In my work with 3,000 doctors, I can say that most Report of Findings are:

l        Too lengthy and take too long

l        Overwhelms the patient

What is the impact of an R.O.F. that’s too long and overwhelms?

The patient starts to think the doctor is selling to hard.

I’d like to teach you three tips that can dramatically improve the Report of Findings in any practice, while simultaneously improving case acceptance.

1. Greater Impact in less time

Studies show that our society has shorter attention spans and that we’ve become a visual society.

I suspect both changes can be attributed to the fact the average American watches multiple hours of television each week.

The impact of this is important for doctors to understand. This means:

l        Patients can’t sit through long explanations

l        Patients will respond and react to visual elements the most

You will find case acceptance improves, often dramatically, when we shorten the ROF and make it almost entirely visual based.

One of my clients was taking 45 minutes to do his ROF. He was not getting good results. He was using a 3D model of the body and the rest was lecturing to the patient about how their body was functioning.

He was taking way too long.

I worked with him and we reduced his ROF to 7 minutes. It was now based on the most relevant information.

We converted all his “lecture” elements to short, simple, easy to grasp visual elements.

His results improved dramatically.

Since 90% of practice revenue comes from the case presentation and case acceptance, it had a large impact on his personal income.

Two great questions to ask yourself are:

            “How can I reduce my current presentation down to 3 core points?”

            “What visual elements can I introduce, to instantly communicate these 3 core points?”

2. The Show and Tell Report of Findings

When I was in elementary school, my class was required to present a weekly show and tell. Since this was during the 70’s, half my class brought in their Star Wars toys to show and tell.

People react to visual models, photo’s and images faster than the spoken word or written word.

Understanding this will go a long way towards improving the ROF!

Show and tell elements tend to be dismissed by the doctor, but very much desired by the patient. They include:

l        3D Models of the body

l        Visual models, posters, graphics

l        X-Rays of “Before and after” case studies

l        X-Ray of the patients current condition

One doctor who does over 1 million a year who is loved by patients, currently does his entire ROF using visual show and tell elements. He tells me if he can’t find a visual way to quickly communicate the idea to the patient, he eliminates it from his presentation.

3. Present with urgency

If your ROF is taking longer than 30 minutes per new patient, its impact on patient flow is greater than you think.

All my best clients I’ve ever worked with, work through their ROF briskly at a fast pace.

Unconsciously a busy appearing doctor who communicates his findings concisely briskly implies an in demand, more successful doctor.

People want to do business with busy successful people.

Doctors who are struggling often exacerbate the problem, by thinking they should spend even more time on the ROF.

The reality is this makes the problem worse and causes the patient to wonder why the practice is so slow.

In summary, if you shorten the presentation, introduce show and tell elements, and present briskly, you can substantially improve your effectiveness in front of patients.

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