With the face of health care constantly changing, we as practitioners must be able to adapt to the changes. One of the most consistently changing aspects of health care is insurance coverage and reimbursement for alternative health care. These changes are prompting DCs to look at new ways to increase revenue.
Product placement and sales is a growing industry for chiropractors and an effective way to recover some of the lost bottom line during the down economy. Supplying products to your patients not only provides additional income for your clinic, but also presents effective tools to continue their rehabilitation between appointments. Home-use heat therapy packs are no exception.
Heat therapy is widely used in chiropractic care prior to or after an adjustment, often in conjunction with other therapeutic modalities such as electrical stimulation. Many different heat modalities are used in the therapeutic setting, including ultrasound, cold laser and infrared light treatment. Most often chiropractors rely on the age-old standard: the hydrocollator. Unfortunately none of the above is readily available or very practical for the patient once they leave your office.
At-home heat therapy packs can be an excellent substitution for clinical heat modalities.
The At-Home Advantage
The strongest benefits of providing at-home heat therapy for your patients are at the physiological and therapeutic level. The application of superficial heat has been used in the clinical setting for many years. Some scholars believe that the use of heat therapy dates back to ancient Greece. The benefits and therapeutic effects of heat therapy are vast and include increase in muscle flexibility, reduction of chronic inflammation, decrease in muscle spasm, decrease in joint stiffness, and pain reduction associated with muscle spasms.
As we all know, flexibility and stretching are important aspects of rehabilitation and injury prevention. Increases in flexibility have been found to increase joint range of motion, resulting in a decrease in severity of joint injury. The use of thermal agents and physical warm-up prior to stretching has been shown to increase tissue elongation, assisting in pre-exercise stretching. Using a heating pad at home is a great way to facilitate the introduction of at-home exercise and rehabilitation protocols.
The increase in tissue temperature will also cause vasodilation around the area being treated and increase blood flow. The elevated vascular response will subsequently increase cell metabolism and capillary permeability, allowing for an increase in venous return, as well as the introduction of healthy blood flow and nutrients. Vasodilation is an important effect of the heat modality, especially when reduced blood flow or chronic swelling and inflammation are hindering the healing process. Chronic tendonitis such as tennis elbow and chronic low back pain are excellent examples of conditions that can be treated with heat therapy.
Superficial heat can also have a positive effect on joint mobility by increasing muscle and connective-tissue elasticity, thus decreasing joint stiffness, and aid in decreasing joint contractures. The application of heat to superficial joints can also assist in the longitudinal stretching of connective tissue, resulting in permanent elongation without causing tissue damage. Joint mobility can also be increased by reducing pain through the use of heat.
One study found that joint stiffness in the metacarpophalangeal joints can be reduced by 20 percent when heated to therapeutic temperatures (Bissell, 1999). Treatment of joint contractures or "frozen joints," as they are commonly referred to, can be difficult when collagen tissue is preventing range of motion. The use of superficial heat prior to and during static stretching of joint contractures can assist in the restoration of normal joint range of motion.
A common symptom associated with musculoskeletal dysfunction and low back pain is muscle spasm and myofascial pain. These spasms are often centered on trigger points and are palpable as tight bands or "knots" within the muscle. Commonly known as the pain spasm cycle, the body's response to injury can result in muscle spasm and pain. Sometimes it is unclear which is causing which: Is the pain causing the spasm or is the spasm causing the pain?
Researchers have found that application of a moist heat pack to subjects with musculoskeletal pain significantly increases the pain threshold at the trigger point. Heat therapy can also reduce pain by acting as a soothing stimulation of the nerve fibers, blocking the signal of the pain perception. Superficial heat modalities have been effective in treating patients with muscle spasm and trigger-point pain. Providing heat therapy packs to your patients can extend this treatment beyond the clinic and into the home. Heat therapy is one of the few superficial modalities that can be used to treat both the pain and spasm simultaneously.
[pb]The Returns: Selling Points
Offering such modalities as heat therapy for use in the home can give your patients the extra tools often needed for a full recovery. One of the keys to increasing the efficacy of a home program is education. When a patient is well-informed of the benefits of particular treatments, they are much more likely to adhere to the program or participate in home therapy.
Historically, heat therapy has been an integral part of medicine for centuries; these deep-seeded roots will make educating your patients on the health benefits quite simple. There are many resources available today outlining the benefits of heat therapy. Many people already use a form of heat therapy in the home or are aware of some of the advantages of heat therapy.
You can sum up the physiological and therapeutic effects of heat therapy to patients in one simple statement: "Heat therapy is an excellent tool to continue your treatment at home. The heat will create a soothing feeling, reducing your pain and relaxing all those tight muscles or spasm. The increased blood flow will help to carry away any inflammation and bring nutrient-rich blood to the injury site. The heat will also give the muscles and connective tissues more elasticity and allow you to get more out of your stretching routine."
Instructing your patients to use a form of heat therapy before starting their exercises is an effective way to get them thinking about home-use products. Providing the same form of heat therapy in the clinic that you can offer over the counter is a priceless form of marketing. Finding a product that will work in the clinic as well as in the home can greatly increase you success in selling to your patients. In my experience, when a patient uses a modality in the clinic and learns they can afford to have the same professional-quality modality at home, they are 50 percent more likely to purchase the product. In fact, I have noticed that DCs using the same product in the clinic that can be used in the home actually receive weekly requests for the product.
Providing the same service in the treatment rooms as you offer over the counter is also a great way to get the staff involved. Since heat therapy can be used on many patients prior to manual therapies, the patients have an opportunity to preview the product. The staff can follow up with questions about how your patients like using the product. This also leads into inquires about what the patients have at home.
Another great selling point is that these products are not a recurring expense. Heat therapy products for the home are considered durable goods and can be used year after year, making them good health investments. And because heat therapy is not necessarily tailored to one specific person, the entire family can benefit from having home-use heating pads.
After your patients have experienced the soothing, relaxing benefits of the product in their treatment, they are easily reminded in the reception area. The marketing material can be small and conveniently located in the lobby or at the reception desk.
Revenue Potential
Home-use heat therapy products are an excellent avenue for increased revenue in the chiropractic market. Close to 100 percent of your patients will or have at some point in their lives used heat; I would go as far as to say close to 100 percent of them also enjoy the benefits of heat therapy. Heat therapy is a multimillion-dollar business that is steadily growing with the aging, yet still-active baby boomer generation. As our population and the field of chiropractic medicine continue to grow, so will the market for home-use heat therapy products.
In my experience, current chiropractic sales of heat therapy products appear to depend on the volume of practice and the use of consumer-available products within the clinic. For example, a solo chiropractor who sees patients five days a week and uses a traditional hydrocollator can expect to sell 1.5 home heat systems a week, on average. The resulting revenue will be around $1,600 a year. In comparison, a DC seeing the same number of patients, but using the same product in their clinic that they sell to their patients ,can expect to sell 4-5 home-use therapy packs a week, on average. The revenue from this model can be $4,000-$5,300 per year.
Marketing yourself and your clinic is an important aspect of a successful practice. The sales of home-use heat therapy product can help you to spread the word and attract new patients. Some products offer services such as custom printing or custom tagging. This will allow you to place your clinic name and contact info on each heating pack you sell. This will not only remind your patients to call for follow-up or new appointments, but also help get your name to family members and neighbors.
Key Product Features
Remember three things when looking for heat therapy packs to sell to your patients:
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