How long does a patient appointment need to be to provide the best quality of care. Often times when chiropractors adjust each other or a family member, it only takes 3 minutes! And yes, a great adjustment in 3 minutes may be all one needs to change a patient’s life. Alternatively, I know chiropractors who will spend 30 minutes with every patients including adjustments, soft tissue work and rehab in most appointments. The difference in profit and income between scheduling 3 minute appointments and 30 minute appointments is major. Estimating your income as a chiropractor requires careful planning and includes three variables: time, price per appointment and number of hours worked. Let’s explore:
Understanding Your Workweek
If you plan to treat patients five days a week for eight hours a day, you have 40 hours available. Realistically, you’ll need to allocate time for new patient consultations, administrative tasks, and other business-related activities. Therefore, planning for a 34-hour patient care week is more practical, factoring in the necessary time for new patients and follow-up care.
Setting Fees for Services
Setting aside new patient appointments for the time being, how much can you charge for a follow up visit in your area? Would a patient pay $50? $100? $150? Determining what someone would pay for a chiropractic visit is a great place to start.
How Appointment Length Impacts Income
Now that you know how many hours per week you will work and how much someone is willing to pay for a follow up chiropractic appointment, lets look at how appointment length will impact your income potential. We will discuss quality of care shortly. Here are four scenarios estimating a patient will pay $50 per visit:
- The 3 minute appointment – Over 34 hours per week of being 80% booked with follow up appointments at $50 a pop – your income potential is $27,000 per week (140 patients/day)
- The 15 minute appointment – Over 34 hours per week of being 80% booked with follow up appointments at $50 a pop – your income potential is $5,400 per week (20 patients/day)
- The 30 minute appointment – Over 34 hours per week of being 80% booked with follow up appointments at $50 a pop – your income potential is $2,700 per week (10 patients/day)
Realistic Projections and Growth Patterns
While it’s helpful to have projections, remember that they are just estimates, and in this care best case scenario estimates. Growth will not always be linear, you will experience fluctuations and may see 3 patients during your first few weeks in practice. I simply like comparing apples to apples for the purposes of seeing your maximum income potential with various follow up appointment lengths.
The key is to remain committed to your practice. If you’re not fully invested in your business or if external factors hinder your marketing efforts, your growth may stall. It’s essential to engage actively with your community, leverage networking opportunities, and promote your treatment plans effectively.
Quality Patient Care
A patient appointment must include a greeting, review of last visit, current history or update on condition and time for treatment. Do you know why one doctor will emphatically state that they NEED 30 minutes to accomplish all of this while another will argue that they need 10 minutes for the same quality of care? It comes down to a few things: efficiency, energy, experience and management. If you are able to review the prior visit and current history of condition while you are already palpating your patient on the table, your efficiency will increase while not compromising patient care. If you have the energy to see 30 patients in a day rather than 10, your income will increase without compromising patient care. The more experience you have, the easier it is to do more in a given visit without compromising patient care – in fact you may even improve patient outcomes. Lastly, if you are managing patient care in a tiered fashion (Ie. not trying to fix a problem in one, single longer visit – rather in 4 subsequent shorter visits) you will actually improve patient outcomes.
Conclusion
Taking all of this into consideration, evaluate the time you need to quality patient care, the rate someone is willing to pay for that time and how many hours per week you plan to see patients. You may even want to back into these numbers with your goal income.
Estimating your patient growth and treatment revenue is a crucial part of running a successful chiropractic practice. By understanding your schedule, focusing on new patient acquisition, and emphasizing the importance of maintenance care, you can develop a solid foundation for your practice. While projections are just that—projections—having a plan in place will set you on the path to reaching your full potential. Stay committed, remain adaptable, and continuously engage with your community to foster lasting growth.
Dr. Lisa Goodman is a former advertising media manager turned chiropractic entrepreneur and she believes we work in the best profession in the world! Dr. Goodman is a clinician, international speaker, author of The Manual for the Chiropractic Entrepreneur and founder of Washington Park Chiropractic in Denver, CO.
Much more about starting your practice and networking are available in my book, THE MANUAL for the Chiropractic Entrepreneur available now on AMAZON!
