The world is a wild place anymore.  Every day we walk into our jobs and try to find some sort of enjoyment out of it. I really do like and enjoy my job and the business but this topic has come up a few times in the past couple of weeks in our house. Your job does not identify who you are as a person.

Outside of the office, I would like to think that I have a family life with my wife and boys and attempt to have a social life by playing a little golf and potentially getting involved in other organizations within my interest level.  The office is a lot of who I am as a person and I get to run it the way I want to run it but as my boys get older, I’m going to make a conscious effort to make sure that it does not deter me from being a part of things that are larger than the office.

One of the main reasons that I went into the profession, is that I knew I would be able to call my own shots.  If I need to be out of the office for one reason or another, I don’t really have to explain myself to anyone.  Most of the time, things are not so urgent around the office that life has to stop and the office needs to own my time.

We don’t wait around for walk-ins at the end of the day or around lunch for that matter.  If we have nothing scheduled I have told myself that my life goes on outside of the office and if nothing is scheduled at the end of the day, I’m going to get out of the office if I can.

I went to school with plenty of people that are no longer in the profession for whatever reason and for that matter it doesn’t matter.  Lots of people go into student loan debt and get degrees and use them for a few years and then figure out that this career is not for them (I would argue that chiropractic is a terrible return on your investment in regards to student loans) but this does not necessarily ring true for everyone.  If you are not happy or at least content with your situation, odds are there is probably a better situation out there.

Just because you went to nursing school does not mean you have to be a nurse, law school does not mean you have to be a lawyer and becoming an engineer is not a lifetime sentence if you don’t want it to be. There are always alternative options in nearly every profession so if you are unhappy with your situation; make something happen and start asking around because odds are you can change your scenario.

I’m adding a few more services to the office in the coming weeks not because I don’t like what I do but because I feel that we can add more value for people that walk through our doors.  Is it an exit plan, I don’t think so but if things go how I hope it does the prospect of more people and more services with the ability to give me more flexibility and freedom is a possibility.

In ending, the fact of the matter is, is that if you are not content with where you are in life or your profession, look around and start asking.  If you went into chiropractic and don’t like adjusting people, there are very profitable avenues to use your degree that don’t involve the traditional chiropractic practice. Just because you spent the money to go to school does not lock you into the profession in the traditional sense.  Lawyers run non-profits, chiropractors can work for insurance companies and medical school graduates can work in finance. It’s possible and realistic that the world changes quickly and you are more than welcome to change with it or stay stuck in the past, the future is up to you.

Over the course of the last 10 years we have performed DOT/CDL physicals for all types of drivers.  From bus drivers, farmers and over-the-road truckers, we have seen just about every walk of life come through the office for this service. I just renewed my 10 year certification a few months ago and it hasn’t seemed to have slowed down, in fact the service keeps picking up year over year.

We have a vast knowledge of the industry, so we have decided to add a few services that come along with the physical itself.  Over the course of the next few weeks, we are going to be implementing drug testing and breathe alcohol testing, this will be mainly targeted at the trucking industry but we have a vision of possibly branching out into other industries and being mobile.  We will start slow and build from there, just like we have with DOT physicals.

The need for these services is needed in the area and we plan to try to meet the need of so many companies and individuals that are in need of fast, reliable service.  Kristina is planning on helping with this endeavor. The goal is to have an office that is all encompassing, where workers and drivers can come and receive everything in a one-stop shop. As opposed to running all over town to accomplish different things that just takes time out of the day.

Fast, professional, efficient will be the name of the game that will be run and overseen by healthcare professionals in an environment that is welcoming and knowledgeable. We have already gotten set up with our own network lab for collections, CLIA waivers have been received and we are just waiting on a few pieces of equipment to come in.

We understand that a lot of companies have locked into current contracts, if you are one of those companies, we would still love to hear from you as we would love to become your collection site. The next 4-6 months will tell us a lot, as we will more than likely be setting up our own consortiums, in order to have our office and staff just manage small companies drug and alcohol testing that will be compliant with the current standards that are required by the Department of Transportation.

