Speaker Dr. Bill Davis
Well, hello, doctors and students. Welcome to this webinar we are about to do on patient education. It is Educate to Elevate, creating a patient experience that grows your UC practice. This is such an important topic.
Patient education is crucial. It is the number one way to generate new patients from internal sources in your practice. And so we're going to get right into this topic. We got a lot to cover today. I'm going to give you a ton of content and a lot of really good information to help you.
The key with patient education, understand that the details matter. And if you're wanting to empower patients and drive your practice success, you got to pay attention to the little things. And we're going to talk about a lot of those today in this webinar.
So let's get going. So the problem with patient education is a lot of times patients just don't understand their care. You can explain upper cervical care to them and they just give you a blank stare or, you know, you've mastered a lot of this.
You try to communicate it to them effectively and sometimes they just don't get it. So if you can help them to understand the why behind their care, it's going to be crucial for you to be able to help them to complete their care and also to refer friends and family.If you can bridge that gap between their understanding and yours as much as you possibly can so that they begin to get it, that is the key. So when we're looking at patient education that drives practice growth, there's three main things to keep in mind.
Number one is if you can retain patients longer, it is a huge benefit to your practice. Patients who understand their care, we found stay three times longer in care plans. And so if you can give great high quality patient education, especially on the front end from the very first phone call all the way through them signing their care plan, it will be much more likely they will continue into their full care plan and beyond and refer others.
And then the other thing is referrals, more referrals. Educated patients become confident. They become advocates who naturally refer others because if they get it, they will tell others and they have deeper trust in you.
They have if you give them clear communication that builds the foundation for lasting patient relationships, it makes a huge difference. So when patients truly get it, everything changes. And that's what we're going to be talking about today.
And so let's start with the very first opportunity for patient education, and that's the new patient phone call. It really sets the tone for the entire patient journey. At some point, you're going to talk to the person or your staff is going to talk to this person on the phone, right?
Whether it's your CA calling them or them calling your office, at some point you will talk with them. And so that new patient phone call is so, so crucial. So it starts with how you answer the phone, right?
When you answer the phone with a smile on your face and a high energy greeting, it starts the process in the right direction. It makes all the difference. That very first moment can make a big difference in the whole rest of the process we're going to talk about today.
And so what you want to do is those struggling callers, those people who are, you know, they're sick and they're suffering. That's why they're calling or that's why you are calling them. You want them to feel safe.
You want them to feel understood. You want them to feel hopeful. And by acknowledging their vulnerability and their need for human connection, by making the effort on the front end to really build that connection with them, starting with the very first words that your CA says, and then showing genuine interest in them, communicating genuine interest by asking, you know, what is their name, right?
It's such a simple thing, but we still see it all the time where a front desk person, a new patient coordinator, CA will have a conversation with someone and never ask their name or won't ask it for minutes or three, four, five minutes into the call before they ever ask the person's name.
And so making sure that they are connecting with them, they're finding out their name, they begin to use their name in conversation is crucial. Ask them how they found out about you, right? If this is an incoming call, how did you hear about us?
You know, that's important. It starts to build the connection. It starts to understand where they're coming from. And then what is the concern that prompted their call? Do they have a specific health concern?
What is, you know, what is their main issue or why did they call today? This helps them seen, you know, feel seen and heard. And it starts to build that foundation of trust, which is crucial to all the other aspects of patient education we're going to talk about.
And then just simplified scheduling, right? Use an assumptive sale. You know, is a morning or afternoon appointment better for you? Always be moving towards that. Make it easy for them to schedule and then focus on support, not just, you know, not sales.
It's not just book an appointment. It's connect with the person and then help them to begin this process of getting to know what is upper cervical care all about. That first phone call is so crucial.
Those first, you know, 60 to 90 seconds can completely shift their outlook. They can start to feel hopeful if you do it right. And so that starts this process, the new patient phone call. And then they come into your practice and you connect with them and you have, you know, the initial interactions in your, in your lobby, maybe, you know, do an office tour, do some different things like that, start to build that connection even more now that they are in the practice.
And then we have the opportunity for the doctor to first meet the patient. And this is that day one communication blueprint, that consultation, exam, and imaging. And it really sets up the whole relationship between the doctor and the patient.
And what are you looking to do on that day one? And this is all part of patient education is discovering how you can help, right? If your care is the right fit for them, what is their specific needs, their health challenges, and really be looking into what is the need behind the need, right?
