Are you recommending too much care…
too little care, NO care, or somewhere in the middle?

I have been watching all the chiropractic Facebook groups and have seen a disturbing trend: I am amazed by how many times the same question is asked: how much care would you recommend for a patient who has XYZ? The doctor usually ends with this: “Am I recommending too much, too little…augh and help and sigh and I don’t have confidence in what I am doing but I am a doctor and should know.” OK, maybe that isn’t all typed out…but it is there, Right?  Isn’t this the deep dark secret we all have or have to overcome? What care is necessary and what care do you recommend? How do you get your patient to understand why you are recommending that schedule in the first place? 

Let’s get back to basics.  Years ago the insurance companies put together care guidelines that they liked to see and pay for.  Great for them, not so great for your patients.  This created a mindset of “treat them and street them” we started to treat symptoms and health issues and subluxations rather than correct them.  We dictated care based on symptoms or conditions rather than based on the patient’s history, consultation, examination findings, additional testing including scanning technology and radiographs.  Do you see the flaw in this?  Do you see why YOU question your care schedules?   You are buying into the fact that someone else knows better than you…you doubt that you are the best doctor and person for that patient.

You are the one who took the history, did the consultation, performed the examination (and all these components have to be top-notched and you have to understand every finding and why they matter).  So if you’re the one who did all the work, developed a relationship with the patient and know them better than anyone else then why are you asking someone else for validation?

Maybe the focus needs to be on YOU not on your patient…stay with me for a moment.  Maybe you need to focus on increasing your skillset in the consultation so you gather all the clinical history findings and explain health and healing so the patient gets that their body is capable of repair and health.  Maybe you need to work on how you explain the nervous system and how it controls and regulates every function in the body, and a fully functioning nervous system has full potential, but a subluxated nervous system shuts down that potential…and what that means for the patient, their family and their future.   Maybe you need to focus on your exam so you know every test and what it means and how it demonstrates function or loss of function and then how to explain those findings simply to the patient so they understand and get it.

Maybe you need to focus on how powerful the adjustment is and what the purpose of an adjustment is and what the purpose of a series of adjustments are.  Maybe this question is all about you…and whether you KNOW that this thing called chiropractic works or not, and works for you or only for the chiropractor down the street, or in another town with different patients…right?

I’ll continue this discussion next week…looking forward to it!

If you have questions or need guidance then I am here to help you be the most incredible doctor possible!  Call me or if you want to take it further fill out my PracticeHealth Mini Check Up and I’ll take it from there, let’s do this and let’s change the health of our communities.  Let’s raise the bar of excellence.

Kristina