I’m going to lay out a vision as to how this whole process will go, over the course of the next month we get everything up and going, we become a collection site for the drivers that we already see come through our offices. We then start the consortium route, where a few local companies let us just manage their services, from the basic DOT physical to all of the regulated drug and alcohol testing that is required. We also hope to have the ability to go onsite to perform pre-employment drug testing and random testing for non-DOT facilities in the area.  Post-accident and return to work will also be done in the office as well.

This process is not rocket science and we look forward to being a site that continues to be trusted to take care of a profession that is often over looked. If this is a service or you or your company just has questions about how the process goes, please don’t hesitate to reach out as we would love to talk about the needs of community at large.

As stated earlier, if you are looking for a welcoming, all encompassing office to take care of your DOT physical, urine drug testing and breath alcohol testing all in one site that is overseen by healthcare professionals that are knowledgeable about the industry and have lots of local information about the drivers that already present to the office, please reach out to see how we can help with this required service from the Department of Transportation.

I’m going to go on a little bit of an explanation or rant as some would call it based on a few phone calls that we have gotten recently. It never fails that about 10 days after we bill we begin to get phone calls explaining that they don’t owe us money, their insurance should have paid for the service. Don’t get me wrong, I want your bill to be as low as possible but we are obligated to bill what we do, run a business that actually pays its bills and to follow the contract that is laid out by the insurance company that we agreed too.

We obviously have preferences when it come to certain insurances, as some process quicker and are more efficient but we are not naïve enough to say that we won’t take certain insurances, at this point. Most individuals don’t get to pick what insurance their employer picks for them and if you choose off the Marketplace, cost and coverage are a huge factor.

I read an article a couple days ago indicating that the University of Nebraska is moving back to Blue Cross/Blue Shield.  This is great news for most providers as it is one of the few companies that is efficient and easy to work with.  Not that other companies are difficult as most things are done electronically, BCBS just seems to process quickly and without much headache.

Certain insurances cover certain services while other don’t cover other procedures, bundled services are a thing.  When we bill one CPT code (what we do) some other CPT codes may not be covered as the insurance company considers them to be bundled and don’t reimburse for more than one thing on one particular visit.  If this seems confusing to you, it is even as the doctor and staff that try to keep up with it on a daily basis.

I’m going to give an example: we are in-network with Medicare, when a new Medicare patient comes in we know that the initial exam and therapies are not covered under the plan, we explain this to people and have people sign an ABN indicating that you as the patient understand that certain services are “non-covered services.” We don’t do this because we like to, we do it because we have to. The rules are the rules with certain companies and when we sign up with them, we agree to follow the rules.

I’m not all that interested in receiving phone calls from patients telling me that I will be getting a phone call from their insurance agent and that they are disappointed in me for the bill that they received. The staff hates taking the phone calls and honestly, there is not a lot to do about it. We do initial exams on EVERY new patient, it would be irresponsible not to, we need to cover our basis as well.

If you are unhappy with your insurance coverage, take it up with Congress if you have Medicare, the State Legislature if you have Medicaid, your HR department for your employer based care or pick a different plan on the Marketplace.  We aren’t sending out bills due to spite and if you are refusing to pay the bill and threaten the office because of a bill, I will gladly give you a referral to another office that will bill you the exact same way if not worse.

This is not intended to be a mean post, but it gets very frustrating explaining insurance to people that have no idea what they actually have and then get mad at us when we are just doing our job. We sign contracts with companies not because it’s fun but because patients want to go to providers that are in-network with their coverage and possibly have things paid for based on how the plan is written.

May 1^st marks 10 years of business for Spracklin Chiropractic. The middle of April was 11 years after graduation, has everything been sunshine and rainbows?  I’d be lying to you if I told you it was. This past year has actually probably been one of the more difficult ones, not necessarily from a practice prospective more so from a family prospective.  I have had a lot of things going on with my family that keeps my mind wandering, but overall business has been great.

