May 25, 2025 • 19 mins
Welcome to the KC CHIROpulse Podcast.
This week’s topic: The Aligned Chiropractic Practice
The KC CHIROpulse Podcast is designed for Chiropractic professionals ready to elevate their practice to new heights. This week, the show is hosted by Kats Consultants’ coaches Dr Michael Perusich and Marisa Mateja, both seasoned experts in Chiropractic business development. This podcast provides invaluable insights and actionable strategies to help you create a flourishing and sustainable Chiropractic business.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why alignment is critical to success
- How to get your staff out of task-doing mode
- Why your mindset plays such a vital role in helping to prevent burnout
- How being critical of the profession and your practice may be blocking you from success
- …and so much more…
In each episode of KC CHIROpulse, we delve into crucial aspects of building a successful Chiropractic practice, covering topics such as establishing a strong foundation, adopting a patient-centric approach, mastering marketing techniques, achieving financial fitness, fostering effective team building and leadership, integrating technology and innovation, and navigating common challenges in the field.
Whether you're a seasoned chiropractor or just starting your practice, the KC CHIROpulse Podcast offers a wealth of knowledge and personalized practical advice to help you navigate the intricate world of Chiropractic business. Join us on this journey as we explore proven strategies, share success stories, and connect with industry experts to empower you in your pursuit of building a thriving Chiropractic practice.
Don't miss out on the latest insights and expert guidance. Subscribe now and unlock the secrets to taking your Chiropractic practice to the next level. Your success is our priority at Kats Chiropractic Business Advisors.
DISCLAIMER: The information presented in this broadcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to offer legal, investment, accounting, or medical advice, and represents the opinions of the speakers. Seek the consultation of a professional for advice in those areas. And remember…your results using this information may be different than described.
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KC CHIROpulse Podcast. Helping Chiropractors keep their pulse on success. Thanks for listening.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Michael Perusich (00:09):
Doctors.
Is your chiropractic teamaligned with you?
Hi everybody.
Welcome to the KC Chiro PulsePodcast, brought to you by Kats
Consultants and Chiro Health,USA.
I'm your host, Dr.
Michael Perusich, and I'm joinedby my co-host.
I almost said Dr.
Marisa Mateja.
Marisa Mateja (00:24):
No doctor, know really.
It
Dr. Michael Perusich (00:26):
feels like it most of the time.
Marisa Mateja (00:28):
Yes, I'm glad to be here.
You're a
Dr. Michael Perusich (00:30):
cology.
How's that,
Marisa Mateja (00:31):
cology?
I like that.
Yes that one's a good one.
Dr. Michael Perusich (00:34):
Te Ology.
Marisa, we see this all thetime.
We see.
Doctors hiring good people to beon their teams, but keeping them
in a role that's very taskoriented.
And when we're task oriented, wewind up in our own little silos
and nobody's really aligned withanything.
They're just there to do a task.
Marisa Mateja (00:55):
Yeah, it's important to make sure that,
you've got somebody on yourteam, hopefully all of them on
your team that are really thereto be a partner in your business
with you.
They're more than just
Dr. Michael Perusich (01:07):
an assistant.
Marisa Mateja (01:08):
There's so much more, there's so much more than
just an assistant in yourpractice.
And I think when we leave themin that little bubble right, of.
It.
They become task doers and we'vegotta break'em outta that bubble
so that they're not just taskdoers in our practice.
Yeah.
We need them to be so much more,not only to the practice, not
(01:28):
only to the doctor, butespecially to our patients.
Dr. Michael Perusich (01:32):
Exactly.
And you think of all thedifferent, if we just get away
from tasks, you think of all thedifferent places in the practice
that they can affect value inhelping to promote the practice,
build the practice, scale thepractice, build trusted
relationships with patients, etcetera, et cetera, et cetera.
There's so many things.
And yet, so oftentimes we seedoctors not really do enough of
(01:53):
that development to make thatactually happen because it
doesn't happen on its own.
It's a culture driven process.
Marisa Mateja (02:01):
It so is the culture that we create in our
practice.
It.
Drives them, it thrives them, itmakes them excited to be there,
those kind of things.
So if you don't have thatculture defined set up you're
not doing training, you're notdoing any kind of motivation,
(02:22):
you're not doing any of theselittle things that help them
along the way.
That's where we see practiceshaving high turnover.
The turnover just becomesunbearable when you don't allow
them to really grow and be apart of the practice and help it
grow and help that thosecollections go up and patient
(02:44):
experiences go up and all ofthose little things,
Dr. Michael Perusich (02:48):
right?
And it, it's so easy foreverybody on the team to get so
locked into.
