"I just don't understand it. I hire these associate doctors, expecting them to take charge. All I get is excuses why things don't get done----why their practices aren't growing."
Doctor, if you've ever said this to yourself, you could be rewarding associates for avoiding risk taking. Your associates are more comfortable being safe and sure. So, they do only that which is expected. They avoid the new and untried.
Healthy, growing practices encourage their associate doctors to take smart risks. They give them the leeway to be wrong. Progressive senior doctors recognize the importance of intelligent risk taking. They realize that resourceful mistakes are a part of the price paid for personal and professional growth.
Personality tests given to low, average, and top-performing doctors reveal that top performers show the greatest willingness to take risks. Low-level performers are comfortable with security. They try to appear important without taking risks. Average performers are less security conscience. Like low performers, average performers are preoccupied with looking effective rather than being effective.
Peak performers receive enjoyment from work itself. Their strongest drives are for achievement. They focus on being the best they can be. They are risk takers -- the doctors that are responsible for the growth of any chiropractic practice. In the majority of chiropractic practices, peak performers are individually responsible for the success of "their" practice. The low and average performers ride along on the coattails of the peak-performing risk takers. Every growing and profitable chiropractic practice must establish a comfortable risk taking level. In addition, the associate doctors who work in the practice must be encouraged to take intelligent risks.
You can convert your risk avoiders into risk takers. Create a climate that promotes, rewards, and supports risk taking. If you don't reward risk taking, most people will avoid it. Give your associate doctors a positive environment in which they can learn from their mistakes without fearing punishment.
Strategy: Instill in your associate doctors that intelligent errors are part of the cost of progress. Whenever your doctors try to take an unexpected leap forward, encourage this progress.
Strategy: Be an example of a risk taker. Don't try to hide your mistakes from your associate doctors. You don't need to be right all the time.
If you aren't making some mistakes, chances are you're not taking enough risks. Talk openly and honestly about the mistakes you make and what you learn from them. Share your concerns about the risk you were afraid to take but decide to go ahead and try. Reaffirm the benefits that resulted from the apprehensive risks.
Strategy: Celebrate both success and setbacks. Accolades and other rewards traditionally are given to associate doctors who achieve great things. Few doctors celebrate mistakes. Don't ignore the doctors who take chances, give it their all and fall flat out on their faces. They won't take another risk unless you give them appropriate support and encouragement for trying. When an associate doctor says to himself or some other person, "I tried, but no one around here really cares," he develops a negative attitude about future risks.
Strategy: Encourage intelligent risks. Isolating a few successful ideas requires starting out with many ideas. Create a comfortable and positive environment in which your associate doctors can explore new ideas. Then give them a way to evaluate the risk they are considering taking. Smart risks require several key ingredients:
Readers are invited to write to me:
Brian Porteous, D.C.
2042 Business Center Drive
Irvine, California 92715
Please include your self-addressed, stamped envelope. Thank you.
Many relevant diagnostic signs are not performed deliberately by the examiner or by the patient at the examiner’s direction. They are observed as the patient reacts to their condition. Fortin’s finger sign, Minor’s sign, and Vanzetti’s sign are three examples of this principle.
On Feb. 1, 2024, two more legislators – John R. Carter (R-Texas) and Robert “Bob” Good (R-Va.) – co-sponsored the Chiropractic Medicare Coverage Modernization Act of 2023, bringing the co-sponsor total to 155, two more than the total achieved over the entire two-year congressional cycle in which identical legislation last appeared (2021-22).
While working at the Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, N.M., one of the primary care physicians stated that imaging every patient prior to receiving chiropractic was not medically necessary. It was at that point I reconsidered the need for the imaging of every patient to avoid malpractice.