Small business ownership is not for everyone and I’ve had my doubts over the years.  The ups and downs of the finances and the ebbs and flows of practice are tough at times. You will question yourself and doubts arise all the time, but we have for the most part stuck with our original intention.

You’ve got to spend money to make money is the famous saying, while there is some truth to this, as a business it really sucks.  The locations that we are in have been awesome up to this point (minus the bats that we continue to find in the Minden office) but we have decided to do a few improvements to the offices that will be seen in the weeks to come, it is fun to spend this kind of money, not really but with small business ownership, you either have to spend some money to improve the business or pay it in taxes.  So it looks like improvement is the way to go at this stage.

The buildings are perfect for what we need at this point and the current equipment is great for our needs. I’ve always said that my goal is to have offices that are mirror images of each other and we are getting there; there are a few things that I’m on the hunt for in order to accomplish this. From a patient prospective, you probably wouldn’t know the difference but from a practitioner prospective I definitely notice.

We are always looking for new and different opportunities to integrate into the offices but the scope is fairly narrow as to the things that we are open too. DOT physicals work awesome into the offices but if you are looking for anything that involves injections or high pressure sales pitches, you may want to keep looking. We make no apologies for what and who we are, honest to a fault and simple are the way of the offices. Reasonable prices will always be a trademark for the office and we will continue to accept most insurance. We get approached quite a bit about different sale tactics and therapies but find it almost impossible to say yes to certain things because they don’t fit a certain criteria.

Most recently we have been doing a lot of acupuncture. It’s an awesome therapy that does wonders for people but this is not something I push a lot, it can be used for lots of different conditions but if the patient is not willing to try it a few times then it’s not worth exploring.  You have to give it a fair shot to work and most people in my office are not willing to give up the time and money so we try other things first.

Practices and people come and go from the area.  We would like to think that we will be around for many years to come, treating patients in an honest and ethical way will continue. There is always a new therapy or sale pitch (we’ve tried a few and while not necessarily a flop, keeping it simple is usually the easiest and best way). Attitude and mindset play a big factor in practice development and we try to bring a positive, fun spirit to the office daily but just know that everyone has a story and if that spirit is a little down on a given day, give a little grace.

With all this being said, we appreciate your patronage over the years and look forward for the years to come.  Growth is the goal but sometimes holding the status quo is the best you can do for the moment and that is okay. Be kind to people in the world and bring smiles to those around you.

This past couple of weeks have been kind of a reminder of what exactly we do while being in practice. We try to make things as easy as we can when you come into our office. I’m going to go into a few examples that we have had this week and then elaborate on them at the end:

1. Someone calls the office and indicates that they would like acupuncture. She stresses multiple times that all she wants is acupuncture and nothing else. We agreed to this. Paperwork gets filled out, I have a brief conversation with her to make sure that we are on the same page as to the expectations of the visit. We perform the acupuncture, she gets off the table, happy as a lark, thanks me profusely, walks to the front desk, writes a check and schedules for more care all with absolutely no push or convincing from me. Seems like a pretty simple thing if you ask me, but this seems to be a rarity in the market.
2. Patient has been shopping around for chiropractors. We have seen him before, but he wanted to try something different.  He wasn’t necessarily unhappy with care but wanted to try a different approach (This actually happens all the time, so don’t take offense if you are a new chiropractor if someone leaves your office for a while and then comes back). Right side lower back and hip pain is the main complaint. He works on a farm and is on concrete and under equipment most of the days. He doesn’t want to pay more than he has to and he wants to get better in one visit. Laugh all you want but this is normal.  We do what we do, treat him the best that we can and he gets a little relief. Before he leaves he says he will be back next week, this is not on my urging. He’s happy and thanks us for taking the time to listen to his issues.
3. Last example, long time patient comes in with left shoulder and scapula pain. We treat him roughly 3-4 times, no red flags are noted that would indicate advanced imaging or anything beyond what we can provide in our office. He doesn’t feel that he is making enough headway with care so we end up sending him to his primary care doctor for a second opinion. He returns a week later indicating that his primary care would like him to continue care with us, they indicated that proper treatment was being rendered and that give it a little more time and we would eventually get it solved.

