Working 10-13 hours per day and six days per week? Feeling snowed under with paperwork, reports to GPs, book-keeping, family demands? Wondering how you’ve gone from building a nice busy Practice to an out of control hamster wheel from hell? Is your body starting to complain about the emotional, psychological and physical stress that it’s under these days? Does this sound like you?
I have discovered an undercurrent of Clinicians working endless hours and often squeezing ‘just one more’ patient into their already bulging day. With patients often divulging their difficulties, Osteopaths are not only dealing with the physical stress of treatment but also the emotional stress brought on by a non-stop deluge of other people’s outpourings.
Hard Labour
Discussions going on in my LinkedIn Osteobiz Group are uncovering a hidden and endemic situation. Because Osteopathy is a 
‘time for money’ business, income is limited by the hours in the day. But what has startled me is the ironic phenomenon of Osteopaths so burdened by overwork that they are becoming ill. Daily, I am hearing stories of well-known and senior Osteopaths ending up with stress, overwhelm and debilitating back problems themselves.
Cases of ME, chronic fatigue and acute fibromyalgia are all common results of the workaholic Osteopath. Paradoxically, this is getting to such an extreme that the Practitioner is ending up slashing their work week in half or even closing down their business in order to save their sanity. Such are the pressures of endlessly working as many as 60-80 hours per week – sometimes spread across two Clinics!
Family strains
The stress isn’t just left at work either; back at home tiredness is putting pressure on both family and relationships, sometimes causing problems in marriages as the other party is left ‘holding the baby’ and feeling like a single parent. Following a marathon 12 hour day, it must be equally tough to arrive home to an eagerly expectant and boisterous young family who are wanting to go ten rounds before bed time.
Perhaps more needs to be done at graduation to warn against this common reality. Some Graduates are being taught that they should aim to treat a minimum of 15 patients per day. Sometimes there’s the expectation that this figure must be exceeded in order to be deemed ‘successful’. One young Graduate tells me that she’s working four days in her own fledgling Practice and three days as an Associate, involving much additional travel too.
Another lady who’s given up two successful Clinics to try and regain her health said, “I am so pleased that there is a voice out there to represent us, and to be a pause for thought in Osteopathy… on what seems to be a bit of a taboo subject.”
Stepping off the hamster wheel
So how can we, as business owners, (because that’s what we all are here!) protect ourselves from overwork?
As an Osteobiz Coach I look at each situation, see what isn’t working and find solutions to fix it. I believe that the ‘Lone Ranger’ syndrome is one of the main problems here. This is the curse of the sole practitioner where he believes that he must do everything himself from book-keeping and updating the website to cleaning the clinic.
Sadly, Tonto isn’t going to come and save anyone from this overwhelmingly long day!
These days help can be sought from an efficient online Virtual Assistant (VA) for less than £25 per hour. With treatment hourly rates worth at least double, surely it’s a no brainer to hand all that tedious ‘stuff’ to an expert who will get it done in a fraction of the time we spend fussing over figures and crying into our early morning porridge!
VA’s specialise in many different areas from website builders and leaflet designers, to book-keepers and even professional telephone answering services. It’s more cost effective than hiring staff too as you remain in control, it’s a tax deductible expense and stress free. Win, win!
Touchy Subject Alert!
We know that price is subject to supply and demand. So where there is ridiculous demand then the price is clearly wrong! I hear the objections coming at me like machine gun bullets already but honestly I promise that loyal fans will not leave! If some are not so keen to pay what the service is worth, then recommend them to a fledgling colleague in the locality. It’s the best way to reclaim some time.
Another aspect of pricing is where a Practice has an across the board policy. I don’t know any other profession where the same fee is paid no matter the experience of the provider. Quite frankly that makes as much sense as going to an expensive hairdressers and having the junior chop away at our hair! The GoSC tell me that different fees are allowed in the same Practice as long as you, “make information available, in advance of consultations and treatments, about the fees you charge, indicating what each fee covers. Any supplements should be proportionate and transparent.”
Scaled fees take the pressure off at the top and allows a patient to choose by price if that’s an issue for him. The workload is more fairly spread and the junior Osteopath takes the overload. Also, never compare fees with others in the area because they’re probably also undercharging! But that’s their business.
More strategies
Looking at the year ahead, schedule in regular breaks. Decide annual income required and divide by 11 for a monthly target. Now there’s a built in month of guilt-free time off!
Spot when the diary is getting overloaded on a regular basis and consider hiring an Associate. Offload the least complex cases and cherry pick the cases that are more challenging.
Schedule in small breaks to the day; take a brisk walk and get some fresh air, relax with some gentle music and a herbal tea or do some stretching and deep breathing. It is really vital to care for ourselves first and foremost. Those endless back to back appointments will ultimately come back to bite hard!
The Secret Internal War
It’s as if there’s an internal and secret war going on for Osteopaths who are victims of their own success. The high and noble goal of healing, battles with the relatively distasteful and ugly matter of removing cash from the wallets of the suffering. That clash could be one of the reasons for not charging properly. But correct pricing automatically regulates an oversubscribed service.
At the outset of a career, surely nobody thinks, ‘Oh great, now I can embark on my journey towards the mad hamster wheel of meltdown and exhaustion.’ That’s no vision for a happy life so we must remember we are business owners too and make some sensible provision for our own health and well being.
And for goodness sakes, every month let’s go and see the best Osteopath we can afford, before they put their prices up…
