Chronic fixation on acquiring new patients is one of the most serious pathologies of the chiropractic profession. Spinal screenings, health fairs, patient lectures, telemarketing, autodialers, free spinal exams, coupons and countless other techniques are touted as the key to acquiring an endless supply of spines to adjust. And while these techniques can work, it conveniently ignores a much more telltale problem: most offices have a patient-keeping problem, not a patient-getting problem.

A patient-keeping problem looks like a patient-getting problem. Granted, you can't keep patients if you don't have any. (If you're a student, wondering how to get the new patients needed to fulfill your clinic numbers, that solution appears below.) Usually, however, after a year or two, most practices have accumulated a trophy case filled with inactive patient files. These are people who came in, most likely had a positive experience, but weren't persuaded to continue regular care on a preventive or wellness basis.

This is especially tragic when a voracious appetite for new patients is holding an experienced practitioner of 15-20 or more years in bondage. And no wonder. Most offices have more procedures designed to get, process and indoctrinate new patients than they do for nurturing, inspiring and cultivating relationships with already established patients. If you don't (or won't) do the latter, you'll be sentenced to a lifetime of doing the former.

What procedures would constitute cultivating established patient relationships? There are many. But take birthday cards for instance. Birthdays are one of the two times each year a patient is most likely to think about their health. (The other? New Year's Resolution time.) Reminding active and inactive patients of your interest in their health on this occasion is a no-brainer. Yet, you'd be astonished at how few offices even bother. (Is this a carry-over from school clinic where students acquire the notion that a "new" patient is more valuable than a "hand-me-down" patient?)

A periodic patient newsletter, whether printed or emailed, is another example of a patient-keeping strategy. True, you can't directly track the impact of your overtures, but many patient-keeping approaches suffer from the accountability (and instant gratification!) that is afforded new patient acquisition overtures. Newsletters are a great way to remind inactive patients that you still consider them part of your "tribe" even though they aren't coming in. Plus, it can stimulate referrals while supplying valuable information to enhance the reader's health and fortify their understanding and appreciation of the chiropractic worldview.

"Great, but I haven't been in practice for a decade or longer. I need new patients now!"

No problem. Here's the deep, deep dark secret about new patients that those trolling the waters off campus won't tell you. Here's the "short cut to success" that everyone's looking for. Here's the key to new patient abundance that many have spent thousands of dollars in monthly fees to acquire. And it only costs you the price of this book: Getting new patients is about telling the chiropractic story to as many strangers as possible.

Earthshaking, isn't it?

If you think getting new patients is about getting someone to begin care, you've crossed into territory you can't control. You can't control how another human being is going to act, unless you're comfortable using handguns, extortion or other inappropriate means. While you can't control how others behave, you can explain chiropractic principles-something most people will never get from the drug-soaked media culture we live in. If you tell the chiropractic story to as many people as possible, you increase the likelihood of someone seeing the wisdom of it and taking action.

You need new patients now? Explain the exquisite beauty and simplicity of neural supremacy. Remind others that doctors and drugs don't heal. That healing comes from the inside out. And that chiropractic is about the nervous system, not the skeletal system. Shout it from the rooftops, emblazon it on your clothing, speak it in front of clubs, groups and civic organizations and proclaim it wherever two or more are gathered.

Share it with enough strangers and two wonderful things happen. The first - you'll acquire enough scar tissue and calluses that rejection by skeptics will no longer sting, and two - you'll be the happy recipient of as many new patients as you want. Tell the story. Tell it in your own words. Tell it to anyone who will listen. And tell it in ways best suited to your personality and your capacity to help those who respond.