And I'll just make an examplehere.
Take scheduling for example.
Is that being performed as atask in your practice?
Oh, hello, Mrs.
Smith.
10 o'clock is available today.
Good.
Or is it a process that somebodyis actually managing and
(03:10):
managing with heart so that thepractice, that the scheduling
aspect of the practice becomesmuch more dynamic and much more
efficient and much more, whichleads to more profitability in
most cases.
'cause you get patientengagement.
Is it being driven like that, oris it just the task?
Marisa Mateja (03:27):
Yeah, a task, what we'd see on a schedule
would be absolutely justwilly-nilly throwing people on
wherever you feel like it'snecessary to have a patient
instead of really planning thatday out cluster booking.
Looking for opportunities forwhen are the right times for a
new patient to be on yourschedule.
And of course, those of you whohave been around me know that I
(03:51):
like.
A organized schedule because itthen organizes your day and
breaks the chaos out of yourschedule.
You don't have these.
Highs and lows on the schedule.
Everything's even keeled and itmakes the practice so much
easier, not only to manage, butit makes it easier on the
doctor.
(04:11):
It makes it easier on theemployees to be able to come in
and know what's gonna happen onthe schedule.
It makes it just easier tomanage all the way around.
The schedule's really importantand if it's just a task, you
don't see what I just, Idescribed.
Chaos,
Dr. Michael Perusich (04:28):
ab Absolutely.
And I got a couple of things Iwant to add to that.
We gotta take a quick break, butI wanna come back and talk about
organization, what a key factorit is in the practice.
So docs we're talking aboutgetting your staff aligned with
you and your practice, and thatmeans a whole bunch of things.
So that's what we're talkingabout.
We'll be right back.
ChiroHealth USA (04:51):
In today's economy, every dollar counts.
Families are facing toughchoices, having to reconsider
what was once essential to them,but close to healthcare, no one
should have to compromise ontheir wellbeing because of
financial constraints.
That's where Chiro, health, USAsteps in the solution for your
practice.
We understand the financialpressures families are under.
Whether they're insured onMedicare or paying out of pocket
(05:14):
for treatment.
By offering discounts on care,you can ensure that your
patients can still afford thetreatment they need.
At Chiro Health USA, we'recommitted to making sure no
family has to sacrifice theirhealth due to financial
hardship.
We will work with you to createa game plan that keeps your
waiting room full and yourpractice thriving.
And here's the best part,offering affordable care not
(05:35):
only benefits your patients, butalso positively impacts your
bottom line.
So why wait?
Join Chiro Health USA Today andjoin the ranks of the most
successful practices becausewhen you put your patients
first, everyone wins.
Dr. Michael Perusich (06:00):
Hi, everybody.
Welcome back to the KC ChiroPulse podcast.
We're talking about aligningyour staff, your team your
assistants, whatever you call'emin your practice.
We like team about aligning yourteam with you.
And your vision and your goalsand the practice and so forth.
And Marisa, you brought uporganization is such a key thing
(06:21):
and you're fantastic at thatprocess, but you would take it,
you would take it a stepfurther.
You talked about getting yourday organized, but you didn't
just look at the schedule as aday.
You looked at it as week, amonth, a quarter, six months, a
year.
You would come to me on Mondaymornings, for example, and tell
me, Hey, there's.
(06:43):
I got seven patient slots openon Thursday and Monday right now
is looking a little light.
Marisa Mateja (06:49):
Yeah.
That's being aligned.
Exactly.
That's managing it.
That's being aligned with what'shappening in the practice.
That's knowing the fact that wehave openings coming up and if
you share that information withthose people who are on the
team, the doctors mainly right.
The other providers that are.
The ones that are going to befilling those thoughts.
(07:10):
It helps them organize it intheir head.
It helps them be able tocommunicate that then to the
patients that are in front ofthem.
Hey, you're gonna be doing someyard work over the weekend and
you're pretty flared up in thelow back.
I wanna see you back on Monday.
Yeah.
Because we know that's where ouropenings are.
Or let's say it's Wednesday.
We don't, I don't want you to goany later than Wednesday next
(07:31):
week, but I need you back on theschedule.
It gives those patients betterdirection.
Number one, that's what we'rethere for is to help them
understand what their care, isand what they need for their
condition and those kind ofthings.
So it helps them, but it alsohelps us because now we're
organizing the schedule as wego.
(07:52):
We're creating opportunities tofill slots that maybe wouldn't
have gotten filled had thedoctor not known those things.
It's vital and I will say notonly organization, but what am I
talking about?
Communication.
And I think a CA's superpower
Dr. Michael Perusich (08:09):
is
Marisa Mateja (08:10):
good communication with their doctor
and that's being aligned.
