What 20-Minute Acupuncture Treatments Mean For Your Business
Dr. Steiner talks about 20-minute acupuncture treatments often. Twenty-minute treatments do a great deal for your practice.
It’s less of a time commitment for your patients. Less of your valuable time is dedicated to each treatment. Possibly shorter clinic shifts, freeing you up for time with your family.
All of this, with improved clinical results?? Sounds like a no-brainer.
But 20-minute acupuncture treatments can do so much more for your practice when leveraged properly so read on!
Wave Booking
There are several types of booking types/strategies: Matrix booking, Cluster booking, Time-Slot booking. All have their pluses and minuses and different types are more applicable to different types of practices.
Wave booking, however, is tailor-made for acupuncture practices to get the most out of clinic hours and see the most patients possible with the space you have. And 20-minute acupuncture treatments make this style of booking even more powerful.
With Wave booking, patients come in…well…waves. So, if you have three treatment rooms, three patients are scheduled on the hour. If you have five treatment rooms, five patients are scheduled on the hour. You get the idea.
Think about how many more patients you could help if you saw even one more patient an hour and think about what this will do to your bottom line.
Wait, what’s that, I think I can hear something, oh an objection! “How can I see three, five, seven people, all coming in at the same time, they are going to get mad because they have to wait.”
Well, does everyone really show up at the same time? I have patients who come in eighteen minutes early. Not fifteen, not twenty, but eighteen minutes early, every. single. time.
And you know what, with Wave booking and twenty-minute treatments, they don’t have to wait. I already have a room cleared out and I can get them in and cooking right away.
Then there are people who show up exactly on time, every. single. time. And, of course, there are those who show up late…say it with me every. single. time.
So the reality is, people end up waiting less when you do Wave booking.
Fast & Precise Diagnostic Procedures
When you use EAM’s clear, concise and blazingly fast diagnostic procedures, you should know what you are doing before you even walk in the room.
Or you should be able to shift on the fly within a few seconds to meet changing patient conditions.
How long does it take to put four needles in and hook up clips? A minute, two minutes?? Add that up and you should only be in the room for 4-5 minutes and then on to the next room.
Now here’s the real magic…
Maximizing Efficiency & Boosting Your Revenue
With twenty-minute treatment times you can not only Wave book at the top of the hour but you can also do a second Wave booking at the bottom of the hour!
With three rooms, you can go from three patients an hour to six an hour!
Now once you get above 4-5 treatment rooms, you may need an assistant who can hook up the clips, tape them down and get the machines set to a comfortable level, this is what really takes a lot of time in the room, not putting in four needles.
Don’t want to pay someone $20 or even $30 an hour? Think about how many more people you will be able to help and how much more will be added to your bottom line. This is a trade I will make all day every day.
My Personal Experience Using The 20-Minute Acupuncture Treatment
I’ve put below a picture of my typical schedule. I’ve talked about how this type of booking and EAM treatments allow me to help more people and improve my business. But, the other thing this does is allow me to work three, four-hour shifts a week.
I started this after COVID to condense my schedule and I’ve never gone back. I can fit up to 48 patient visits in just one, four hour shift. This has been life-changing.
Not only does it alleviate financial stress but I’m able to spend more time with my family, more time doing things that I love to do and far less time in my clinic.
Oh boy, I think I’m hearing another HUGE objection…
“My patients like me to spend time with them.”
“How do you build rapport when you are only in the room for 5 minutes?” “I have to talk to them about herbs, supplements, and lifestyle.”
Get ready for these myths to be destroyed.
Debunking Myths About Patient Rapport
Here are a few reviews from patients in my clinic:
Now, I’ll ask you, do these seem like people who feel like no one paid attention to them? Do they sound like people who have not been listened to and heard?
Each and every one of these patients received the same twenty-minute treatments. I was in the room with each of these patients exactly as long as it took me to put four needles in.
It simply does not take thirty, forty-five or SIXTY minutes to build rapport with a patient.
But think about it, even if you are only spending five minutes in the room, over the course of twenty treatments that is over an hour and a half of time spent with the patient!
If you are clear and concise with what you are telling the patient, it does not take hours of time to check in on them and convey recommendations.
One other thing… I don’t see six patients in an hour and six on the half hour every single time slot.
Sometimes it is four and then three, sometimes it is five and then two. When this is the case, I am able to go back into rooms, after they are cooking and the timer is started, and discuss things with them.
I still do this in a clear, concise fashion and only when there actually is something to discuss. Otherwise, I let the needles and the electrons do the work.
So finally before you go…
I would encourage or even challenge you to start getting your treatment times down to twenty minutes and then start doing some Wave booking.
See how you do with it, see what difference it makes for you and your patients.
Best of luck,
Steven Hoffman, L.Ac., Dipl. OM