It's never that they're getting migraines. It's how are those migraines affecting their life? That's what prompts them to come into the practice. You want patients to feel heard, understood, and safe.
Establish a comfortable and empathetic environment where the patient's concerns are fully acknowledged, right? You want to connect with them and help them understand that you actually care. And then set those clear expectations.
Outline what's the next step after that consultation. We're going to do this, this, and this, right? We're going to do the exam. We're going to do imaging if necessary. We're going to then go over those imaging after we've analyzed them on the next follow-up visit.
That helps to build that trust and confidence as they know that you know what you're doing. Next, moving into or just a few other little do's and don'ts on the consultation, just make sure you master that first impression.
Again, just like those first few words of a new patient phone call, the first time you meet the patient doc or your associate meets them, make sure you have those rapport building tools. Get really good eye contact with them.
Give them a warm smile. Give them a servant handshake where your hand is on the bottom and theirs is on top. These nonverbal cues convey professionalism and they put the patient at ease. And then you want to listen, right?
That's what a consultation should be. It should be mostly listening, asking good questions and listening. And use open-ended questions as much as possible. Ask them, you know, how does their health challenge, their migraines, their vertigo, whatever, how is it affecting their daily activities?
How is those types of things? Having them to start to tell their story is important and maintain that open body language. Sit with open posture, uncrossed arms, facing the patient directly. That helps to show them that you are to, you're engaged with them and you're helping them to understand that you are with them and you want to help them.
And so some don'ts for the consult, avoid minimizing words. This one's a big one, Doc. I hear it a lot when I've listened to consults is the generic responses where someone's like, yeah, I've had migraines for 20 years.
Okay. Uh-huh. Yeah. And instead, use things like, I understand, I see. Or, you know, just nod. This shows deeper comprehension, respect. Don't minimize them through your filler words with an okay. That is not what you want.
And then steer clear of jargon as much as you can. Try not to get into complex words. Try to get clear and simple language. Use that kind of language when you're communicating with patients throughout this process, but especially when you first have those interactions in the consult, try not to interrupt them or rush them.
You want to make them feel heard and make sure that you're getting the details that you need and never assume or dismiss their concerns. You want to validate their concerns. You want them to understand that what they're going through matters.
Next, your exam and your imaging communication. A big part of this is a show and tell, right? It's helping them to see what's going on with their body. If you're using postural analysis or scan technology or whatever, bilateral weight skills, whatever you're using, help them to see, okay, this is what we're seeing here.
This is what it means. This is what we're saying here. This is what it means. Show and tell, show and tell. Connect to their symptoms as much as you can or connect to their concerns. Help them to see that you're with them.
You know what they're that how the body works and what is the connections between what they're struggling with and what you're seeing with their body. And make sure you're maintaining a smooth and confident flow.
When you're giving them clear instructions and you have a good flow with your exam, with your imaging, it helps them know, it helps them to feel confident in you. And so make sure you're doing that efficiently and effectively through your whole process.
And then moving into your day two, your report of finding structure. Again, this continues with the patient education, but it's a crucial time where you want to, as much as you possibly can, use visuals, right?
You want to use posters. You want to use images. You want to use, obviously, your imaging. You want to use your any kind of models, charts, diagrams, anything like that. Try to get visual. And we'll talk about why that's so important in a minute, but try to avoid that jargon again.
Use simple language. Use good analogies, those types of things. Help patients to understand the what and the why of what's going on with them. And then when you're looking, you know, some overall things that are important when you're looking at the report of findings is you want them to be confident in you and you need to have that confidence.
The more confident you are when you explain their care, explain what's going on with them, explain the process of helping them to get the results they're looking for. That is a crucial part of the report of findings is speaking with authority and conviction, right?
And make sure you are getting feedback from them. It's not just you talking for whatever. It's, you know, does that make sense? Is that, you know, fair enough? Is that make sense to you? Is that clear?
Right. Asking these types of questions is key all along the way to make to check in with them and they so that they know what's going on and that they're they're they're with you and they're making it's making sense to them.
And then again, just making sure that you show that expertise, that you make good eye contact using appropriate body language and so forth. And then outline that clear path forward, right? Present the solution.
Give them a clear care plan. Set realistic expectations. Help them to know that there's going to be good days and bad days. Help them to know that they're going to have to be involved. There's going to be things that you're going to want them to do to help them to get better faster.
