If you’ve been to see us or you read our posts / website, you know we are not anti-medicine / anti-medical doctor. While it’s no secret historically there have been plenty of hard feelings between our professions and plenty remains in certain circles, we feel that we serve our patients best by working WITH all health care providers instead of fighting them at every turn. Besides, most of the medical professionals we encounter are eager to learn more about what we do and how we help our patients, and theirs as well. As our healthcare transitions to an ‘outcome based’ system where healthcare providers are reimbursed for performance instead of endless visits, we feel this integration of providers working together will become even more important. Basically, we will need them and they will need us in order to make you better!
The areas where we can help the most is in the treatment of muscular and skeletal pain. Most people know the typical family physician visit for neck pain or back pain. You go in, have an exam, maybe have an X-ray, leave with a prescription and sometimes a referral to PT. Where we fit in best is either in conjunction with this plan in the early stages or even possibly in lieu of that first. Consider the usage of X-rays. Studies show that taking plain film X-Rays (and MRI) for most of the generic day to day spinal pain people suffer with is unnecessary and in fact, can even WORSEN OUTCOMES. Consider that according to the CDC “Every day in the United States, 105 people die as a result of drug overdose, and another 6,748 are treated in emergency departments for the misuse or abuse of drugs”. Most of these drugs are painkillers. The CDC also noted “More than 5 times as many women died from prescription pain killer overdoses in 2010 as in 1999”.
So when it comes to fitting into the medical system as constructed, we feel it could be seamless if all healthcare professionals choose to work together for the benefit of YOU. There are many cases throughout our week where we are unable to help and require a referral to various medical providers, and there are many cases where people went through exams/X-rays/medications where a simple visit or two here would’ve done the trick. The time has come for chiropractic to be implemented into the flow of medical management of certain conditions so we can work in concert to improve the effectiveness of our therapies.