Clinic Marketing – No such thing as new patient tap, clinic water pump insight.

One of our IDD Therapy Spine Centres called today to ask us to arrange for some new adverts in his local paper to promote the clinic.

The reason being there was a bit of lull in new patients starting treatment so he wanted to engage in some marketing activity.

This happens with all clinics and all businesses at some stage and is part of the ups and downs of being in private business!

But it illustrates an important point about marketing a clinic ,or any business for that matter.

The fact is there isn’t a tap you can simply turn on or off when you need new patients. There will always be a slight lag between activity implementation and the arrival of people needing your services.

The keyword to every successful clinic and business is consistency.

Using the water analogy and a metaphor from the legendary Zig Ziglar, keeping a flow of new patients is like pumping an old fashioned water pump.

You work hard and pump like crazy to bring the water up to the surface, then once the water starts to flow, you just need to keep pumping gently to ensure a steady flow.

BUT, if you stop pumping, the water drops back off and then you need to work really hard starting all over again to get it going.

So, however small the steps you take, taking the steps of implementing a strategy each day, week or month are key to ensuring a steady flow of new patients.

That starts with a goal, then a plan to get there and then the consistent implementation of the action steps to get there.

Now, one can argue that there are ways to get customers instantly.  e,g google adwords is an instant way to reach out to patients.  But, it is easy to blow your money on adwords so I would say that whilst it is a way to instantly get new patients, it does require some practice.

We could all be more consistent.

If you have a lot of patients, you may think that you don’t need to market your business for new patients.  That is particularly the case with established businesses who have enough business to be comfortable through word of mouth.

But how many times have you been so busy you were turning people away.  And if you are in that position, why not consider a satellite clinic so you can help even more people?

Consistency, consistency is the name of the game.

Expect to make mistakes along the way but that is part of the process.  Take anything which requires skill and know that the skills were only acquired by learning through mistakes.

If you need some new ideas for your clinic marketing, then get a free CD and some materials from leading international clinic coach Paul Wright to set you on the way, CLICK HERE

Author: Stephen Small
www.steadfastclinics.co.uk  

Acting as a human guinea pig to experience advanced spinal mobilisation capability of IDD Therapy

IDD Therapy is the fastest growing conservative spinal treatment.  Thoughts about the application of spinal mobilisation got me thinking about how we might make use of the parameters of treatment for different therapeutic objectives.  

In this video I act as a human guinea pig to set a treatment with an increased level of spinal mobilisation and extended duration of distraction.  That sounds more dramatic than it was since treatment is very safe, although I was slightly nervous!

IDD Therapy is a programme of treatment involving a series of one minute distraction and mobilisation cycles to decompress targeted spinal segments.

Part of the mobilisation is a patented oscillation capability at the point when the joint is distracted. Typically, this oscillation force is set at 10lbs and applied for one minute at a moderate frequency.

The computer software in IDD Therapy gives clinicians the unique ability to adjust the oscillation in line with principles of manual therapy, whether Maitland, Harmonics etc.

Oscillation Frequency & Amplitude

Differing frequency and amplitude of oscillation/mobilisation (60 seconds)                                                               Low Freq’cy      Moderate Freq’cy          High freq’cy               10lbs oscillation            20lbs oscillation

In this video, I explore what a higher oscillation force feels like by increasing the oscillation force from 10lbs to 20lbs (amplitude) at the point when the joint is distracted under tension.

Since the oscillation force has a bigger distance to travel between high tension and low tension, it is necessary to decrease the frequency, ie the number of cycles, to allow time for the distraction force to go up and down within the range of the oscillation.

This reduces the number of cycles of oscillation in a 60 second high distraction. Therefore the duration of the oscillation at the high distraction is increased from one minute to 90 seconds.

Thus the joint is opened for longer and at the same time, the joint and surrounding soft tissues are exposed to more significant distraction and mobilisation forces.

I have received many IDD Therapy treatments and observed that the combination of longer distraction at high tension and greater degree of oscillation results in a greater feeling of decompression.

The treatment feels more powerful and remains comfortable. The next day after treatment, I could feel greater range of movement, improved posture and less stiffness in the lower back.