I use these specific examples for a reason. When someone calls the office and requests a specific service, why as a profession do we feel the need to push other services. While I completely understand that I have numerous tools at my disposal but if the patient is not happy when they leave the office, you essentially are losing a patient. At a certain point, it’s a mind game. A happy patient will return for more services and refer their friends.

Patients will come and go and we have our own bias built in but just know that most of the basic treatment provided by chiropractors is largely unchanged on a simplistic level. Techniques may be slightly different but the overall goal is the same, but active listening and taking a genuine interest in the care shows that you do care. For the patient we hadn’t seen in some time we did nothing different than any other office we showed a listening ear and a productive service and he left happy.

The third patient is actually the most interesting to me because he indicated that his primary care physician had nothing but positive things to say about our office and treatments. I do not know them on a personal or even professional manner. I find it actually flattering. We treat people for what they come into the office, we don’t try to up sell services that are not necessary and treatment plans can be few and far between. When trying to work with other professionals knowing what your limits and expertise is can be very beneficial.

In ending, treat people with options that they actually want, active listening is probably more beneficial than the treatment itself, keeping things simple can prove to be just as beneficial as thousand dollar treatment plans and staying in your lane with other healthcare professionals are some of the keys to success of our practice.

Nearly every healthcare professional undergoes a white coat ceremony and during that ceremony, normally fairly early on the journey, an oath is taken:

Hippocratic Oath

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.

I will not be ashamed to say “I know not”, nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

Chiropractic Oath:

I do hereby swear before God and these assembled witnesses, both corporeal and spiritual, that I will do my utmost to keep this, my sacred, trusted oath, as a graduate of the (National University of Health Sciences), that henceforth: I will esteem those who have taught me this Art, Science and Philosophy of Chiropractic and with this torch of knowledge, fashioned by Hippocrates, I will light the way to the understanding of those Natural Laws which preserve the human body as a fitting temple for the soul of man.

I will keep the physical, mental and spiritual needs of the sick as my foremost duty, ever searching for and correcting the cause of their disease to the best of my ability, insofar as my science is in the highest precepts of my Alma Mater and harmonious with the Vis Medicatrix Naturae.

I will at all times stand ready to serve my fellow man, without distinction of race, creed or colour, in my lifelong vocation of preventing and alleviating human suffering, wherever it may be found, by exemplifying in my own life a pattern of living in harmony with the Laws of Nature.

I will refrain from any act of wrongdoing and will regard the keeping of a patient’s confidence as a moral obligation, using any such information only in his or her best interests. May God so direct the skillful use of my hands that I may bring strength to the sick, relief to the suffering, peace of mind to the anxious and the inspiration to mankind to attain bountiful health

That we may live this life to the fullest expression of its innate endowments. I therefore, solemnly swear to uphold these principles and precepts to the best of my ability, so help me God.

Most individuals that go into a healthcare field indicate that they would like to help people.  While money is also a driving factor, the initial factor revolves around the ability to see people improve their lives.

We live in a strange era right now because in the United States there are so many different insurances that cover so many different things and there are nuances between companies.  Sometimes we perform the exact same procedures in the office and the reimbursement can range $40 from the low end to the high end and this is just the way the contract is written.

Are there certain policies that pay better than others, of course.  I would be lying to you if I said anything different. Some are easier to work with than others and coding can be different from plan to plan.  Is it a lot of background work, yes it is, but at the end of the day you need to come back to the reason you went into a healthcare field in general, to help people.