Dr. Michael Perusich (08:14):
So docs, I'm gonna ask you, what kind of
training and development are youdoing with your staff to make
them super communicators?
Because you're right.
That is their superpower.
Yeah.
You would throw me little keypieces of information throughout
the day of little things thatpatients would tell you walking
in the door.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
30 minutes late.
'cause Mahe was hurting thismorning.
(08:34):
Hey, Mrs.
Smith might have plantarfasciitis that would open up a
whole new treatment conversationwith me, with the patient.
So now I've got a patient who wejust found an opportunity to
create a brand new treatmentplan.
Absolutely.
And it, it creates anotherwin-win scenario in the
practice.
But the patient may not haveever told me that patient wasn't
gonna tell me they were late,that's something they're gonna
(08:56):
tell the front desk or youfloating around the practice or
whoever.
Marisa Mateja (09:00):
If we think about communication and we think about
our patients telling us asemployees of the practice
information, we're gonna hear alot more than the doctor ever
will.
And so some of us spend.
A lot of time with them, whetherit's at the front desk or
whether it's in a therapy orsomething like that, we end up
(09:21):
in conversations with thosepatients that the doctor will
never end up in a conversationwith.
They open up to us because we'rechatting, and you are learning
about them and what was new?
What's new with you?
What'd you do this weekend?
How'd you spend your time?
Yeah.
Oh my goodness.
Now it's opened up all thisinformation that they're pouring
out to us that maybe youwouldn't have known before that.
Dr. Michael Perusich (09:45):
Or you would open up a conversation
with a patient, oh my gosh, Ilove your shoes.
And the patient would turnaround and say, oh yeah, I got
these in New York.
We were in New York last week.
Oh my gosh.
I walked a billion miles.
Walked, walk.
Walk.
Yes.
So I had to buy some new shoeswhile I was there.
'cause my feet were hurting.
You would tell me that I'm nevergonna ask the patient about
their shoes to open up thatconversation.
(10:05):
Yeah.
It's
Marisa Mateja (10:06):
a, it's amazing all the little things that they
will share with you about reallytheir conditions that you didn't
know about.
So now all of a sudden it's ohmy goodness, you've done all
this walking.
And not only do your knees andyour feet hurt, but maybe your
low back's hurting.
When I walk a lot, that's whathappens.
Your low back can tighten upvery easily.
So you end up in theseconversations and again.
(10:29):
Communication can be oursuperpower as employees of the
practice if we're just listeningto our patients and really
paying attention to them.
Dr. Michael Perusich (10:39):
And doc I, I wanna point out two things
here.
All of us are trying to look forways to increase our capacity
and increase our efficiency.
Look what we just talked aboutthat took things off of the
doctor's plate.
You kept the clinic organizedand the schedule organized.
I didn't have to worry aboutthat.
(11:00):
I could just focus on patientcare.
You'd feed me the informationthat I needed, and it allowed me
to not have to worry about therest of it.
Same thing.
Marisa Mateja (11:10):
I I think you have to, I think you have to
make, be.
Paying attention to those thingsin the practice and making sure
that you're doing the trainingalong the way.
So I see a lot of docs thatwanna skip that part, and staff
will never know what you needfrom them if you don't stop,
slow down and have those pointsand have those discussions,
(11:32):
training and discussions alongthe way, Hey, this helps me if
you do this, or those kind ofthings.
And then all of a sudden youopen up.
A world of, oh yeah, absolutely.
I can watch for those things.
And you'll have staff so engagedand excited to come tell you
things because they know that,hey, this may increase our
(11:54):
capacity to see more serviceswith just this one patient.
We may be able to help them inso many different ways.
And hey, the good side of thatis collections and those kind of
things may go up as well.
Dr. Michael Perusich (12:06):
Exactly.
Again it creates that win-winscenario.
And so I hear a lot of doc, alot of you docs out there say, I
don't do staff meetings muchanymore.
Or we only do'em once a month,or I never know what to talk
about.
Here, I'm gonna tell yousomething right here.
This is the kind of stuff youtalk about and docs, you don't
need to talk, you need to askquestions in a staff meeting,
how can you guys.
(12:28):
This is maybe what you say.
How can you guys, as the team,as the chiropractic assistants,
how can you help make patientrelationships build stronger?
How can you help manage thescheduling process?
How can you help scale thepractice?
But here's the key.
You have to take one stepbackwards from that.
Your staff has to know what yourvision is.
(12:49):
Absolutely.
They don't know what your visionis.
If they don't know why you havea goal of seeing a hundred
patient visits a week, thenthey're not gonna be aligned
with you.
