Healthspan Blog

We did a little experiment a while back that I thought was worth sharing.

In the early days of practice, many CAM docs struggle with whether or not to hire someone to answer the phone and take care of other admin tasks. After all, it may not even be ringing, right? Who wants to pile a receptionist salary on top of all that business and education debt?

The truth is, in the very beginning, it's not a big deal for a lot of practitioners. The problem arises when you start to grow and can't answer those calls yourself. At this point, many practitioners use the fallback solution of voice mail to save on staffing costs.

I was always suspicious, though, about how many people actually left a message when they couldn't get a human on the phone. After all - I hang up a lot when I can't get someone in person, why wouldn't patients?

Enter the experiment. While we were on holidays, the receptionist took some vacation too, with the exception of one task: checking phone messages. Rather than just phone in to retrieve them, however, we asked her to come into the office and use the call display information to track how many people had called, versus how many actually left messages.

The results were insightful: only a third of callers left a message.

With a full-time receptionist in the office, every one of those calls would have been answered, and many converted into appointments. Moreover, those appointments would have filled a few holes in the schedule immediately after our holidays - time that can never be "gotten back" from a billing perspective.

The point here is not just to convince you to hire staff, but also to make sure that have staff that view incoming calls as a priority. Each call is a potential opportunity to fill an opening in the book, or gain a new client. And as we've discovered, you can't rely on voice mail to do the job. It's just not the same.

Okay, so technically this isn't really a business resource, but the Rosenthal Center's CAM Information Resource has a heap of great links to online alternative health resources, including numerous journals and online databases.

It's well worth taking a look - it's an excellent compilation, and the resources are for both CAM professionals and consumers.

Link

Acne has increased alarmingly over the last five years. Sales of acne treatments in the United States increased 10.1% in 2005.

This figure represents the strongest growth rate since 2001. It is safe to say that acne is running rampant with no let up in sight.

Acne is caught up in a cycle of destruction that involves our environment, our food and our bodies.

We have technologically hoisted ourselves upon the high and lonely position of being able to orchestrate our own self-destruction.

Director-General James Leape of the conservation group WWF has unequivocally warned, “For more than 20 years we have exceeded the ability of the earth to support a consumptive lifestyle that is unsustainable and we cannot afford to continue down this path.”

Leape continued, “If everyone around the world lived as those in America, we would need five planets to support us.”

Mother Earth is now like an old engine, sputtering, coughing and she is about to come to a full stop. We have poisoned and raped her. She has reached the point where she almost has nothing left to give.

WWF-Australia Chief Executive Officer Greg Bourne chimed in, “People are turning resources into waste faster than nature can turn waste back into resources.”

We have poisoned our drinking water with over 700 chemicals. We intentionally add over 3,000 chemicals to the food we eat.

Pesticides and soil enriching chemicals permeate the food we grow. It is apparent that we are orchestrating our very own demise. Mother Earth sits back and gives as good as she gets.

Your liver is a marvelous filter. It is impossible for us to create a machine that does the work that the liver does.

It eliminates, flushes, cleans, stores, synthesizes, neutralizes, produces and converts to keep your body going.

The liver is the gatekeeper for the internal organs. There are numerous toxins and pollutants that the liver deals with on a daily basis.

These are but a few. Cigarette smoke, household chemicals, exhaust fumes, radiation, the chemicals dumped into our food and into our water.

Your liver is a key fighter in the battle with acne. The constant bombardment from outside toxins and pollutants ensures that your liver is kept extremely busy.

When we add to the mix the toxins in the food we eat, the liver now comes under direct attack. Working overtime, and under stress, the liver now needs help filtering and eliminating.

The largest organ in the body comes to the rescue…but its at a price! The skin chips in helping with elimination.

Soon, the skin becomes overwhelmed and its pores begin to clog and get blocked. That’s when acne makes its dreaded appearance.
Acne will always be an indicator of an internal body under stress.

We must stop this madness! If we destroy Mother Earth, where will we live? If we destroy our bodies, where will we live?

Brad Bahr is the editor of many health related websites and publications. He has been testing and reviewing nutritional supplements for over 20 years. After trying hundreds of products, he recommends one supplement above all others for renewing health and energy: http://www.hgh-facts.com

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