And clearly outline what happens next, those next steps, the costs, the logistics, and so forth. Discuss all of it so that they have a clear path and clear understanding of what is going on. And so I went through a lot of things quickly, and I want you to know that if you want a deeper dive into any of these three top topics I just talked about, new patient phone call checklist, the seven milestones of a consultation,
the five milestones of a strong ROF. We have free resources that we've developed about all these things. If you go over to ucmgrow.com, resources and then practice growth tools, you can download our new patient phone call checklist, our mastering upper cervical consultation and reports resource, and you can get a deep dive into these topics that I covered so far already.
All right. So now, reinforcing, right? So as I said, the details matter and you want to continue to communicate these concepts consistently and effectively in lots of different ways because that's what helps people to get it, right?
You can't just tell them something once and expect them to understand it, especially when it's a new concept. And so you want to reinforce understanding with as many different ways as possible. And one of those is with automated communication.
With every one of our clients at UCM, our system clients, we have a new patient email sequence that we have that is sent out for them on their behalf. And it consistently communicates key concepts that are talked about in the consultation exam report, but also in the follow-up visits that will follow as the care plan begins over those first few months of care.
And so a good new patient email sequence is key because it can solidify those concepts, give them a good understanding of those key principles, and it helps to sustain engagement. You want to bridge the gap between appointments.
You want them to be opening an email and reading something that then maybe you just talked about with them earlier in the week and now it's reminding them of that conversation. And that also helps to cultivate confidence, right?
When patients are empowered with ongoing education, it transforms them into informed participants who feel confident and proactive in their healing process. And so a new patient email sequence is key to reinforce what you're saying in the office.
And then another way that you can reinforce what's happening is with a fast results workshop. This is a must. I believe that every new patient should go through what traditionally you may have heard it, a healthcare class or a new patient orientation, whatever.
I like the words fast results workshop. I got that from Dr. Pat Lin, and that's what he calls it in his practice. It's a fantastic name, the fast results workshop, because everyone who comes into your practice, they want fast results, right?
And so if you can give them a 30-minute workshop that is going to be a, that's going to clarify complex concepts, it's going to boost active engagement so that you have a little bit of a Q ⁇ A with them within a group, group format.
And that's going to help you to improve patient results and compliance. They're going to get it more. They're going to understand that holding is healing because you want to communicate that consistently in your practice.
Holding is healing, holding is healing in every possible way during your consultation exam reports, in your workshop, in your new patient email sequence, and every, you know, in follow-up visits. It needs to be consistently communicated so patients get it because that is a concept, especially if they've been in general chiropractic environments.
It's a concept that they're not going to get initially. It's not about being adjusted thousands of times. It's about getting your body back into normal alignment and keeping it that way as long as possible, right?
That holding is healing concept really separates you from anyone else out there. And the other thing that happens with a fast results workshop, when you get every patient to go to it during their first, you know, first couple of weeks of care is you encourage them to bring someone with them, right?
Bring a spouse, bring a friend. We found that if you can come with someone else, they can pick up things, they hear things that you don't hear, and that helps you to get even better results because you can retain more of the information that we're going to give you.
And, you know, make sure that it is focused on their results, right? Talk about things that are going to help them get better results. Talk about, you know, what kind of things they can be doing when it comes to their sleep, like making sure they're not sleeping on their stomach and making sure they're not, you know, sitting with a big old wallet in their back pocket, making sure they're not constantly crossing their legs.
You know, all these different things that we talk about with patients, we want to make sure that we're emphasizing those in this kind of fast results workshop so that they get it, like that we care about the results and we care about their alignment.
We want them to hold their correction as long as possible. And then from there, let's talk about visual learning. And so the key thing with all these steps we've already talked about is making sure that there is visuals connected to what you're doing, right?
Research consistently shows that people remember 65% more information when visuals reinforce verbal communication. This isn't just theory, it's neuroscience. The human brain processes images 65,000 times faster than text, and visual information accounts for 90% of all data transmitted to the brain.
So when you combine expert explanations with professional visual aids, you're working with your patient's natural learning style, not against it. And the walls of your practice and everything that you're doing, whether it's an email you send, it's a slide you're using in a fast results workshop, it's a poster, it's a brochure, it all builds together to help your patients to get it better and better.
You know, studies from the National Institutes of Health confirm that visual learning tools significantly improve patient comprehension and care adherence. Your investment in visual education materials isn't just good practice, it's evidence-based patient care.