That's part of the alignmentprocess is they have to be
involved in what the vision ofthe practice is.
I.
Not just the goals and not justthe simple goals.
As a team, we talked about everynook and cranny there was in the
(13:11):
business, there was hardlyanything that was off the table
to be discussed.
And that's, yeah, building thatculture,
Marisa Mateja (13:19):
We have to remember that.
Being the chiropractic assistantis so much more than just a job.
Yeah.
Like that's that task doermentality.
If it's just a job.
It's so much more than that.
We're helping change lives,really.
We're helping, people feelbetter and be able to function
(13:40):
and all these things, and soit's huge.
To have that knowledge base fromyou as the doctors to know what
are we, what is our goal?
What are we aiming for here?
Yeah.
Why are we here?
Why are we here?
Dr. Michael Perusich (13:52):
What's our purpose?
They,
Marisa Mateja (13:54):
they can do more than what you are allowing them
to do.
Exactly.
I can guarantee it.
Yeah,
Dr. Michael Perusich (14:00):
exactly.
Joel Osteen wrote a book calledPurpose Driven Life, and it's I
only bring that up because if wedon't speak about purpose.
With our team, they don't knowwhy they're there.
Yeah my job is to answer thephones, or my job is to escort
people to the adjusting tables.
My job is to bill the insurance.
(14:21):
No, that that's not your job.
That's not your role.
That might be part of your jobdescription, but your role in
the practice as.
As a team member is to helpbuild the practice, help promote
the practice, help scale thepractice, help build those
lifelong patient relationshipsby creating trust in that
environment.
And that doesn't happen just bythe doctor doing it.
(14:43):
In fact that's probably thehardest way to do it.
It happens as a team.
Marisa Mateja (14:48):
It does.
Yeah.
And.
Those things happen when youhave set times to discuss them
and go through things.
We've got to make sure you guysare really slowing down enough
to get yourself off the mousewheel every now and then for
those things.
Dr. Michael Perusich (15:05):
Yeah, and I hear doctors say all the time,
and doctors, I'm gonna call youout on this every time I hear
this, I'm gonna call you out.
But we don't have time to dostaff meetings.
We don't have time to do a fiveminute huddle in the morning.
What?
Yes, you do.
Yeah, you do.
We saw four, four to 500 patientvisits a week, and we had plenty
of time for two huddles a day.
We had time for you and I tohave our weekly meeting.
(15:28):
We had time for our staffmeeting every week, and I don't
mean a staff meeting that was 10or 15 minutes long.
Our staff meetings would be anusually an hour and a half
because we had so much todiscuss.
Yeah.
Sometimes we'd have to schedulea second follow up meeting
because there was so much towork on.
Our practice.
The more we worked on it likethat, the better it got, the
(15:49):
better it got.
And after a while it was almostlike it was just a machine
operating on its own.
Marisa Mateja (15:57):
Everybody was aligned.
Dr. Michael Perusich (15:58):
Everybody was aligned.
Said, Hey, we gotta, let's takeanother quick break.
But we're talking about aligningyour team so that you're all
working towards the same visionand the same goals.
We'll be right back.
Kats Consultants (16:15):
Kats Chiropractic consultants, your
partner in chiropractic success.
We are dedicated with one-on-oneguidance to bring you all your
practice management needs.
Let's supercharge your practice.
Give us a call today.
Dr. Michael Perusich (16:42):
All right.
Welcome back to the podcast.
We we're talking about some,this is really good.
This is deep.
We're talking about how to alignyour team with you doctors in
instead of them just being taskdoers.
I love that term Rosa.
Instead of just making them taskdoers, let's make them partners
in the practice.
And it doesn't necessarily meanliterally, but.
(17:04):
Why not make them partners inthe practice?
Because, Rome not only wasn'tbuilt in a day, it also wasn't
built by one person.
And so when we come together asa team, and that's the whole
point of hiring people you want,you wanna hire really good
people who can help you grow thepractice, not just affect some
duties during the day.
Marisa Mateja (17:24):
Absolutely, you wanna break down those walls,
you wanna be able to find thosecommonalities between you and
who does what best.
And how does that help with youralignment, knowing, do you have
the people in the rightpositions?
Do you have, the communicationstrategies in place?
Do you have the schedulingstrategies in place?
Do you have those?
(17:45):
All of those things that bringeverybody together, kind of
thing.
All the training, everything.
It's such an alignment of all ofthose things.
It can't just be, I'm gonna pickand choose.
You really need all of that tobe able to function well in your
practice.
Dr. Michael Perusich (18:01):
Yeah.
And that alignment processhappens because you create a
culture that says you're nothere just to do a job.
