiropractor and the CEO of BluelQ, a software company that helps doctors ignite their practice growth through data automation. His unique business models are changing the game for how to run a profitable practice. You may contact him by email at [email protected].
