Nearly everyone who has grown a practice will tell you that it grew in “leaps and bounds,” and they are not kidding. It is rare that you will go from 10 patient visits/day to 11 to 12 to 13 etc. Most of the time you will go from 10 to 13 to 18 to 28 etc. patient visits/day. It literally grows in leaps and bounds.
Recognize as you are growing, evolving, making appropriate infrastructure changes and refining your communication skills, your practice is in a sense catching up with the changes you have made.
As your retention increases and more new people begin to come in there is a geometric progression of people in your practice. It is similar to if you trickle water into a bucket with lot’s of holes and then you not only plug up the holes but turn the trickle into a gushing flow of water.
Obviously the bucket begins to fill faster than you can handle and if you have not been exercising your muscles ahead of time you will not be able to carry the new bucket of water, or your new patient load.
We experience this phase as chaos. We literally are banging our heads against the ceiling. If we have not done our homework and prepared in advance for the heavier load we will drop the bucket of water and have to start over again. This would be the rollercoaster affect that we have all experienced.
If we recognize that this chaos is a necessary and beautiful part of the process and we don’t freak out, the chaos will be able to reorganize up to a much higher level of flow and efficiency. For this to occur we must first prepare in advance by refining our communication and scripts, work on our infrastructure in the office so everything is “automated” and all the doctor has to do during business hours is adjust and perform their exams etc. If we have done all of our homework then all we have to do is embrace the chaos.
Know that without the chaos we will not grow. Be O.K. with getting behind for a few days, be fine with things not running smoothly, embrace this as part of the process and when the chaos reorganizes it will do so at a much higher level instead of crashing back to where it was or even below. This is how practices grow in leaps and bounds. We experience the disorganization of chaos, we learn to ride the wave of chaos by knowing that in the greater scheme of things there is order and as we stay in the flow we and our practice are for ever changed.
This is some of how we are able to see more people in less time, deliver a better quality service and have a whole lot more fun doing it. (More on this concept to come.)
My wish for you is wonderful chaos and the ability to make today’s ceiling tomorrow’s floor.
With warm aloha’s,
Russ Rosen, D.C. – Jan 27, 2003
