Unique Original Articles » Why simple statistical models are invaluable to your practice

In most chiropractic offices I've visited, one of the first things I noticed in the treatment room was a life-size plastic skeleton.

(At least, I sincerely HOPE its plastic!)

Why are there skeletons in your office?

In many cases, this skeleton makes it much easier to explain to your patients what is happening with their bodies, and what you will do to help them get back to optimal functioning.

After all, being able to point to specific areas, to show details, often makes it more concrete for your patients - the concepts "click" much easier when they can see what is happening.

Even though what they're seeing doesn't accurately represent every detail, it still helps them have a much stronger understanding than they would otherwise.

Now, while you likely make good use of models when talking to new patients, I haven't met many practice owners who effectively use models when looking at their own business.

Models of your practice

Just like the models you use with your patients, the models you use to evaluate your practice should be simple enough to see the "big picture", without drowning you in meaningless detail.

Practice models can be used in 2 ways, both very important to your continued success.

1. To give you an accurate picture of where you are RIGHT NOW

These "diagnostic" models paint pictures of what is currently happening. In most practices, there are mixed choruses of "Wow, that's better than I thought!" and "Wow... I didn't realize THAT area needed so much work."

These are critical, because without knowing where you are, it's impossible to figure out how to get where you want to go.

2. They can be used to track changes over time.

Once you've set your baseline, and decided which areas are most important to work on, you can then track your success by creating new models and tracking what's happening NOW, vs. what was happening before you decided to actively work in this area.

So how does this all play out?

Let's suppose that you're a little concerned with new patient attrition - you don't know the numbers for sure, but you think that you're having quite a few of your new patients leave before they could possibly be expected to really understand whether or not chiropractic treatment is working for them.

So, you decide to generate a model of patient attrition - That is, you have a model that takes all the non-active patients in your database and shows you how many visits they had before becoming inactive.

So, for example, you see that 15% of patients leave after visit 1. 6% of patients leave after visit 2. 7% leave on visit 5. And so on and so forth.

Additionally, you decide to look at a cumulative tracking number - which shows you the total percentage of patients who stopped up to and including each visit number (E.G.: 15% of patients leave on visit one, 38% leave between visits 1-5, 99% leave between visits 1-600)

Okay, I’ve got a model… So what?

Let's suppose that this model shows you that 50% of all your patients leave forever before their 10th visit. Realizing that this means you're spending a DISPROPORTIONATE amount of your time with people who will never become long term patients, you decide to make some changes designed to keep patients longer.

The $50,000 question is - How would you know if your efforts were working?

It wouldn't make much sense to pay attention to the model you created using 3,000 patients, would it? After all, it would take a LOT of time for changes to be reflected in any meaningful way (say, another 2,000 patients or so).

So, instead, once you've put some of the changes in place, you can start tracking new patient retention from that point forward. This will give you very timely feedback on whether or not your changes are effective.

After a suitably large sample size of new patients have joined your practice, you can check this model to see whether your retention has improved, decreased, or stayed steady.

This will make it much easier for you to figure out whether you need to spend more time crafting patient retention strategies, or if you should move your efforts into another area.

Summary

You wouldn't begin treating a patient without having a very detailed understanding of their problem, would you?

Of course not.

So why would you ever operate your practice based on guesses, hunches, and what "feels right"?

Introducing statistics based models in your practice, both for diagnostic and tracking purposes, is an incredibly powerful way to see exactly what IS happening in your practice, and to show you what needs your attention


Want to learn more?

Statistical Model is one of the many strategies covered in Real World Growth Strategies for Your Practice – an exciting new marketing program for Chiropractors. To find out more, e-mail info@svachiro.com. For additional resources, visit www.svachiro.com

Did you find this useful?

Why not send it on to friends and colleagues and share the knowledge with others. Alternatively you can reprint these tips in your own website or newsletter, but please include the following information:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shawn Veltman is a marketing consultant and the creator
of the highly acclaimed ‘Real World Growth Strategies’ program
for Chiropractors. To find out more, e-mail info@svachiro.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------



Article Source: JS2 Article Marketing