We're here to serve.
We're here to support.
We're here to treat as manyspines in our community as we
possibly can and help peoplewith needs that they have.
That's what we do aschiropractors.
We're solutions solvers.
(18:22):
Absolutely.
We have solutions to people'sneeds.
So stay aligned, stay empowered.
Great things to work on in yourpractice.
Marisa, anything else to add?
Marisa Mateja (18:32):
No, just make sure that you're working
together as a team and make surethat you put communication as
one of your top prioritiesbetween everyone, including your
patients.
Dr. Michael Perusich (18:43):
Well said.
Alright, everybody, be sure togo check us
out@Katsconsultants.com,subscribe to the podcast, we're
growing because of you guys, andbe sure to share this with your
colleagues out there.
This might be a great show tohave your staff listen to as
well.
So absolutely, we look forwardto seeing you next time on here.
From all of us here at KatsConsultants and the KC Chiro
Pulse podcast, we'll see younext time.
Marisa Mateja (19:06):
See you.
Doctors.
Is your chiropractic teamaligned with you?
Hi everybody.
Welcome to the KC Chiro PulsePodcast, brought to you by Kats
Consultants and Chiro Health,USA.
I'm your host, Dr.
Michael Perusich, and I'm joinedby my co-host.
I almost said Dr.
Marisa Mateja.
Marisa Mateja (00:24):
No doctor, know really.
It
Dr. Michael Perusich (00:26):
feels like it most of the time.
Marisa Mateja (00:28):
Yes, I'm glad to be here.
You're a
Dr. Michael Perusich (00:30):
cology.
How's that,
Marisa Mateja (00:31):
cology?
I like that.
Yes that one's a good one.
Dr. Michael Perusich (00:34):
Te Ology.
Marisa, we see this all thetime.
We see.
Doctors hiring good people to beon their teams, but keeping them
in a role that's very taskoriented.
And when we're task oriented, wewind up in our own little silos
and nobody's really aligned withanything.
They're just there to do a task.
Marisa Mateja (00:55):
Yeah, it's important to make sure that,
you've got somebody on yourteam, hopefully all of them on
your team that are really thereto be a partner in your business
with you.
They're more than just
Dr. Michael Perusich (01:07):
an assistant.
Marisa Mateja (01:08):
There's so much more, there's so much more than
just an assistant in yourpractice.
And I think when we leave themin that little bubble right, of.
It.
They become task doers and we'vegotta break'em outta that bubble
so that they're not just taskdoers in our practice.
Yeah.
We need them to be so much more,not only to the practice, not
(01:28):
only to the doctor, butespecially to our patients.
Dr. Michael Perusich (01:32):
Exactly.
And you think of all thedifferent, if we just get away
from tasks, you think of all thedifferent places in the practice
that they can affect value inhelping to promote the practice,
build the practice, scale thepractice, build trusted
relationships with patients, etcetera, et cetera, et cetera.
There's so many things.
And yet, so oftentimes we seedoctors not really do enough of
(01:53):
that development to make thatactually happen because it
doesn't happen on its own.
It's a culture driven process.
Marisa Mateja (02:01):
It so is the culture that we create in our
practice.
It.
Drives them, it thrives them, itmakes them excited to be there,
those kind of things.
So if you don't have thatculture defined set up you're
not doing training, you're notdoing any kind of motivation,
(02:22):
you're not doing any of theselittle things that help them
along the way.
That's where we see practiceshaving high turnover.
The turnover just becomesunbearable when you don't allow
them to really grow and be apart of the practice and help it
grow and help that thosecollections go up and patient
(02:44):
experiences go up and all ofthose little things,
Dr. Michael Perusich (02:48):
right?
And it, it's so easy foreverybody on the team to get so
locked into.
And I'll just make an examplehere.
Take scheduling for example.
Is that being performed as atask in your practice?
Oh, hello, Mrs.
Smith.
10 o'clock is available today.
Good.
Or is it a process that somebodyis actually managing and
(03:10):
managing with heart so that thepractice, that the scheduling
aspect of the practice becomesmuch more dynamic and much more
efficient and much more, whichleads to more profitability in
most cases.
'cause you get patientengagement.
Is it being driven like that, oris it just the task?
Marisa Mateja (03:27):
Yeah, a task, what we'd see on a schedule
would be absolutely justwilly-nilly throwing people on
wherever you feel like it'snecessary to have a patient
instead of really planning thatday out cluster booking.
Looking for opportunities forwhen are the right times for a
new patient to be on yourschedule.
And of course, those of you whohave been around me know that I
(03:51):
like.
A organized schedule because itthen organizes your day and
breaks the chaos out of yourschedule.