A general trend that you have been seeing recently is that offices are starting to drop certain insurances and adding back in cash services. While I completely understand the numbers behind doing this, I feel that ultimately the patient is the one being left behind. Insurance is offered through jobs, Federal marketplace and normally government services. The patient does not normally have a lot of say of the intrinsic details and coverage that the policy covers. Patients are paying for coverage and will normally go to a provider that is in-network. Why pay more for coverage you are already paying for.

The argument is that certain insurances just don’t pay enough to justify accepting the care.  While I would argue the office is not necessarily losing money, it’s just not making “enough.” So they let those long standing patients go somewhere else because their insurance (unless they want to be treated out-of-network or cash) which they probably didn’t get to choose, does not reimburse enough.

(I’m not going to get into the argument of insurance companies cutting reimbursement rates while operating expenses continue to go up, premiums go up & reimbursements go down, this is an entirely different argument)

The ultimate discussion is that people need care and while money is a huge driver in healthcare, it should not be the ultimate driver. Taking care of people of all walks of life is the oath that was taken and will continue to be followed.  We accept nearly every insurance plan offered, will take auto cases, work comp cases and cash patients. We charge a fair price for the services that we provide and are honest to a fault.

I would implore my colleagues and fellow healthcare professionals to think back to the day you took whatever oath you took and the excitement/joy that came with that day.  Bring that energy back to the office and help the people that are seeking your care, trust me the money will follow and you will lead a great life.

Recently, at the start of the year, I have been trying to sit down and re-evaluate the previous year and look forward to the year to come.  2022 was a good year on a professional level but the end of the year put a little bit of a hamper on the year on a personal level.

At the beginning of the year we added decompression tables to both offices.  I thought that this would bring a new aspect to the offices and allow for a different therapy to be offered.  Quite honestly, I absolutely love the technology and thought process behind the therapy but we have found that we just don’t use the tables like we thought we would.  Another doctor offered to purchase the tables from me and I took the deal, so beginning this week we will no longer be offering decompression therapy in the office but will still have flexion-distraction and the roller table which essentially accomplishes a lot of the same things.

We grew our DOT business year over year. I have been performing these exams for the past 10 years, the only reason that I know this is because I have to recertify my certificate by the end of 2023. The years are starting to add up and while I feel like I just graduated from school, it has actually been a few year at this stage.

Colleagues have gotten sick or go out of town, we try to fill a void when others are out of the office with patients that may actually come and go due to this but I just hope that if I need anything from colleagues on a professional level, I would like to think that it would be reciprocated.

The start of the new year is always a little reflective, as it’s my birthday as well, but it actually comes across at a good point to ponder what a year it has been.  I wanted to elaborate a little bit on my personal situation as well: my wife and kids are doing great, growing like weeds and basically starting to take over my life, as it normally does with children.

As many people that have come into the office these past couple of weeks, you may have heard that my dad (Craig) received a liver transplant a couple of days before Christmas.  A heart medication that he had been on for years was the culprit as to why his liver began to fail.  While we are grateful that he was given the chance to receive the transplant, it’s starting to look like a lengthy recovery is going to be a reality.  His liver, kidneys and heart all look to be doing well at this stage, things keep popping up during the recovery process. I will continue to think/worry about this daily but as I told my mom this past weekend, I’m able to escape it for a little while, she’s the one that is living the day-to-day aspects of it. We will continue to pray and hope for a speedy/quick recovery but a long road appears to be ahead.

In ending, 2022 was a great year for the practice and a strange year for me personally.  I have come to terms that I need to start having more fun at work, laughing more and getting out of the office a little more to enjoy my family and boys as they grow up. I will be taking a few days office January for a long weekend/vacation and a few days off in February to attend a conference that I have wanted to attend for some time. We will continue to strive to keep things simple and consistent at the office and cannot thank our patients enough for the level that we have grown the practices too and look to continue to build in the coming year.

