Would You Like Fries with That?
PERSPECTIVE
Why I’ll only hire DCs who have worked in restaurants
Anthony Lombardi, DC
The title probably caught you off-guard, but there is merit in my logic. In over 20 years of practice, I have hired many associate chiropractors fresh out of chiropractic college. I have found it difficult to break the bad habits they learned in school. I know what you are thinking: What bad habits could they possibly have? Allow me to break it down for you.
It’s Time
New graduates or DCs with little practice experience have never been part of a busy, established practice, which is something chiropractic school cannot prepare you to handle. Naturally, a school’s goal is to produce competent, safe practitioners. Schools and professors do not produce successful practitioners; practicing chiropractors do. New graduates leave the turtle pace of a student clinic, and if they catch on with a busy established practice, they have a hard time adapting to the real-life clinical speed of a successful business practice. If the associate DCs are unable to get with the program soon enough, they bring down the efficiency of the entire practice.
Now, I know this sounds presumptuous, but allow me to explain. 1. New grads naturally take more time to treat patients because they lack experience. 2. They lack experience because schools do not teach them how to integrate into an established practice flow. 3. To learn what makes experienced practitioners efficient, they need to learn the required skills. So, if they do not have the preexisting skills to learn the system, they simply won’t be a good fit.
Do You Want Fries with That?
Moving forward, I will only hire associate DCs who have experience working in a busy restaurant or have been a bartender or barista in a fast-paced environment. Having worked in these places teaches future chiropractors the transferable skills needed to thrive in a busy practice setting. These settings teach time management, the ability to multitask, how to deal with stress, and how to be easily adaptable to the situation without compromising patient care. Most importantly, these jobs teach people to be able to work all day long while still providing outstanding clinical care to all who need it.
If this sounds intense, then you likely never worked in a busy restaurant or chiropractic practice. If you use modalities like heat/cold, acupuncture, and others, you eventually will have multiple rooms in use at once. That means you need to constantly be aware of time, the needs of your patients in those rooms, and what must be done to meet their expectations. This draws near exact parallels to servers and bartenders in a busy restaurant. So if I am in the market for a new associate, I need to find one with the necessary skill set, and if they worked in the restaurant industry, then they have my attention.
In 2015, I wrote the article, “Business Talk: Do we really need you here? Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor of Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor.” It is essential for new practitioners to realize two things: 1. They need to become the best practitioners possible, and they must learn from established doctors who become their mentors. 2. They must be able to multitask and merge their time management skills with their clinical acumen. As I outlined in the 2015 article, associate doctors have to realize that if they are not committed to learning the system and aren’t focused on growing their patient base, their future will essentially be uncertain, especially if their numbers consistently fall short of expectations.
How Does It Add Up?
Let’s say the clinic owner/DC sees four patients an hour at $50 per visit, while the associate doctor sees two patients in an hour at $50 each. If the clinic receives 50% of the associate’s fees, then the clinic makes $50 an hour with two patients.
What happens if the clinic owner realizes they can make that $50 per hour by seeing one more patient per hour simply by improving their clinical assessment and treatment systems? Associates need to demonstrate that they are needed, which means they must bring an element that the owner cannot reproduce without them.
Be Open
Usually, our biggest obstacle to building a busy business practice is ourselves. We often do not realize the effort, sacrifice, and drive needed to make our dreams become a reality. Many naysayers will make excuses and say the demands are unreasonable. Those are just excuses. When you are in demand, then patients will want to see you, and word will spread fast, so you need to be prepared.
Dr. Anthony Lombardi is a 2002 graduate of the New York Chiropractic College and creator of the EXSTORE Assessment System. He has been practicing for 21. years. Upon graduation, he founded Hamilton Back Clinic and since then has become a private consultant to athletes in the NFL, CFL, and NHL. For more information visitwwwdranthonylombardi.com, email [email protected] or call 905692-4222.