You don't have these.
Highs and lows on the schedule.
Everything's even keeled and itmakes the practice so much
easier, not only to manage, butit makes it easier on the
doctor.
(04:11):
It makes it easier on theemployees to be able to come in
and know what's gonna happen onthe schedule.
It makes it just easier tomanage all the way around.
The schedule's really importantand if it's just a task, you
don't see what I just, Idescribed.
Chaos,
Dr. Michael Perusich (04:28):
ab Absolutely.
And I got a couple of things Iwant to add to that.
We gotta take a quick break, butI wanna come back and talk about
organization, what a key factorit is in the practice.
So docs we're talking aboutgetting your staff aligned with
you and your practice, and thatmeans a whole bunch of things.
So that's what we're talkingabout.
We'll be right back.
ChiroHealth USA (04:51):
In today's economy, every dollar counts.
Families are facing toughchoices, having to reconsider
what was once essential to them,but close to healthcare, no one
should have to compromise ontheir wellbeing because of
financial constraints.
That's where Chiro, health, USAsteps in the solution for your
practice.
We understand the financialpressures families are under.
Whether they're insured onMedicare or paying out of pocket
(05:14):
for treatment.
By offering discounts on care,you can ensure that your
patients can still afford thetreatment they need.
At Chiro Health USA, we'recommitted to making sure no
family has to sacrifice theirhealth due to financial
hardship.
We will work with you to createa game plan that keeps your
waiting room full and yourpractice thriving.
And here's the best part,offering affordable care not
(05:35):
only benefits your patients, butalso positively impacts your
bottom line.
So why wait?
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Dr. Michael Perusich (06:00):
Hi, everybody.
Welcome back to the KC ChiroPulse podcast.
We're talking about aligningyour staff, your team your
assistants, whatever you call'emin your practice.
We like team about aligning yourteam with you.
And your vision and your goalsand the practice and so forth.
And Marisa, you brought uporganization is such a key thing
(06:21):
and you're fantastic at thatprocess, but you would take it,
you would take it a stepfurther.
You talked about getting yourday organized, but you didn't
just look at the schedule as aday.
You looked at it as week, amonth, a quarter, six months, a
year.
You would come to me on Mondaymornings, for example, and tell
me, Hey, there's.
(06:43):
I got seven patient slots openon Thursday and Monday right now
is looking a little light.
Marisa Mateja (06:49):
Yeah.
That's being aligned.
Exactly.
That's managing it.
That's being aligned with what'shappening in the practice.
That's knowing the fact that wehave openings coming up and if
you share that information withthose people who are on the
team, the doctors mainly right.
The other providers that are.
The ones that are going to befilling those thoughts.
(07:10):
It helps them organize it intheir head.
It helps them be able tocommunicate that then to the
patients that are in front ofthem.
Hey, you're gonna be doing someyard work over the weekend and
you're pretty flared up in thelow back.
I wanna see you back on Monday.
Yeah.
Because we know that's where ouropenings are.
Or let's say it's Wednesday.
We don't, I don't want you to goany later than Wednesday next
(07:31):
week, but I need you back on theschedule.
It gives those patients betterdirection.
Number one, that's what we'rethere for is to help them
understand what their care, isand what they need for their
condition and those kind ofthings.
So it helps them, but it alsohelps us because now we're
organizing the schedule as wego.
(07:52):
We're creating opportunities tofill slots that maybe wouldn't
have gotten filled had thedoctor not known those things.
It's vital and I will say notonly organization, but what am I
talking about?
Communication.
And I think a CA's superpower
Dr. Michael Perusich (08:09):
is
Marisa Mateja (08:10):
good communication with their doctor
and that's being aligned.
Dr. Michael Perusich (08:14):
So docs, I'm gonna ask you, what kind of
training and development are youdoing with your staff to make
them super communicators?
Because you're right.
That is their superpower.
Yeah.
You would throw me little keypieces of information throughout
the day of little things thatpatients would tell you walking
in the door.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
30 minutes late.
'cause Mahe was hurting thismorning.
(08:34):
Hey, Mrs.
Smith might have plantarfasciitis that would open up a
whole new treatment conversationwith me, with the patient.
So now I've got a patient who wejust found an opportunity to
create a brand new treatmentplan.
Absolutely.
And it, it creates anotherwin-win scenario in the
practice.
But the patient may not haveever told me that patient wasn't
gonna tell me they were late,that's something they're gonna
(08:56):
tell the front desk or youfloating around the practice or
whoever.
Marisa Mateja (09:00):
If we think about communication and we think about
our patients telling us asemployees of the practice
information, we're gonna hear alot more than the doctor ever
will.
