Effective Use of Patient Education Brochures

Patient education brochures either give instructions to help correct the health problem or explain treatment and its relation to health. The value of brochures depends greatly on how they are presented to the patient. Often doctors think of brochures only as practice enhancement by creating referrals and saving time by eliminating the need to discuss the patient’s condition. Consider the following thoughts about brochure use.

Patient education brochures help explain to patients your applied kinesiology approach to specific conditions more quickly, more easily, and more accurately. The condition is described well so that you can be brief.

Sometimes patients misunderstand you. brochures provide a written record of the information given. The patient has the tangible brochure as a reminder of you and your care after s/he leaves your office. Further, the brochure(s) can be shown to family and friends when explaining what you did or are doing for the patient.

You or your support personnel can mark certain sections in the brochures pertaining to the patient and write in instructions to be followed at home. This personalizes the brochure, making it more important and increasing the probability that the instructions will be followed.

Often patients are unaware of your scope of practice. Many of Systems DC’s brochures discuss how a basic principle of treatment affects many conditions other than what is specific to this patient. As the patient’s knowledge increases about your scope of practice s/he will recognize relatives, friends, and associates that can benefit from your type of treatment. Through your patient, word will spread about your different approach to various conditions. It is unfortunate that there are so many people suffering from health problems who are unaware of what treatment using applied kinesiology examination can do for them. Through your patient education, many more will be able to experience the benefits of applied kinesiology.

Use the brochures to help educate your support personnel, both front and back office. Plan short staff meetings around one or two brochures - for example, "Adrenal Stress Disorder" and "Hypoglycemia." Go over the contents of each with your staff and answer any questions they might have, then add your own knowledge of the conditions to the discussion. Be sure everyone thoroughly understands the condition and your approach to correcting it, then ask questions. Pretend to be a new patient who has never heard of applied kinesiology. Evaluate the answers to your questions. Train your staff to use the brochures when counseling patients or dismissing them from their current visit.

Review the brochures yourself for a quick refresher on various conditions. You may find a helpful hint you'd forgotten, or an idea you haven't used for some time.

Some of Systems DC’s patient education brochures are good for lay lectures. They can be used as handouts to reinforce your lecture material, and put your name and address in the hands of your audience. Not bad PR!

Some of the brochures are concept brochures that should be easily available to all patients to expand their knowledge of your practice scope. These should be displayed in racks in your dressing and treatment rooms - not in the reception area.

Some brochures are better used when given directly to the patients. Your attitude when giving one should be that this is something important the patient will value. Personalize the brochure by circling an area pertaining to the patient and writing in instructions. Tell the patient you'll discuss the material in the brochure on the next office visit because it's very important to the health care being provided - then be sure to do so!

Patient education brochures document for the patient your explanation of his/her case. This is very reassuring and reinforces your words.

Proper use of the brochures requires that you establish a patient education program and maintain it. It doesn't require much effort for you and your staff to initiate a good patient education program if you don't already have one; if you do have one, it's easy to streamline and update the program. It provides better service to your patient and of course it's good for your office!

With proper use of brochures you can educate patients about the scope of chiropractic and applied kinesiology. This spreads the word about the many conditions successfully treated so that care can be provided for people who would otherwise not be able to gain the benefits.