The Frog Doesn't Notice

How your practice can quietly erode.

There's an old story about a frog dropped into boiling water — it jumps out immediately.

But put that same frog in cool water and slowly raise the heat, and it stays put. It never feels the moment it should have jumped.

Biologically, this isn't actually true of frogs. It’s a fable.

But it's true of practices.

No one decides one morning to lower their standards. You never wake up one day and say: “Patients are going to get just a bit less of me today.” Or, “the business performance will drop over the next month.”

It happens one degree at a time — an exam abbreviated and rote because the schedule was tight or a report of findings that never quite landed.

In an earlier newsletter, I wrote about “procedural atrophy” — how the steps that made something work are shortened until the quality quietly deteriorates. This can continue to occur until a “quality threshold” is reached. This is the point beyond which poor quality is obvious – in patient complaints and practice decline.

GRADUAL DECLINE IN PERFORMANCE IN YOUR CHIROPRACTIC AND HEALTHCARE BUSINESS

Procedural atrophy erodes not just what gets done, but the intention and care behind it.

The difficult truth about this is that -- we agree to it. Not out loud. Not on purpose. But each small degradation gets accepted because nothing bad shows up right away. That acceptance becomes the new normal. The next shortcut looks small, too, because we're measuring it against the last one, not against where we started.

This is the flip side of the elephant story I wrote about before*. The elephant never tests its ceiling — it's held down by an old belief about what's possible. Erosion is the opposite problem: a floor that quietly drops, with nobody really deciding to lower it.

To prevent this from happening, from slowly slip-sliding away:

• Look at your numbers now and what they were in the past.

• Check your purpose from years ago and what it is now.

• Review your policies and successful procedures – and what is being missed now.

• Review your patient successes.

• Do this with your team.

When I have done this with chiropractic offices, we always unearth rusty old goals, policies and procedures.

• “Oh yea, back when our numbers were higher, we would always call the new patient after the first adjustment to see how they were doing.”

It takes work, and comparisons can be uncomfortable. But it's the only way to catch water that's heating up too slowly to feel.

You must look at your business objectively – that is why we implement a fast and simple statistical management system for all our clients.

This is how you stay focused on your goals and what you're actually capable of, instead of drifting toward whatever's easiest to accept.

Stay Goal Driven,

Ed

* Increase Your Capacity

Goal Driven Metrics Program for Your Office