A saying that almost everyone knows is that it takes a lifetime to build a reputation and a second to ruin it. When building and maintaining a practice for over ten years now, we have not strayed too far from our initial strategy.  Create a practice that provides practical/evidence based care at a fair price with little to no treatment plans. Thus far, the strategy has worked fairly well for us.

There are practices that will try to sell treatment plans that are accompanied with numerous therapies and treatments over several months, while I can’t argue that people get better with those types of plans, it’s just not the type of practice that I, myself, would want to go to.

Other practices run on a corporate model, where the care is extremely affordable.  I question how quality the care is, when every patient that walks in the door gets a two minute adjustment and is out the door before the car is even cool.

There are practice models for everything in between, from multidisciplinary models to functional medicine to shadow adjusting and foot baths. Chiropractors are a unique bunch to say the least. Conventions make for an interesting time because of the vast array of personalities.

I’m a relationship person, while I like adjusting people and feel that I can deliver a quality adjustment, I do feel that adding features to the treatment can be beneficial. Acupuncture, laser or any of the other therapies we offer in the practice do add to the benefit of the care. If the therapy is not warranted we don’t do it.  I appreciate the conversations I get to have with my patients and getting to know them. My wife thinks I’m weird based on the number of things I can remember about random people, but I like it, the conversations can get interesting.

I know more about farming and cattle then I thought I would ever know, but it’s interesting to me as it’s a business just like any other business that is run. I’m starting to see initial patients graduate from high school and college, getting into the real world and complaining about paying bills.  I’m actually trying to put a larger emphasis on just having more fun in the office, most people in the world would be envious of what I get to do every day but I feel that sometimes I take myself a little too serious at times so if we start laughing in the office, feel free to join in.

Plain and simple, we like simple in the office.  The longer I go, the more I appreciate simplicity.  We keep our billing straight forward, the treatments are geared to the specific patient and scheduling is almost too easy in the offices. Walk-ins are welcome and DOT physicals are scheduled same day (while I still recommend pushing the date closer to the expiration date).

While reputation isn’t on the time of my mind on an hourly or even daily basis, I do think about it periodically and we don’t plan on changing anything drastically about the office, other than we are letting people know that we are trying to keep things simple and if certain things aren’t getting used we will most likely be eliminating things that don’t bring value to the office.

I’ve said this before and I will say this again, when I was in my first day of chiropractic school, Dr. Winterstein said: “Take care of your patients and your patients will take care of you.” If you go into any form of healthcare, you either go in it for the patient or you go into it for the money, most of the times it’s hard to do both and if you go in it solely for the money, boy do I have news for you.

With the current state of the world, I wanted to elaborate a little bit of the bind that healthcare providers have been put in. For most providers insurance companies set the fee schedules and you either agree to the network rates or you go out of network and become kind of a pain to the patient. We are in-network with just about every insurance company that is offered in the state of Nebraska and we don’t plan on changing that.

As you have probably noticed, the price of everything is surging at the moment and healthcare is no exception. The problem we run into, raising prices in the healthcare setting doesn’t really matter or help when you are running a healthcare business.  We are only allowed to charge the patient the allowed amount that is set by the insurance company. This most recent year, a fee cut was set across the board in all healthcare fields, a few companies kept prices steady but the bigger ones gave a fee schedule cut across most professions (chiropractic is not alone).

It doesn’t really matter if I charge a million dollars a visit, if I bill that to insurance I can only charge the patient a certain set and agreed upon amount.  Some insurance companies are easier to work with in regards to allowed amounts and some have limits that are very cumbersome, in regards to number of services that are allowed per treatment session.

This is where the hard part comes in, even if I wanted to raise prices, I can’t because insurance will only allow a certain amount per line charge and for the most part we are taking fee cuts not raises. (Think about it this way, nearly every insurance company is “for profit” and needs to show that they are making money, they are going to charge the patient more for coverage and reimburse the doctors less, it’s a novel concept that is simple to understand, but tough to break the cycle)

The crux within the profession at this time, in order to increase your bottom line which is ultimately necessary to keep up, so we can continue to stock the clinics correctly and pay help a wage that is deserving of what they do, the business needs to collect more money, not necessarily that your profit is larger but your expenses eat away at it a lot quicker.

