Chiropractic Engagement Solutions to Drive Change in Workflow Efficiency

While it is not always easy, change is important in the healthcare industry. Enacting change can come from many places: sometimes it is done to the staff as a top-down directive, sometimes it is done with the team as a collaborative effort, and other times, it is left up to the employees to figure it out for themselves.

The most impactful and long-lasting change happens when it is done together. A patient engagement solution is a great example of how this can work, as it creates positive change for everyone through a collaborative process.

An engagement solution is a must-have in today’s chiropractic practice. Implementing it can be both a driver of change in the practice and a focus on the bigger vision of patient care.

Driving change

Chiropractors should consider how they can use change to create the culture that they desire. For example, if the goal is for staff to become more patient focused and increase patient satisfaction, there are different ways to make this happen. One might be to schedule training for employees on customer engagement, and another might be to pressure managers to improve outcomes. While this increased accountability might work in the short term, to create lasting change, the process should be collaborative with the team.

At the same time, though, it cannot be left up to the employee to figure things out themselves. A lack of all accountability will not produce any results. If the plan is to implement a new patient engagement platform, it should not be the staff’s sole responsibility to pick something that they like.

To get the positive attitudes and results that you want, the tools need to be user friendly. This is when a collaborative process should take place. Allowing staff to provide feedback about different solutions is essential when implementing and driving change forward. They will be more likely to embrace change when they are part of the process.

Vision for patient care

Ultimately, every staff member should see themselves as part of the patient care process. From the initial intake and scheduling of appointments to the billing process, the patient experience can have a positive impact on staff morale with a robust engagement solution.

This articulates the cyclical process for how it works to drive genuine change in a healthcare organization. The vision starts the process and the process drives the vision. But this can only be true if employees help find an engagement solution that works. When this is done with staff and not to them, the vision will take hold and change will occur.

Here is one example of how this can work: the team has been calling clients for years to confirm their appointments. The change that needs to happen is that this action should be automated; the vision is that patient satisfaction will improve if the system enables a patient to do this asynchronously instead of having their day interrupted. Instead of the manager simply implementing a new system, the staff members are part of the selection process of a new tool, one that will help them see a vision focused on the patient experience. They evaluate the various options, pilot the tool, provide feedback about it, and ultimately, understand everything from the beginning. This way, the team can truly see how this tool can help everyone involved.

Vision and change are like a “chicken-egg” scenario. Does the vision create the need to change, or does the change drive the vision forward? The answer is both! Regardless, the process should be done in collaboration with the staff. By finding the vision, selecting the tool, and moving forward together, the engagement solution becomes the driver of the change that you want to see in the future.