Launch Your Community Acupuncture Clinic: A 30-Day Roadmap | Acupuncture Live CEUs/PDAs

Summary

Dr. Michelle Hamilton shares her journey transitioning from a traditional acupuncture practice to pioneering a successful hybrid community acupuncture model. She discusses concerns like maintaining an income and providing effective treatments with shorter appointments. The podcast excerpt has insights on serving as an introvert practitioner seeing high volumes of patients. She aims to empower others to make acupuncture affordable, accessible and build creative clinic models aligned to their inspiration to serve communities.

Takeaways

• 😊 Dr. Michelle Hamilton shares her journey from a traditional acupuncture practice to pioneering a successful hybrid community acupuncture model
• 👩‍⚕️ She transitioned her practice because she wanted to serve more patients and make acupuncture more accessible and affordable
• 💡 Key concerns before opening her community clinic were: can I make a good living doing this? And how can I provide effective treatments in a short amount of time?
• 🏥 She started her community clinic very small and scaled it up over time to a large hybrid clinic with 150 visits per week
• 🌿 Her clinic offers community acupuncture, private treatment rooms, cupping, massage and a herbal pharmacy
• 🏆 Voted #1 Acupuncture Clinic 4 years in a row from 2020-2023
• 💰 Wanted to prove you can make acupuncture affordable, accessible AND profitable
• ✨ Sees community acupuncture as an energy exchange and agreement with the world to help elevate consciousness
• 🧠 As an introvert, finds seeing high volume of patients serves her because visits are shorter and more routine
• 🚀 Encourages others to open community clinics if they feel inspired to, and assures they can make it profitable

Q & A

What inspired Dr. Hamilton to open a community acupuncture clinic?

Dr. Hamilton was inspired to open a community acupuncture clinic because her schedule was always full in her private practice and people couldn't get appointments when they needed them. She also wasn't able to treat more acute conditions that could benefit from regular acupuncture treatments because of accessibility and affordability issues.

What were Dr. Hamilton's two biggest concerns about opening a community acupuncture clinic?

Her two biggest concerns were 1) how to make a good living doing community acupuncture, and 2) how she could provide effective treatments in a short 15 minute intake.

How did Dr. Hamilton transition from a patio to a full clinic in just 2 years?

She started with high demand and created an effective system and container to provide community acupuncture. She got the word out, did a good job, and people kept coming based on positive experiences.

How does Dr. Hamilton recommend figuring out if community acupuncture is right for you?

She recommends tuning into your passion - if you feel passionate about providing community acupuncture, you will likely make it work and find ways around roadblocks. If you don't feel passionate about it, you may struggle.

What pricing strategies does Dr. Hamilton use in her clinic?

She uses a sliding scale model to make acupuncture affordable. She also offers memberships which provide additional benefits to patients.

How does Dr. Hamilton integrate private practice with her community clinic?

She has a "hybrid clinic" with private treatment rooms in addition to the community clinic area. This allows her to direct patients into private sessions if needed for issues not suitable for the community setting.

What advice does Dr. Hamilton have for dealing with needy patients in a high volume community clinic?

She emphasizes the importance of having strong boundaries. For example, patients asking for extra attention would be directed to book a private session.

What is Dr. Hamilton's specialty area outside of acupuncture?

Dr. Hamilton has an extensive background as a competitive long distance and marathon runner. She uses her experience as an athlete to treat sports injuries and other conditions.

What resources does Dr. Hamilton provide for free?

Dr. Hamilton shares free resources on her Instagram page including point prescriptions, her full moon guide, and educational offerings about community acupuncture and her lunar acupuncture method.

What topics are covered in the podcast with Michelle Grassic?

The key topics covered are: Dr. Hamilton's journey in building her community acupuncture clinic, how she treats patients effectively as an introvert, and insights into running her successful clinic model.