And so some of us spend.
A lot of time with them, whetherit's at the front desk or
whether it's in a therapy orsomething like that, we end up
(09:21):
in conversations with thosepatients that the doctor will
never end up in a conversationwith.
They open up to us because we'rechatting, and you are learning
about them and what was new?
What's new with you?
What'd you do this weekend?
How'd you spend your time?
Yeah.
Oh my goodness.
Now it's opened up all thisinformation that they're pouring
out to us that maybe youwouldn't have known before that.
Dr. Michael Perusich (09:45):
Or you would open up a conversation
with a patient, oh my gosh, Ilove your shoes.
And the patient would turnaround and say, oh yeah, I got
these in New York.
We were in New York last week.
Oh my gosh.
I walked a billion miles.
Walked, walk.
Walk.
Yes.
So I had to buy some new shoeswhile I was there.
'cause my feet were hurting.
You would tell me that I'm nevergonna ask the patient about
their shoes to open up thatconversation.
(10:05):
Yeah.
It's
Marisa Mateja (10:06):
a, it's amazing all the little things that they
will share with you about reallytheir conditions that you didn't
know about.
So now all of a sudden it's ohmy goodness, you've done all
this walking.
And not only do your knees andyour feet hurt, but maybe your
low back's hurting.
When I walk a lot, that's whathappens.
Your low back can tighten upvery easily.
So you end up in theseconversations and again.
(10:29):
Communication can be oursuperpower as employees of the
practice if we're just listeningto our patients and really
paying attention to them.
Dr. Michael Perusich (10:39):
And doc I, I wanna point out two things
here.
All of us are trying to look forways to increase our capacity
and increase our efficiency.
Look what we just talked aboutthat took things off of the
doctor's plate.
You kept the clinic organizedand the schedule organized.
I didn't have to worry aboutthat.
(11:00):
I could just focus on patientcare.
You'd feed me the informationthat I needed, and it allowed me
to not have to worry about therest of it.
Same thing.
Marisa Mateja (11:10):
I I think you have to, I think you have to
make, be.
Paying attention to those thingsin the practice and making sure
that you're doing the trainingalong the way.
So I see a lot of docs thatwanna skip that part, and staff
will never know what you needfrom them if you don't stop,
slow down and have those pointsand have those discussions,
(11:32):
training and discussions alongthe way, Hey, this helps me if
you do this, or those kind ofthings.
And then all of a sudden youopen up.
A world of, oh yeah, absolutely.
I can watch for those things.
And you'll have staff so engagedand excited to come tell you
things because they know that,hey, this may increase our
(11:54):
capacity to see more serviceswith just this one patient.
We may be able to help them inso many different ways.
And hey, the good side of thatis collections and those kind of
things may go up as well.
Dr. Michael Perusich (12:06):
Exactly.
Again it creates that win-winscenario.
And so I hear a lot of doc, alot of you docs out there say, I
don't do staff meetings muchanymore.
Or we only do'em once a month,or I never know what to talk
about.
Here, I'm gonna tell yousomething right here.
This is the kind of stuff youtalk about and docs, you don't
need to talk, you need to askquestions in a staff meeting,
how can you guys.
(12:28):
This is maybe what you say.
How can you guys, as the team,as the chiropractic assistants,
how can you help make patientrelationships build stronger?
How can you help manage thescheduling process?
How can you help scale thepractice?
But here's the key.
You have to take one stepbackwards from that.
Your staff has to know what yourvision is.
(12:49):
Absolutely.
They don't know what your visionis.
If they don't know why you havea goal of seeing a hundred
patient visits a week, thenthey're not gonna be aligned
with you.
That's part of the alignmentprocess is they have to be
involved in what the vision ofthe practice is.
I.
Not just the goals and not justthe simple goals.
As a team, we talked about everynook and cranny there was in the
(13:11):
business, there was hardlyanything that was off the table
to be discussed.
And that's, yeah, building thatculture,
Marisa Mateja (13:19):
We have to remember that.
Being the chiropractic assistantis so much more than just a job.
Yeah.
Like that's that task doermentality.
If it's just a job.
It's so much more than that.
We're helping change lives,really.
We're helping, people feelbetter and be able to function
(13:40):
and all these things, and soit's huge.
To have that knowledge base fromyou as the doctors to know what
are we, what is our goal?
What are we aiming for here?
Yeah.
Why are we here?
Why are we here?
Dr. Michael Perusich (13:52):
What's our purpose?
They,
Marisa Mateja (13:54):
they can do more than what you are allowing them
to do.
Exactly.
I can guarantee it.
Yeah,
Dr. Michael Perusich (14:00):
exactly.