So here's some things. Words only. 10% retention after three days. That's what the research says. 10% of what you say to a patient, they will remember three days later, right? So that requires constant repetition.
And you have to do that. You have to have that repetition. But it's easy to misunderstand. They're going to remember 10% of what you say, right? So that's not much. They're going to get things confused.
They're going to get things backwards and so forth. But when you combine words with visuals, the retention increases from not just from 10%, up to 65% after three days, right? This reinforces automatically.
It's clear and it's memorable. And so you want to make sure you're using a combination of words and visuals at every one of these steps that we've already mentioned and what we're going to continue to talk about right now.
And so what we've done recently is we've created specific upper cervical, specific visuals, right, that are clear and they communicate upper cervical effectively. This is our new upper cervical patient education bundle, and it helps you to really communicate more effectively all these different patient education opportunities that you have in your practice.
And so this is, these aren't just, you know, educational tools. They're powerful conversation starters. They cultivate trust. They highlight your expertise and they lay the groundwork for enduring patient connections.
And the cool thing about our materials that we've created is not only that we've actually built them and designed them and wrote all the content for them ourselves. We've been writing upper cervical specific content that's patient focused for over, you know, 13 years.
And so we really understand how to communicate with patients. We understand what, you know, what is the right type of simple communication to communicate that patients get. And so that we've put all of these things into these posters and brochures.
And we've also made them so that they can build your brand trust and not just, they're not just some general materials. They are actually designed for your practice. And this can help create those patient advocates and extend your reach as they bring these brochures home with them and these types of things.
And so this is a situation where this bundle can transform your passive patients into active participants in their care. So when you use these posters on your, you know, in your report of findings or in your exam or in your consultation, and then you're using these brochures to supplement those for the ongoing visits and even during your constellation exam report, it helps them to understand upper cervical care is different,
how it works, and what makes your practice special. And so the cool thing I said with this bundle is it's upper cervical specific. So it's tailored to upper cervical methodology. And then it's customized with your logo and colors.
So it's not just, they're not just general materials that all look the same. They're going to look specific to your practice, right? So whatever your logo is, whatever your color scheme is, it's going to be consistent on all the brochures and all the posters.
So it really reinforces your brand identity and it speaks to your unique approach. And this is really going to separate you from others. And so, as I said, this is created by upper cervical experts, myself and our team who understand your practice.
It's not just created by some generic people, generic, but it's created by our team and it helps us to communicate complex concepts. And so the other thing that's great about this is it's a long-term value.
It's a $400 one-time investment. It's a single payment. That's it for lifetime access. You can get unlimited use of this as long as you want. Print as many copies as you need whenever you need them. And I mean, these are timeless designs.
They're going to last you at least five years or longer. It's a one-time investment. You can create posters for every adjusting room. You can use them in your community workshops, health fairs, corporate presentations.
Materials pay for themselves very quickly. And so the key thing with this too, like I said, is it's completely designed for your practice. And so if you want to get started with helping us with your patient education, it would start with this patient education bundle, but we do so much more to help with patient education.
And so what I would encourage you to do is schedule a patient education consult and you can talk with our team about what you're doing right now with your patient education. We'll discuss different strategies and we'll decide if our patient education bundle is the best place to start or if there's another strategy to be better or a combination is better.
We talk about the new patient email sequence and different things too. And then like I said, if you decide, hey, if we decide this is best, patient education bundle is a good place to start for you. We'll customize your materials for you.
We'll get your logo from you, your color scheme, put it all together, your practice information so that every piece of the bundle, every brochure, every poster and so forth is for your practice uniquely.
And then that's when you can more effectively educate and inspire as you get this materials, print them out in your local print shop, get them up on your walls, get those brochures in the people's hands.
Entire process, about seven business days. All you need to do is go over to ucmgrow.com forward slash education. Ucmgrow.com forward slash education. That's where you can get your patient education consult set up.
And that's going to help you to educate, inspire, and grow because every patient wants to understand. They want to know what's going on with them. And these materials and everything we've covered today can help you to more effectively communicate with your patients and educate and elevate your practice.
And so for your patients, for your practice, for your community, make a commitment to patient education. It makes a huge difference for your practice. Again, go to ucmgrow.com forward slash education and transform your patient education today.
Thank you so much for joining us today on this webinar. And as we always say, go team upper cervical.
