The Famous ChiroPediatric Top 7 The Top 7 Reasons to Strive for a Practice of 50% Kids This may push some buttons, but to have a congruent practice we have to look at the following statement: If you agree with chiropractic principles and philosophy, and have a scientific understanding that subluxation begins at birth or slightly before, than a minimum of 50% of your practice should be comprised of children, and one out of every two new patient's that enter your office should be a child. 1. To save the profession. A large segment of society perceives chiropractic is for musculo-skeletal problems only, yet a very small percent of children enter chiropractic offices for this reason. If you develop a practice of 50 % children, you will most likely have a true subluxation correction, wellness practice, therefore society will know what we do and we can take chiropractic to its rightful place on the top of the healthcare delivery system of our world. 2. It will be more rewarding in practice. You will have the opportunity to watch children's lives transform before your eyes. 3. The energy in your practice will greatly increase. When surrounded by the laughter of children, hugs and smiling faces, you, your staff and your patients can't help but become energized. 4. To have more fun! You can't help but have fun when surrounded by children who are coming to get adjusted to express their greatest potential, rather than by adults who too often come in complaining about their symptoms. 5. More profit. When you provide superior service and communicate the extraordinary value that we provide for children, parents will be more committed, and will pay more for their children's healthcare than for their own. 6. You can practice longer and healthier. Because of their small frames, adjusting children renders less wear-and-tear on your body making it easy to adjust many more patients for many more years. 7. It will help prevent an entire lifetime of illness and disability in the children you care for. Simultaneously you have the ability to watch these children reach their optimum genetic potential and make the world a better place. The average subluxation orientated office is comprised of less than 10% children; this is totally unacceptable for many reasons. The children of all of our communities are being undeserved by our profession. There are 3 critical issues of why chiropractors are seeing this little number of children, which we will identify and provide solutions for in future issues. To have a congruent practice we should strive to have a practice of at least 50 % children. Drs. Theresa & Stuart Warner welcome you to grow your pediatric practice with the following list. The Famous ChiroPediatric Top 7 Top 7 Reasons that Chiropractors Average Less than Ten Percent Children in their Practice. Last week we looked at why it is so important to strive for a practice that is comprised of at least fifty percent children. This week lets look at what may hold chiropractors back from helping more children in their practice. 1. Chiropractic education. In our lectures we will ask this question," How many of you attended a chiropractic college that had a pediatric class, and in that class you were taught how to diagnose childhood diseases and refer to other doctors instead of how to detect and correct vertebral subluxation in the pediatric patient?" About 85 percent of the hands in the room go right up in agreement. Even if you had a good pediatric class, a 3-credit course does not cut it. Clinical confidence is a must with the pediatric patient. 2. Self esteem. In some circles it is looked down upon to adjust children. Chiropractors are sometimes worried about losing the adult patient if they request that they bring in their children for care. Fear of rejection prevents many conversations from taking place. Conviction and certainty can overcome this. 3. Psychodynamics or communication. How do you look at a parent and say that their child needs chiropractic care and that they need to pay for it, and that parent says "There is nothing wrong with my child, my child does not have back pain. My child is healthy." Many chiropractors do not know how to respond past this point. We must develop the education and communication strategies and procedures to communicate the extraordinary value chiropractic offers children. 4. Marketing and promotions. Most chiropractors do not have a time tested, proven systematic plan to consistently fill their office up with children. 5. It is not profitable. This could not be further from the truth. It is more valuable to adjust children than adults for many reasons. If you educate and communicate properly, you will find that parents are more committed to their children's health than their own and they will pay for it as well. 6. Chiropractor is not using a pediatric case history form. How can you expect to receive respect and credibility from the parent if you hand them an adult history form to fill out for their child. The parent is saying to themselves, "Am I in the right place for my child." Using a pediatric history form sets the stage and foundation for a successful chiropractor/patient relationship. 7. Using only orthopedic and neurological tests to determine if a child needs chiropractic care. If this is your exam there will be a lot of subluxated children walking out of your office or not even getting checked in the first place. Your chiropractic exam must include procedures that detect and monitor the vertebral subluxation in the pediatric patient. Also you must be able to demonstrate these findings to the parent. As you can see there are a lot of reasons why the average chiropractic office has less than ten percent children in it. Any way you look at it the children of our communities are being under served by our profession. We must develop all of the skills and confidence to reach as many children as possible to help them achieve a childhood of health and vitality.