Let’s be honest: running a chiropractic practice is a juggling act. Between treating patients, handling admin work, marketing, keeping up with research, and ensuring your schedule isn’t a complete disaster, there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

But what if you could reclaim some of that precious time without sacrificing patient care?

Good news, you can! By making a few smart tweaks to your workflow, you can cut out the busywork and focus on what really matters: delivering excellent care and growing your practice.

Here are five time-saving strategies every chiropractor should use to work smarter, not harder.

1. Ditch the Paperwork—Use Digital Chiropractic Intake Forms

Paper forms are so last decade. If you’re still handing out clipboards at check-in, it’s time for an upgrade.

Switching to digital intake forms like ChiroUp’s Chief Complaint Survey allows patients to complete paperwork before stepping into your office.

This means:

No more deciphering bad handwriting (your staff will be happy about this).
Dramatically less time spent manually collecting patient information.
A smoother, faster check-in process for patients and staff.

Bonus: Patients appreciate the convenience, and you get more accurate, legible data. That’s a win-win.

Can you imagine walking into a consult with this detailed OPQRST summary? This isn’t a generic template; it’s a sophisticated system that mirrors your own questioning style, seamlessly gathering the right information. And the best part? It took your staff just a couple of clicks. Boom, your consult just went from 15 minutes to 3.

2. Automate Patient Education

This might be one of our favorites. Patient education is essential for excellent outcomes, but you probably explained proper posture or home exercises way too many times last week. Instead of repeating yourself, automate your patient education.

Set up a system that sends patients customized educational content, like:

Follow-up emails with exercise videos and condition-specific resources.
A patient portal where they can access information about their condition.
Short videos explaining exercises (since most patients are visual learners). (1)

This keeps patients engaged, reinforces their treatment plan, and, most importantly, frees up your time in the office. Let’s be real, ALL of your patients have the same four questions, whether they ask them or not.

If you’re not answering these clearly, they will find someone who will. The good news? You don’t have to spend extra time doing it. ChiroUp automates patient education, making sure your patients get personalized, condition-specific insights without adding to your workload. With just four clicks from your staff, they will receive:

✅ Condition reports with clear explanations and treatment plans
✅ Exercise plans with video demonstrations for easy follow-through
✅ ADL guidance to support faster recovery
✅ A patient portal for 24/7 access to their care plan

Instead of explaining the same things over and over, let your system do the heavy lifting. ChiroUp’s HealthCom app keeps patients engaged, reinforces their treatment plans, and even gathers satisfaction feedback, all while saving you time.

The result? Better outcomes, happier patients, and more five-star reviews.

3. Streamline Follow-Ups and Patient Compliance Tracking

Following up with patients manually can be a huge time drain. Instead, set up automated systems to track progress, improve compliance, and gather valuable feedback:

Automated Appointment Reminders: Use text or email reminders to reduce no-shows and last-minute cancellations. Many EHR systems have built-in options for this. Remind patients of upcoming appointments (reducing no-shows).
Post-care surveys: Send a quick digital survey after appointments to gauge patient satisfaction and address any concerns before they become problems.
Home Exercise Compliance Tracking: Platforms like ChiroUp allow you to send personalized home exercise programs and track whether patients are actually completing them.
Recall Systems for Inactive Patients: Set up an automated recall system to check in with patients who haven’t scheduled a follow-up in a while. A simple email with a subject line such as “We haven’t seen you in a bit. How are you doing?” can bring patients back into your clinic.

ChiroUp subscribers can access the detailed patient reactivation campaign, including all of the necessary templates and samples from their marketing campaigns library.

4. Stay Updated on Chiropractic Research

Want to keep up with the latest chiropractic research without spending hours on PubMed? Utilize resources that simplify the process.

Podcasts, YouTube channels, and audiobooks focused on evidence-based chiropractic care can keep you informed on the go, perfect for a productive commute.
Online communities like the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance and chiropractic forums allow chiropractors to share key findings and real-world applications.
Platforms like ChiroUp gather, summarize, and organize the latest research, allowing you to apply evidence-based protocols instantly without sifting through dense academic papers.

Here’s the reality. It is impossible for any single provider to keep up. How do we know? It takes four providers on our team just to filter through the millions of new studies and extract what truly matters.

Even more surprising, it takes an average of 17 years for new research to reach mainstream practice. (2-4) But ChiroUp delivers key findings in days, summarizing new studies and providing tutorial videos when applicable.

Instead of getting lost in research, you will be applying the latest evidence-based protocols before most providers even hear about them.

5. Automate and Outsource Your Marketing

You didn’t become a chiropractor to spend hours each day doing digital marketing, but let’s face it: social media, email marketing, and having a strong online presence are a must these days.

If you don’t have a lot of time on your hands to create and post content, set up systems that do the heavy lifting for you:

Use social media scheduling tools like Buffer or Hootsuite to batch and automate posts.
Use platforms like Canva and Opus to quickly generate images and short-form videos.
Set up automated email marketing with free tools like Mailchimp to stay in touch with patients effortlessly.
Skip the high agency fees with a simpler solution. ChiroUp’s Plus Plan provides evidence-based social media posts automatically shared to Facebook or Instagram for just $50 extra per month!

Marketing doesn’t have to be a time suck. The key? Show up where it matters. Maintain a solid online presence and make it easy for patients to find and contact you.

The Bottom Line

Time is your most valuable resource, so stop wasting it on tasks that can be automated, optimized, or outsourced.

By implementing these five time-saving strategies, you’ll:

Work more efficiently
Improve patient care
Have time for yourself

Now, reclaim your schedule! (And if you want a tool that helps with all of this… you know ChiroUp has your back.)

Increase your efficiency, improve patient outcomes, and streamline your practice with ChiroUp.

Get Started. It's Free!

1. Yaşarer, Özden, Hürriyet Gürsel Yilmaz, and Halis Doğan. Comparison of two different delivery methods of home-based exercise on neck pain. Somatosensory & Motor Research. 2023 Apr 6:1-8. Link
2. 2. Chu F. Implementation science: why should we care? Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA. 2024 Jul 29;112(3):281. Link
  3. Bauer MS, Damschroder L, Hagedorn H, Smith J, Kilbourne AM. An introduction to implementation science for the non-specialist. BMC psychology. 2015 Dec;3:1-2. Link
  4. Morris ZS, Wooding S, Grant J. The answer is 17 years, what is the question: understanding time lags in translational research. Journal of the royal society of medicine. 2011 Dec;104(12):510-20. Link

5 Time-Saving Hacks Every Chiropractor Needs to Do