BCA Clinic of the Year nominee 2022 – Sevenoaks & Beckenham Chiropractic Clinic
Nomination submitted by Chris Chippendale
2022 has been a tough year for all of us, but our entire team at Beckenham & Sevenoaks Chiropractic clinics have risen to every challenge thrown at them. They have continued to receive a wealth of glowing reviews and feedback from both existing and new patients – in particular our welcoming and friendly front desk team. Patients constantly remark to their clinicians about how much they appreciate the whole team, and how they feel their entire experience in the clinic is tailored just to them.
Communication skills have always been a big focus for us, but we all decided to up our game this year – the team took the “Social Styles” model that clinicians use with our patients, and integrated it throughout the entire clinic. The front desk team particularly enjoyed learning how they can use this with patients, and began putting it into practice right from when someone first calls the clinic.
Being able to discuss “tricky patients” in terms of their communication style and potential clashes has improved everyone’s empathy, and allowed us to handle potentially challenging situations in a much more caring and patient-centric fashion. It has also improved our ability to co-manage cases, so ensure nothing gets “lost in translation” when discussing patients.
We’ve added two new graduate DCs this year, and it’s been extremely rewarding to see the existing associates take it upon themselves to not just welcome them, but coach and mentor them as well (with no suggestion or prompting from me!). This highlights the collaborative and supportive culture that the team have created here, and I’m very proud to see even younger associates take it upon themselves to demonstrate their leadership skills.
To further foster this culture, we also created more whole-clinic events – from little things like meals out and get-togethers, to attending conferences as a whole team. Afterwards, often the front desk team took the lead with implementing changes!
We have also created new connections and referral pathways in our communities, co-managing cases with orthopaedic surgeons, rehabilitation specialists, nutritionists, physiotherapists and acupuncturists (to name a few!). This has resulted in both higher levels of care for our patients, and significantly improved their experience of their treatment. So many patients have remarked on how reassuring it is to know that we are discussing their cases together, rather than relying on them to share information inter-professionally.
We have also done our best to stay abreast of the latest evidence – in particular being one of the first clinics to implement the MAINTAIN Instrument developed by Andreas Eklund & The Nordic Maintenance Team. This allowed us to both create individual recommendations to patients regarding maintenance care, and to discover even more about what matters to each of them.
There are always ways we can further improve, but I hope the above showcases to you why I believe our team truly embodies the meaning of “patient centred”.
Nomination Submitted by Samuel Glynn
I’d like to nominate our team at the ‘sister’ clinics of Beckenham and Sevenoaks Chiropractic Clinics for the BCA’s “Clinic of the Year award”.
Speaking as an associate at the Beckenham Clinic (although I know that all of this also applies to Sevenoaks Clinic as we undertake much of our training together), we continually strive to provide the highest quality care for our patients, with outstanding customer service.
Our Chiropractors do this by regularly attending seminars both collectively, and individually, vastly exceeding the CPD requirements set out by the GCC. As a collective, we have undertaken regular ‘internal’ CPD with the goal of improving our communication during various parts of the ‘patient journey’, attended an adjusting seminar held by Len Faye in Cardiff, and recently travelled to Warwick for a day of learning with another multidisciplinary clinic, with the objective of learning from one another on a variety of health, and patient-experience related topics, to name a few.
Our reception team have also undergone in-house training to ensure that we are continually maintaining/improving our standards of providing a welcoming, caring atmosphere for our patients. Our clinic manager and other ‘Clinic Assistants’ have also done a remarkable job recently with the training of our newest CA, who has settled into the role impressively quickly.
I feel that my Chiropractic colleagues and I have adeptly, and smoothly navigated a transition/takeover period, after one of our former colleagues decided to move on to her next venture of practicing in Holland! This has been a stretch on our already busy clinic diaries, but we have all gone above and beyond to ensure that her patients continue to receive the best treatment whilst we search for a new Chiropractor to replace her.
As a relatively ‘newer’ member of the team, having joined last year, I have strived to develop and strengthen our relationships with local interdisciplinary clinics; relationships which have ensured that patients are receiving the highest quality care, and essentially seeing specialists for each aspect of their complaint where appropriate. This includes orthopaedic surgeons, physiotherapists, psychotherapists, nutritionists, yoga/Pilates instructors, pelvic health specialists to name a few.
All of this is reflected in our ever-positive google reviews, which we continue to receive regularly. It has been wonderful to have the extra work the clinic assistants affirmed, as they are also regularly mentioned in these reviews.
We continue to strive for the highest standards, and demonstrate our Chiropractic Clinic’s place within our local healthcare arena, and are specifically looking to further develop and strengthen interdisciplinary relationships in the coming year by undertaking a CPD day/weekend with some of the aforementioned array of professionals.