Whilst IDD Therapy is typically given as a course of treatments for chronic disc-related conditions, IDD Therapy is used as a tool when clinicians need something more than hands alone to increase range of motion and soft tissue function in the lumbar spine.

Author: Stephen Small
Director Steadfast Clinics Ltd
www.steadfastclinics.co.uk  www.iddtherapy.co.uk

Short video demonstrates limitations of anterior-posterior spinal mobilisation for herniated discs.

The latest dynamic spine models allow us to see the effects of forces on intervertebral discs.

Manual therapy typically uses an anterior-posterior directional mobilisation to treat spinal segments.

IDD Therapy treatment comprises a targeted longitudinal distraction, with a longitudinal oscillation/ mobilisation at the point of maximum joint distraction.

IDD Therapy 25 minute treatment graph

This decompresses the discs and works soft tissues simultaneously in a way which is not possible with the hands alone.

Author: Stephen Small
Director, Steadfast Clinics Ltd
www.steadfastclinics.co.uk

Clinics in the community – get visible to be seen and remembered.

For clinics without natural footfall or street visibility then you have to work harder.  As we come into the summer there are fares and local events where you (or your team) can be out and about promoting the clinic. 

Community Marketing

Get out and about to be seen by your community.

If you are engaging in building your brand through other media, local people will already have an imprint of your brand in their minds, so this is a moment for them to meet you.

My sisters live in Leicester and a couple of weeks ago sent me this when out and about at a local street festival. You don’t need to be there yourself.
You have team members who could get out there for you or you could even pay someone to talk to people and engage people to come in.

The best part is, they often only cost £30. If not events – often for free or a modest fee, local supermarkets will let you have a table with a banner.

Author: Stephen Small
Director, Steadfast Clinics Ltd
www.SteadfastClinics.co.uk

Spinex Disc Clinic – the new name for non-invasive disc treatment in London

All physiotherapists, osteopaths and chiropractors treat intervertebral disc problems.  And yet, pain consultants up and down the country have waiting rooms full of people with back pain and neck pain, caused by disc-related problems.

Spinex Disc Clinic

Spinex Disc Clinic – Edgware Road London

Spinex Disc Clinic, a specialist back pain clinic in London helps patients caught in the back pain no-man’s land where standard manual therapy and exercise haven’t worked, and where they need something more for their pain without resorting to injections and/or surgery,

Causes and consequences. 

When it comes to back pain, cause and consequence are quite similar.  The cause of your back pain might be a herniated or slipped disc.  However, the real cause of your herniated disc is one of a number of factors such as the compression of the disc from poor posture over a long period of time, combined with a lack of exercise and so on.

So the cause of the pain is actually the consequence of changes in the body which lead to the disc problem.

All clinicians treat the causes of pain, but first of all they treat the consequences of the causes of pain.

Where Spinex Disc Clinic and other IDD Therapy Spine Centres come in, is when the consequences of the causes of pain e.g severe compression and restricted mobility, are such that manual therapy alone is not able to address the problem.

The first things to do therefore is to take pressure off the disc and improve tissue function, then the focus can be on addressing the real causes which led to the problem.

In some ways it’s like obesity treatment.

The cause of obesity is a calorie surplus each day built up over time.  The consequence of that is excess weight/ fat.  First the person has to work hard to get rid of the excess fat and then they make lifestyle changes to ensure they stay at a healthy weight.

Now, the person will make the lifestyle changes as part of the process of losing weight but they have to work harder than normal because they need to burn more calories to cut the excess.

When it comes to disc treatment, for some patients lifestyle changes alone (improved strength, more activity, better posture etc) are not enough to undo the consequences / causes of the pain.

Spinex Disc Clinic is primarily focussed on those patients with disc problems who need something more than manual therapy.

Clinical Director Sally Lansdale is a highly experienced osteopath who finally resolved her long standing problem with a series of IDD Therapy treatments.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYSH9JM4XBI]

Since then she has had two clinics offering IDD Therapy and now Spinex Disc Clinic is the evolution of those clinics now located in North West London, just off Edgware Road.

For more details about Spinex Disc Clinic, visit www.SpinexDiscClinic.com