PostureRay®: More Than a Great Radiographic EMR- A Relationship Builder!
Saturday, February 12, 2011 at 9:41PM 
Joseph Ferrantelli, DC
Private Practice New Port Richey, FL
CTO CBP® Seminars
CEO PostureCo.
INTRODUCTION
Many chiropractors have already started to appreciate the benefits of utilizing the PostureRay® Radiographic EMR system in their practice, but fail to fully maximize one of the biggest advantages their office – outside MARKETING! Sure, once the x-rays are analyzed by PostureRay a doctor can quickly perform a digital report of findings using the digital view box, quickly and efficiently pull up any and all x-rays while at the adjusting table (with all the pertinent subluxation analysis), or export the marked up x-rays into their SOAP note software. However, few doctors use the reports generated by PostureRay to their full marketing potential.
What I mean by this is simple. You must set your office apart from everyone else in your area.
Establishing Effective Referral Relationships
Many doctors that I speak with, have found establishing relationships with medical doctors and attorneys to be difficult. For my office, this is one of our biggest referral sources are medical doctors. But how do you go about this? Well it is simple. Your office staff needs a ‘reason’ to go in and meet with the staff, doctors, and attorneys. PostureRay reports are an integral part of this equation.
On your next new patient, your office must find out who their general practitioner is, when the last time they consulted them, when are they due back to their office, and if you have your patient’s permission to send records regarding their spinal care to their doctor. Simply have the patient sign a medical release.
But here is the gem – your office staff, must personally hand deliver the reports on the new patient (normal intake narrative reports as well as PostureRay Impression reports). Thus, your reason to go in and meet them –community relationship building 101.
Your office should make a day of hand delivering to select doctors and attorneys (if you work up injury type cases). When doing so, you must present these reports on high quality paper and in color. Next, when delivering the reports, your staff member must point out how your office does detailed analysis of their patient’s spine – they should open up the reports, show the staff, and ask their staff to show it directly to the doctor or attorney. Your staff should reiterate that the chiropractor has identified several spinal conditions of concern for which chiropractic can benefit the patient.
Even better is when the patient has a consult within the same week your staff delivers their reports. If the patient is scheduled to go to their office for a follow up visit, encourage them to bring their “Report of Findings Packet” to their appointment. The doctor/PA may not have time to read through everything, but here is the key – they will see how professional it is, and note your office’s name! It’s simple marketing 101. Additionally, the doctor’s office usually copies the patient report of findings packet for their file, so be sure to have your short bio attached.
Now, in most cases, general doctors or attorneys rarely see the actual x-ray images, so this will be a good educational experience for the doctor/attorney, especially, when they can see their patient/client’s spine compared to normal, with red and green lines, and all the thorough analysis – making your office then look like the most sophisticated chiropractic facility in your area! After a few trips to their office, your staff member grows a working relationship with their office, becomes on first name basis with them, and eventually at this point, your staff member should ask if it is ok for you to schedule a quick meeting with their office and the doctor or attorney –maybe offer to cater lunch.
At this point, your staff member is already friends with their staff – so this meeting is very low stress for both offices. At this time, you can quickly, succinctly, and most of all scientifically – relate your office’s version of chiropractic – CBP® Technique to the staff doctors or attorneys in the case of a law office. Be sure to have several pre/post cases to discuss and some relevant scientific research papers, your CV, a chiropractic referral script pad and business cards. Best of all, they usually never referred you the patient to start with! Be patient though, relationships grow slowly – this may take several months to foster.
SUMMARY
These techniques are simple and common sense, but are often a forgotten method of building a practice and if you are looking to grow your practice, you should consider these simple marketing strategies. The PostureRay Radiographic Specific EMR can help jump start your community relationships in 2011.
For more information, or sample reports – please visit www.postureco.com. Be sure to ask about our new AMA Method of instability analysis and all new 3D Patient Educational Modules.