Schedules of Care that Work

Warm hellos to everyone!
Ok……I need to mention an issue which I wrote about some time ago and I’ve alluded to it in my weekly tips.  It’s a bit of a thorny issue and it keeps resurfacing – Appropriate Schedules of Care.  We seem to have two trains of thought and two sets of values when it comes to adjusting our patients: One which is real and one which is politically expedient.Let’s look at the political reason first:
Many doctors, and you may be one of them, have great difficulty with the fact that Chiropractic actually works. Few have actually seen it. (Oh, my……a little blasphemy in the middle of your week…..good for the adrenalin.)

I talk with doctors all over the world and many have not seen that an adjustment helps a patient with Asthma, or Colitis, Crohn’s, or Ear Infections, or Infertility, or Colic, or…..Don’t get me wrong, all of us want to see these stellar results and have all these amazing and wonderful stories they’ve heard from others become real.  But….it is not happening for you.  Is it because you are just not good enough with your hands? Is that it?  Absolutely not!  BJ once said: “Hit them over the head with a shovel and they’ll get better.”  So that’s not the reason!

What is then? Why is it that some other DC always has all these amazing results and you are left sucking your thumb?

Here’s what I found:
Most doctors DO NOT place their patients on appropriate schedules of care – care which is designed to actually correct their subluxation patterning. They adjust their patients until symptoms begin to subside – maybe, the patient feels better, and then place them on some sort of a “maintenance schedule” – whatever that means. Ok….I am really cutting it close!

Here is a typical schedule I would see: 3x/week for 2-4 weeks, then 2x/ week for 3-6 weeks, then 1x/wk for 10 weeks or so, and then “Maintenance Care” – whatever.
Some 35-40 adjustments (this is only an example) or so.

I have to tell you this: In my experience, most of these schedules simply maintain the problem the patient has come to see you with originally!  The only difference is that now the patient has no symptoms (maybe), and feels wonderful in most cases. You’ve solved the problem! (from their perspective) Hmmm…The difficulty with this approach is that a few years into care, the patient will confront you with the fact that their x-rays are now looking worse and your patient’s problem is rearing up its ugly head. He/she says to you, “Doc, it’s back!” Your patient wants to know why? Why has their condition advanced after they have paid you all their hard-earned dollars for you to prevent it and “maintain” them?

Now…. you are babbling defensively something about “Limitation of Matter”.
Not a good place to be……As soon as you become defensive, you’ve lost all credibility and they will most likely leave you.  Your patient may also request their money back that they’ve paid you for the last 10 years and may seek legal counsel.  That can become an ugly problem.

The other reason is this:
Most of us adjust our own children, spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, lover, etc.
I really need to you to get this: These people are incredibly close to us, and are adjusted at least 1x/wk to 3x/wk on a regular basis – week after week and year after year.  Why?  Because we love them and we know that Chiropractic is indispensable!  So let’s do the math here: This translates into somewhere between 52-156 adjustments in any given year.  And this is for people we love and who have no “problems.”  WOW!!! I mean, really?
Think about it……..that is a “lot of care.” Isn’t it?

So why don’t we translate this approach to a live, paying patient? Why don’t we apply that same philosophy and take care of our patients with that exact same panache and love as we do our loved ones? Are they lesser life forms? Do they take a back seat somehow?  You see? This is an example of us having two sets of values.  Right?  Perhaps our thinking needs to change?

I really want you to understand this: A Vertebral Subluxation is a habit – an error in neural programming.  It is a habit your patient’s body has learned. It is faulty programming.  It is a habit that has been formed years ago, probably as a child, and has directed the re-programming of the nervous system. It has
affected patient physiology.  And in its Wisdom, the Nervous System has redirected your patient’s physiology to minimize the impact of this Vertebral Subluxation on body economy and function: Adaptability.

Do you realistically think that your schedule of care for some 40 visits or so will break and annihilate that habit? If you say, yes, I have some ocean front property for you in Oklahoma.  Should you perhaps explain to your patient what I am explaining to you and place them on a schedule of care designed to wipe this out? To blow it out of their universe? To annihilate it? To end it?

I can tell you that your patients would want to hear this, and…they will be incredibly interested in a different approach. And they would have no problem paying for that level of care and competence!  Why?  Simple.
It is what all patients want. It’s what they’re looking for.
I teach my doctors that there are 10 clinical parameters that need to be carefully considered and taken into account when designing an appropriate schedule of care for patients.  Ten of them!
It would be important for you to learn what they are!

So….no more “being nice”.  Do your job. Tell your patients what they need, NOT what you think they’ll accept, pay for, be ok with, buy into, sign up for, etc.  Take care of the needs of your patients – even if at first it feels uncomfortable.  Do that which you were trained for.
Be an amazing doctor!
My warmest wishes,

Dr. Kristina – Chiropractic Coach

My next Program starts in Salt Lake City on August 10-12.
If you’ve been eyeing it for some time but have been a little timid to call me, this would be a good time to do so. This is your chance to change your life!
No more being needy for you! No more struggling, no being desperate, no trying to sell Chiropractic, no marketing your brains out, no fear tactics, no desperate dinner workshops, no being needy and absolutely no BS!Instead, you will learn what it takes to be the most sought-after doctor in your community!
You will learn how to practice with great honesty, transparency, clinical competence, power, confidence, certainty, and be regarded by your community as being the very best they have ever seen.  And…..you will learn how to run an ultra-successful Wellness practice full of children and families – my specialty!
Please check out our website and complete our Practice Health Mini Check Up.
We’ll have a great chat on the phone and I’ll help you de-bug your practice once and for all!