Joel Osteen wrote a book calledPurpose Driven Life, and it's I
only bring that up because if wedon't speak about purpose.
With our team, they don't knowwhy they're there.
Yeah my job is to answer thephones, or my job is to escort
people to the adjusting tables.
My job is to bill the insurance.
(14:21):
No, that that's not your job.
That's not your role.
That might be part of your jobdescription, but your role in
the practice as.
As a team member is to helpbuild the practice, help promote
the practice, help scale thepractice, help build those
lifelong patient relationshipsby creating trust in that
environment.
And that doesn't happen just bythe doctor doing it.
(14:43):
In fact that's probably thehardest way to do it.
It happens as a team.
Marisa Mateja (14:48):
It does.
Yeah.
And.
Those things happen when youhave set times to discuss them
and go through things.
We've got to make sure you guysare really slowing down enough
to get yourself off the mousewheel every now and then for
those things.
Dr. Michael Perusich (15:05):
Yeah, and I hear doctors say all the time,
and doctors, I'm gonna call youout on this every time I hear
this, I'm gonna call you out.
But we don't have time to dostaff meetings.
We don't have time to do a fiveminute huddle in the morning.
What?
Yes, you do.
Yeah, you do.
We saw four, four to 500 patientvisits a week, and we had plenty
of time for two huddles a day.
We had time for you and I tohave our weekly meeting.
(15:28):
We had time for our staffmeeting every week, and I don't
mean a staff meeting that was 10or 15 minutes long.
Our staff meetings would be anusually an hour and a half
because we had so much todiscuss.
Yeah.
Sometimes we'd have to schedulea second follow up meeting
because there was so much towork on.
Our practice.
The more we worked on it likethat, the better it got, the
(15:49):
better it got.
And after a while it was almostlike it was just a machine
operating on its own.
Marisa Mateja (15:57):
Everybody was aligned.
Dr. Michael Perusich (15:58):
Everybody was aligned.
Said, Hey, we gotta, let's takeanother quick break.
But we're talking about aligningyour team so that you're all
working towards the same visionand the same goals.
We'll be right back.
Kats Consultants (16:15):
Kats Chiropractic consultants, your
partner in chiropractic success.
We are dedicated with one-on-oneguidance to bring you all your
practice management needs.
Let's supercharge your practice.
Give us a call today.
Dr. Michael Perusich (16:42):
All right.
Welcome back to the podcast.
We we're talking about some,this is really good.
This is deep.
We're talking about how to alignyour team with you doctors in
instead of them just being taskdoers.
I love that term Rosa.
Instead of just making them taskdoers, let's make them partners
in the practice.
And it doesn't necessarily meanliterally, but.
(17:04):
Why not make them partners inthe practice?
Because, Rome not only wasn'tbuilt in a day, it also wasn't
built by one person.
And so when we come together asa team, and that's the whole
point of hiring people you want,you wanna hire really good
people who can help you grow thepractice, not just affect some
duties during the day.
Marisa Mateja (17:24):
Absolutely, you wanna break down those walls,
you wanna be able to find thosecommonalities between you and
who does what best.
And how does that help with youralignment, knowing, do you have
the people in the rightpositions?
Do you have, the communicationstrategies in place?
Do you have the schedulingstrategies in place?
Do you have those?
(17:45):
All of those things that bringeverybody together, kind of
thing.
All the training, everything.
It's such an alignment of all ofthose things.
It can't just be, I'm gonna pickand choose.
You really need all of that tobe able to function well in your
practice.
Dr. Michael Perusich (18:01):
Yeah.
And that alignment processhappens because you create a
culture that says you're nothere just to do a job.
We're here to serve.
We're here to support.
We're here to treat as manyspines in our community as we
possibly can and help peoplewith needs that they have.
That's what we do aschiropractors.
We're solutions solvers.
(18:22):
Absolutely.
We have solutions to people'sneeds.
So stay aligned, stay empowered.
Great things to work on in yourpractice.
Marisa, anything else to add?
Marisa Mateja (18:32):
No, just make sure that you're working
together as a team and make surethat you put communication as
one of your top prioritiesbetween everyone, including your
patients.
Dr. Michael Perusich (18:43):
Well said.
Alright, everybody, be sure togo check us
out@Katsconsultants.com,subscribe to the podcast, we're
growing because of you guys, andbe sure to share this with your
colleagues out there.
This might be a great show tohave your staff listen to as
well.
So absolutely, we look forwardto seeing you next time on here.
From all of us here at KatsConsultants and the KC Chiro
Pulse podcast, we'll see younext time.
Marisa Mateja (19:06):
See you.
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