DO YOU FIT THE PROFILE?
Our survey silhouettes the new practitioner
By Linda Segall

Actions of New DCs Following Graduation

Almost half of newly graduated doctors of chiropractic are likely to begin their careers as an associate, but half of those associates break away from their employer in three years or less.

These are some of the results we found in a survey focused on profiling the new practitioner.

Each year, Chiropractic Economics devotes an entire issue to new practitioners. Although our magazine aims to help all practitioners take their practices to new levels of success, our new-practitioner issue is devoted to individuals who are just starting out.

We wondered: Just who is this new practitioner? What is his (or her) profile? Apparently you were curious, too, because 677 individuals acted on our e-mail invitation to complete the survey.

Here is what we discovered:

• Age of graduates. Respondents ranged in age from 21 to 51. New practitioners are fairly mature when they graduate from chiropractic college. The average (mean) age is 29.0.

Less than half (44.6 percent) of graduates immediately open a practice, and even fewer (7.5 percent) buy an existing practice. Almost half (47.9 percent), however, begin their career as an associate.

• Length of associateships. Associateships provide additional training that allows the associate to hone chiropractic skills and to learn the business aspect of running a practice. On average, almost half (49.1 percent) of associates work in that capacity from one to three years.

About a third (31.9 percent) associate for less than one year, while only 11.6 work as an associate for three to five years, and 7.3 percent for more than five years.

New Practitioner First-Year Actions
by Years of Graduation

• Cost to open a practice. Every business owner needs money for startup. In the case of chiropractors, 53.9 percent said they spent less than $25,000 to start their new practice; 22.1 percent, from $26,000 to $49,000; 16.5 percent, from $50,000 to $99,000; and only 7.5 percent, more than $100,000.

• First purchases. As you would expect, chiropractic tables are a high priority for new practitioners — 81.6 percent bought at least one table. Of those who bought a table, 37.8 percent bought one table; 39.7 percent purchased two; and 22.5 percent bought three or more.

Other significant “first” purchases included practice software (45.0 percent), diagnostic software (89.0 percent), diagnostic equipment (41.7 percent), and lasers (2.7 percent).

• Ancillary products. During their first year in practice, 71.1 percent of respondents also invested in retail products to offer to their patients. The most popular of these products was pillows (51.4 percent), followed closely by nutritional supplements (51.0 percent), orthotics (36.0 percent), and topical ointments (32.2 percent).

• Patient visits. How many patients per week do new practitioners typically see during their first year? The majority (61.5 percent) said they saw between 25 and 49 patients per week, while 25.3 percent said they saw 50 to 99 patients per week. Only 9.1 percent saw 100 to 149; 2.7 percent, 150 to 199; and 1.4 percent, 200 or more patients per week.

How Long Did New Practioners Associate?

AGE DIFFERENCES?

Does the profile of a new practitioner change with the age of respondents? In particular, are today’s chiropractic college graduates older (or younger) than those who graduated more than 30 years ago? And are today’s new practitioners more likely to associate to gain experience or to open a practice for themselves?

To get the answer to these questions, we categorized respondents according to when they graduated: 1950-1970, 1971-1980, 1981-1990, 1991-­­2000, and 2001-2006.

• Older new practitioners. It’s a fact: Today’s new practitioner (2001-2006) is several years older than predecessors who graduated in the 1950-1970 era. Our analysis shows a steady climbing of the age when respondents graduated from chiropractic college.

The oldest practitioners (1950-1970) were the youngest to graduate. They were, on average, 24.6 years old. In contrast, the 2001-2006 respondents were 29.8 years old when they graduated.

• Business owners. Younger practitioners seem to be entering into business for themselves sooner than new practitioners did in previous years.

Our survey showed 56.2 percent of 2001-2006 graduates opened their own practices and 10.2 percent bought a practice. Only 33.6 percent chose to associate.

Average Age of New Pracctioners(Mean)

For two decades of new practitioners (1991-2000 and 1981-1990), the opposite was true: Slightly more than one-third chose to open their own business, while more than half associated. Fewer — around 5 percent — bought practices.

• Less time associating. Almost 90 percent (89.2 percent) of today’s new practitioners (2001-2006) who chose to associate only worked as an associate for three years or less. 

About 87 percent of those who graduated in the time period of 1950-1970 associated for three years or less. However, a larger number (13.3 percent) of these now-seasoned practitioners spent five years or more in an associate role.

• Help from consultants. Slightly less than one-third of all new practitioners get help from a management consultant during their first year, according to our survey. However, those who graduated between 1950 and 1970 were significantly less likely to hire a consultant. Only 7.7 percent received this type of help.

• More patient visits. Which group enjoyed the most patient visits during their first year in practice? According to our survey, it was the most recent graduates (2001-2006), with 92.4 percent averaging 25-99 patient visits per week. This was considerably more than the group who graduated between 1971-1980 (78.4 percent). All groups, however, averaged 25-49 patient visits as their mode.   

Linda Segall is editor-in-chief of Chiropractic Economics. She can be reached at 904-567-1537 or by e-mail at lsegall@chiroeco.com.