1. We could charge more money per visit for the care that is delivered, this sounds like a good idea but in reality, it’s not all that possible because insurance will only allow you to charge/collect so much and within your contract with the insurance company you can only give a certain percentage of a cash discount before you are breaking the contract.
2. More patients could be seen on a daily basis. This is an obvious choice until you put it into practice, inferior care would delivered because you would not be able to spend time with patients plus you have to keep up with all of the background work (insurance & paperwork). We are always trying to build the clinics to see more people but there is an ultimate limit to this philosophy.

We don’t plan on drastically changing anything, but I just wanted to lay out the current dilemma that most providers are under at this stage. Charge more (not all that possible) or see more patients (lose the personal care that is desired). People pay a lot of money for insurance coverage and we, at our office, feel that you should be able to use it and reap the benefits of it. It’s not a fun time to run the office but we will continue to treat patients fair and honest and give the best possible care we can provide.

Building a business and a following within the profession can be a long, tedious process. When chiropractors graduate from school, you get a piece of paper and a license and think that you are going to go out a crush it. In your mind, you think that patients are going to be lining up to seek your care, well I’ve got news for all of the new graduate out there…it doesn’t typically work this way.

I’m ten years into practice, days have their ups and downs but overall things have been trending upwards.  When the office first opened, seeing 40 patients a WEEK was the goal, that is by far not the case that this point in the business.  Constant growth is always going to be the goal.

The thought process has come too light, am I doing this on my terms or am I working within a profession that sets it sights and goals based on public perception. I would like to think that over the course of the last couple years the practice has started to evolve into something that I am proud to work at and have comfort telling people what I do with no shame.

As a new generation graduates from chiropractic school and the older/baby boomer generation within the profession is starting to retire, the profession, I feel, is at a bit of a crossroad.  The younger generation is trending more towards the rehabilitation aspects of the profession and the older generation is geared more towards adjusting patients and using the adjustment as the main tool in their repertoire. This is just an observation, not necessarily a hard and fast rule.

The irony of the profession in the years to come is that a lot of older offices do not fit the mold of an office that a lot of new graduates are going to want to buy or take over. This is the perplexing argument within the profession.  There are arguments to be made on both sides and I feel that there is evidence to support the older and younger generation.

This is where I start the argument of building your following or tribe as I would call it. I would consider that I run a fairly hybrid type practice. We lean heavily on the adjustment and a few therapies.  If you are looking for specific post surgical care, stem cell injections, lots of hands on exercise programs or other specific neurological/spinal condition, there may be other providers that are better at handling certain types of case.

Building a trust within your patient base and allowing decisions/discussions to flow freely make for the best type of care.  Claiming to help everyone is not only irresponsible; it’s a flat out lie most of the time. Our goal within the practice is to continue to grow the practice while getting the best possible results for the patient whether that is at our office or at another.  I have people all the time stop in just to ask questions, it’s refreshing to know that people feel comfortable will come in ask a question and walk right back out without feeling that they were taken advantage of.

This may sound a little strange, but I check the obituaries fairly regularly and when I have a patient pass away, a small member of the tribe is now gone.  The tribe is ever growing and ebbs and flows, people will come and go, lures from other offices are tough to ignore, but I would like to think that we are always available when you are in a time of need.  Whether that is for a conversation or for treatment from our office, just know that you will never be taken advantage of and we lean back on the old school chiropractic technique.

Do we fall for the latest trends, I would like to think we don’t but we have tools and tricks of the older generation while trying to work within an ever changing healthcare field of the younger generation. We don’t hard sell and just know just because you go to a different office for a time or two, you will always be welcomed back into the tribe at Spracklin Chiropractic where we lean on the adjustment, a few therapies and DOT Physicals, that’s it, we make it simple.