There are two keys to becoming established as an industrial consultant, according to one doctor who has achieved some prominence in the field.
- Get all the knowledge you can about industrial injuries and about the industries you hope to serve.
- Learn to communicate that knowledge clearly with both workers and decision-makers in industry.
- A third key, looking at the career of Dr. Scott Bautch, is lots of hard work.
Dr. Bautch, 34, a graduate of Logan College (1983), became interested in industrial consulting while interning with Drs. Fred Barge and Mike Schroeder. Dr. Schroeder taught the first classes at Logan in industrial consulting. He was, Dr. Bautch says, "a great communicator. He taught me communication is the key."
After setting up practice in Wausau, Wisconsin in 1985, Dr. Bautch was "taken under the wing" of the late Dr. Martin Jacob, who was also heavily involved in industrial consulting. From him, Dr. Bautch learned to look at industrial consulting from the worker's point of view. "He taught me never to make a change in industry unless you involve the worker in the decision-making process," Dr. Bautch says.
He found the climb to success in the field was not easy. After opening his 2,200 square foot practice, he found himself with a lot of time on his hands. Without financial backing, he wasn't even listed in the phone book for 11 months. For the first three months, he slept in his clinic. "I had my sign and my voice -- and no insurance equality," he laughs.
Not one to sit and wait, Dr. Bautch began speaking to groups around his town -- groups from two to 100 -- "anyone who would listen." He also enrolled in the postgraduate course at NWCC in occupational health and safety.
His practice grew steadily, and after three years he was asked to join the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association's Industrial Health and Safety Committee. Seeing an opportunity, he joined, and three months later found himself chairman of the committee. He also found he was chairman of a basically nonactive group.
Dr. Bautch formulated a three-year plan for the committee to get things rolling. As part of that plan, he and other members, including former Logan classmate Dr. Steven Conway, toured 25 industries across the state of Wisconsin, observing industrial practices and asking questions about safety practices, common injuries, and industries' needs.
From the information gathered in these tours, Drs. Bautch and Conway put together a program that concentrated on getting injured workers back to work as soon as possible, using good communication between doctors and workers, and utilizing standardized return to work/limited work policies, accident reports, job descriptions, etc.
During the second year, Drs. Bautch and Conway presented the program, under the auspices of the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association, to industries in six cities in Wisconsin. "Our main objective was to get industry and chiropractors together in the same room to communicate," Dr. Bautch says. The two young doctors did all the work preparing the presentations, and even paid their own transportation and lodging. Over 2,000 industries and health care providers attended the presentations, including such giants as General Motors, Oscar Meyer, Uniroyal, 3M, Rayovac, and Sentry, Wausau, and General Casualty insurance companies. The programs were "greatly enjoyed," according to comments and surveys of industrial participants.
In 1990, Drs. Bautch and Conway presented the program to the Wisconsin Safety Congress, which had over 1,500 industries in attendance. The two were slated to do their presentation in the smallest room available. However, before they spoke, the congress organizers came and said that because of the interest in chiropractic, they would have to present the program in the largest seminar room.
As a result of that successful presentation, the doctors were asked to give the program at the National Safety Council in October of 1993 in Chicago. More than 18,000 industries were represented.
Drs. Bautch and Conway have also been invited to be observers and to present opinions before the NIOSH and OSHA committee, which is setting standards of care for carpal tunnel syndrome/repetitive motion injuries.
Through their own company, they have also developed a carpal tunnel program for use in industries, which they are selling to health care professionals. They are also in the process of publishing a paperback book on CTS for patient education.
Dr. Bautch has been asked to serve on the peer review committees of two large HMOs in Wisconsin. He wrote the chiropractic portion of the peer review for both HMOs. Interestingly, after attending the first meeting of a peer review committee, six of the MDs on the committee said they would not be part of the committee if a chiropractor were on it. Dr. Bautch kept attending, however, and so did the MDs. "Whenever they would say a medical term, everyone would turn to me and someone would explain what it meant," says Dr. Bautch. As his expertise became understood, he became an accepted part of the peer review process. "Now," he says, "I fish and hunt with those same MDs."
In addition to consulting with a number of industries in Wisconsin and Illinois, Drs. Bautch and Conway still practice. Dr. Bautch says he still puts in four days a week at his original location, seeing between 350-400 patients per week. And now, he says, he doesn't need an advertising budget: He has as many patients as his busy schedule permits.
Not bad for a doctor who says he remembers when a wrong number was exciting.
Leon Grumling, DC
Norco, California
