The Value of Demographic Factors in Opening a Successful Practice: Part XIII, Capacity
Is your office up to it?
True capacity is a space looking for a place to work. Capacity is judged not by the number of open time slots throughout the day, but by the ability to successfully care for the peak number of patients in early morning and end of the day. If you can’t care for more patients during the peak hours, you have a capacity problem.
Your office’s square footage and room layout is important, but capacity also depends on the quality and usability of your tables, therapy units, and other equipment. Using your X-ray room for an overflow treatment or examination room is also a viable option. Make every square foot count. Your reception room doesn’t help you treat your patients and should only have enough chairs to equal the number of treatment rooms you have. If you have proper patient flow, your reception room should be empty. Combine your consultation room with one of your treatment rooms.
The ability to focus and treat your patients’ chief complaint on each visit is an art many doctors never learn. Many doctors feel they have to engage in small talk to empathize with their patients at each visit. While your patients want a friendly doctor that listens, they don’t appreciate a conversationalist. Be open, listen and answer to your patients’ chief complaint if you wish to achieve true patient capacity. Honor your patients’ time and you will keep on time to achieve true practice capacity.
Making this all work together requires a secret ingredient – your staff. Without well-trained staff, your office is just brick and mortar. Your office team makes it work to serve your patients effectively.
Use the Chiromap program in the Office of Alumni and Career Services or see http://locusmap.com/ to order studies. For information, our e-mail address is: info@locusmap.com or call (800) 743-6676.