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M ARKETING MOTIVATION
Utilizing Community Partnerships Dr. Curt Kippenberger graduated from Logan in April 2010. With his wife, Krista, he owns and operates Focus on Health Chiropractic, a multidisciplinary practice in Columbia, Mo. Along with providing patients chiropractic care, soft tissue therapy, acupuncture and functional rehabilitation services, Dr. Kippenberger partners with several physicians and health specialists in the Columbia community to provide his patients with even more far-reaching care.
Describe how your practice works. First and foremost, all of my patients receive chiropractic care. About 98 percent of our patients also receive soft tissue therapy from myself and our two soft tissue therapists. Massage therapy is a small but important component of Focus on Health. We also take part in exercise prescription and rehabilitation activities, which are absolutely imperative for us in order keep a closer eye on our patients. In addition, we offer acupuncture for acute care and wellness patients, ranging from fertility treatments to tennis elbow, to help with addictions such as nail biting or smoking cessation. For me, I get the most benefit out of my day when I treat patients with hands-on care.
Our multidisciplinary approach comes from the other professionals in the community who we position ourselves with as a referral network. Currently, we work with several Columbia-area orthopedists and other sports medicine doctors. I see anywhere between 10 to 15 patients a month from our sports MDs, while I see two to four patients a month from the orthopedic institutes here in Columbia. We have a few physical therapy groups whom we have a good relationship with, and we share patients with them as well. Our disciplines are very complimentary.
What’s your biggest challenge in operating a multidisciplinary practice? Certainly, initially getting it off the ground was difficult. We employed Integrity Management to help with logistics and put our systems in place. Today, we make sure that we spend our time and marketing budget wisely. We market to a specific niche population. We still have a general family practice, however, we find the best return on investment by reaching out to women ages 25 to 35 and 45 to 55 who are physically active or wishing to return to an active lifestyle. That constitutes 56 percent of our entire patient population.
What’s in store for the future of your practice? Within five years, we want to be in our permanent home. We would like to bring on as many as three doctors under one roof to continue growing not only the practice, but to get different spins off of our approach. We have great roots in Columbia, and we are really plugged in with our niche community—the athletic population, the multi-sport clubs, and different running groups and gyms.
We have spoken with other providers, specifically sports medicine doctors, about sharing a building or strip mall for a facility that includes Focus on Health, a sports medicine facility and a physical therapy group—along one line of office space. That is a very attractive model without some of the headaches of the multidisciplinary management.
Besides your partnerships with other healthcare facilities in Columbia, how else do you utilize community relations? We are out in the community a ton. We sponsor a lot of 5Ks, bike races, marathons and half-marathons. I frequently hold two to four roller clinics per month, along with presenting “How to Stay Young” to the community. Our external marketing is extremely heavy as well.
What’s your advice to Logan students or current chiropractors who are thinking of opening their own practice? While I was at Logan, I frequently shadowed other practices which ranged from large offices of four or five doctors to single-doctor facilities. Those experiences helped me in making the decision to open my own practice. Also, it helps to put your plans and goals in writing. When you put things down on paper, those things start to happen. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith. It hasn’t been all success. We’ve definitely had our troubled spots when we’ve been concerned that we wouldn’t be able to pay the electric bill or the rent, and we are really thankful that those times are behind us. Now that our practice has grown and we have a great network of community partnerships, we can really focus on the overall care of our patient population.
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