Scorn or Delight: Life as a Chiropractic Physician

What does "chiropractor" bring to mind for you?

I enjoy when my title is brought up in social context, because folks are rarely shy about sharing their perspective about my field of doctorate.  I imagine more pleasantries are offered for lawyers, real estate agents, pastors, and even customer service workers.  Something about Chiropractic Medicine conjures the desire to share a story.  The anecdote usually goes one of two ways: it's a love or concern kind of statement. 

Often, I hear about how a chiropractor in some distant city was a savior to the family--resolving numerous and surprising ailments.  This is the kind of doctor I would like to be: a physician who touches patients' lives, offering sound counsel and taking the time to empower people to live more fruitfully.

I also hear the "concerned" side--and too often.  Sometimes it starts with: "Do you know [so-and-so]?  He cracked my neck once even though I'd asked him again and again to not do it.  It hurt my neck more.  It was so jarring.  I had to stop after 3 months of visits, and he was still arguing me to stay."

I can't share strongly enough how much this story upsets me.  Both for the disappointing experience the patient had and also the future hesitancy for the patient to seek the best care possible (which may be a chiropractor).  I have committed my practice--our entire office--to delivering chiropractic care that promises 3 things:

1) We will not advise treatments that aren't helping you or you don't want.  We are not definied by our ability to adjust joints.  There is so much more we can do including soft-tissue therapy, rehab exercises, and nerve entrapment release.  Treatment should be comfortable.

2) We do not promote long term care.  You should be seeing significant improvement every week.  Patients understand that we don't use magic, but our average patient is finished in 3 visits.  30 visit averages and promotion of "maintenance packages" is unfortunate, manipulative, and not usually in the patient's best interest.

3) We will take the time required to solve the issue, including refer you to another specialist if that is what we think is best for your pain.  We spend on average 30-45 minutes PER patient and reserve 90 minutes for our new patient visits.  We put our actions where our heart is.

I hope the next time you bring up "a chiropractor I like" that you are able to talk about a different experience you've had a Tri-Synergy Chiropractic.

Value of a physical exam

The physical exam is a dying art in medicine.  Patients know this; you may have waited longer in the waiting room or filling out forms than your doctor took to examine your condition.  There is much evidence to the value of a doctor taking the time to fully examine your body and talk with you to discover what the best course of treatment might be.

A recent article: http://nyti.ms/aGv0m4, from the New York Times, which shares Dr. Verghese's work at Stanford medical school.  As a professor, I encourage my students to spend time and effort with a thoughtful history--making a great effort to listen to a patient.  A proper exam requires time not just for talking but also for inspection, palpation, range of motion, orthopedic, and neurologic testing.  'Time' is the key.  It is not possible to consider most conditions in 20 minutes.


In practice, at Tri-Synergy Chiropractic, we reserve 90 minutes for new patient visits.  We've found the best care we can offer takes between 60-90 minutes.  We average 2-3 visits per patient with fully successful outcomes because we take the time to listen to a patient, ask key questions, and examine their body before we conclude how we might help.

The pressure other physicians feel to finish a pt visit in 15-20 minutes leads to higher use of MRI, xray, and other expensive testing, without improved healing outcomes.  This also leads to a quick prescription mentality, that encourages patients to "take two of pills and call me in a week" instead of assessing the underlying problem.  There is a great value in technology, but it will never replace the importance of a physician listening and touching their patient.