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Chiropractic Confusion on Science and Philosophy

Chiropractic Confusion on Science and Philosophy

Chiropractic Confusion on Science and Philosophy

I have been a licensed Doctor of Chiropractic for about 30 years now and I have been training doctors for a very long time. One of the things that comes up in my profession particularly, in chiropractic, is this idea that I am scientifically based, I’m not philosophically based, or I’m philosophically based, and I don’t care about the science. Whenever I hear that I think, “Wow, it’s an amazing misunderstanding of the term inherent”.

The term inherent means that something is inseparable. You cannot separate it. So, inherent in ice is water and sub 32° Fahrenheit temperature. You cannot have ice without water and cold. They are inseparable.

Why is it important for me to even talk about science and philosophy or anything else? Well, one of the things that I realize is that we need to have leaders be able to simplify things for the vast majority of us. People that I find significant in a leadership role are able to take complex subjects and simplify them. So let’s simplify these two terms. Let’s simplify on this show how they are inherent. You cannot have one without the other.

A science is an organized body of knowledge and data organized in order to solve a problem. So chiropractic is an organized body of data, of information, and it provides a science of chiropractic. The science of chiropractic is the science of how the ill effects of misalignment, trauma, and contact with the outside world affects the spine, and how that effect affects the rest of the body and reduces down the health. And then how, if we improve the health of the spine, that we improve the health of the body.

The whole idea behind chiropractic is that the alignment of the spine improves the function, alignment improves function. And that is the organized body of knowledge. And that organized body of knowledge has to do with osteology and position. It has to do with physics and various sciences come into play.

Now, philosophy is the reason why you organize the science in the first place. You cannot have a science without a philosophy. Now let me be really clear with that. Science is an organized body of knowledge organized to solve problems in a particular area. Philosophy is why you organize it in the first place. So when somebody says to me that they are philosophically based but they’re not scientifically based, I don’t know what to say to that. But when they say, “Hey, I don’t want any more of this philosophical stuff, I just want to know the science.” Well, again, philosophy is the reason why you organize the science in the first place.

Some in my profession do not realize that you can enter in terms like religion, and religion usually means that there is a higher being. And religion can be a philosophy, but we do not need to bring religion into the science and philosophy of electronics, or the science and philosophy of economics. It does not mean that we deny the existence of these higher being. I think it’s ridiculous to deny the existence of a higher being. I think there’s too many examples around that there is. But to stay out of that area. It’s not what I’m talking about today. I’m just talking about philosophy and science.

In the profession of chiropractic, at one point, according to historians, in 1910 or 1912 there were 12,000 doctors that had gone through school and had been chiropractors. There were apparently around 15,000 prosecutions for practicing medicine without a license that were going on in that time period. Palmer, BJ Palmer, the son of the original founder of all of chiropractic, looked and said at that time the Christian scientists had exemptions. And he looked at one point and said, “Maybe we should turn chiropractic into a religion just to handle the prosecutions.” Now, you have got to think about this.

Put this in context of doctors. Let’s say there are 60,000 practicing chiropractors, and there are 90,000 active cases on the books right now of prosecuting and persecuting each chiropractor for practicing medicine without a license. What would you do? What would the leadership do? So there was an idea that that is what should occur, and sometimes I think that that is how this went off the rails on philosophy versus science.

Today, in the injury market, we need the science and philosophy to merge. Right? What’s the philosophy of injury science? Well, we could take a philosophy like alignment improves function. We could take a philosophy like we want to go for the top ability to rehabilitate the human body. That can be our philosophy. That’s our starting point. Now we’re going to organize the science called the science of injury science in order to accomplish that. You, whether you know it or not, if you’re married, you have a philosophy of marriage. And there’s also a science to it. You may have a philosophy of raising your kids. Anything that you deem important, generally you have a reason why. The reason why is your philosophy.

I wanted to talk about those two terms because they are common terms that come up in my profession, and the more we talk or exchange viewpoints on it, I think the more it will help you to understand exactly what these things mean when you’re hit with them. I’ve been hit in depositions where the defense attorney asked me, “What’s your philosophy of chiropractic in a deposition?” So it’s easy. Alignment improves function. I can say our philosophy in three words, and now you can too, doctor. And you can use that. Alignment improves function.

If a marriage is misaligned, it’s not functional. If your business is misaligned, it’s not functional. If your relationship with your kids are misaligned, it’s not functional, or not as functional as it could be. Realign it and it’ll become more functional. That is a philosophy of chiropractic, and you could say it’s the basic founding principle upon which the whole science was built.

So again, doctors, you’re going to see that I’m going to go into different areas, sometimes heavy into injuries, sometimes into the outer areas of our profession or my profession in order to assist in your general understanding, simple understanding, so that you don’t get caught up in the areas that you shouldn’t get caught up. Nobody should get caught up on whether I’m philosophically based or whether this profession has to be more science or more philosophy. You can’t grow one without the other.

For more information on Spinal Ligament Injuries please check us out at www.smartinjurydoctor.com or check out our SmartInjuryDoctors® Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or Stitcher.

For information on spinal ligament testing by board certified medical radiologists go to www.thespinalkinetics.com

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Call Lee Ann at 1-800-940-6513, ext 700

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© 2019 Biocybernetics Inc.

Competency Leads to Patient Prediction

Competency Leads to Patient Prediction

Competency Leads to Patient Compliance

Competency is the ability to meet all the requirements that are needed to handle something perfectly. That’s competency.

Where does it come from? It comes from Latin, and it’s to strive for the attainment of something. When somebody is highly competent at what they do, it means that they are excellent at what they do. They can meet the demands of the situation.

Let us bring that into patient care and personal injury.

In the personal injury market today, one of the biggest competencies that must improve is the competency of the doctor understanding exactly how badly injured his patient is.

Competency comes from knowledge. It comes from knowing. It doesn’t come from being blind to something. It comes from knowing it and understanding it.

Spinal ligament injuries are the number one cause of pain and disability in the world today because in general, the market is highly incompetent in understanding how to diagnose this condition. We cannot get a good result with patients unless we understand how to diagnose the condition.

The idea out there today that MRI is the best way to diagnose a ligament injury is absolutely ludicrous. I mean, ligament injuries have two imaging biomarkers. There are 220 specialized ligaments. 23 of those are discs.

Yes, you are going to pick up a disk herniation on MRI, but that’s 10% of the disc structure for the most part.

The other imaging biomarker that’s so important is excessive motion. When ligaments are damaged in the spine, it causes excessive motion.

We can see this on CRMA imaging. Therefore, we can determine how badly damaged these ligaments are by how much excessive motion there is. Of course, we can also have a combination.

We could have both excessive motion and disc herniation at the same segment if a disc is involved if it is in a segment where there is a disc involved.

Remember, in the cranial cervical junction, we have no discs. The only thing we are going to see there is excessive motion.

How does competency in this lead to patient prediction?

It is really simple. The more that you understand your patient’s injuries, the more that you understand the path that the patient is going to take.

Let me give you an example. With spinal ligament injuries, patients will start to receive conservative care. The doctor that understands what that patient is going to go through has the ability to predict what they will go through because they understand it.

In other words, if I’ve been down this path a lot of times before, I have the ability to predict what will happen.

If I’m a Sherpa and I look at someone and I say, “Wow, they’re out of shape,” I’m going to predict that they’re going to get altitude sickness, so I’m going to take precautions. I’m going to have more oxygen for them.  That’s what a good guide does.

Doctors in rehabilitative care today are guides. They are guiding the patient through their recovery.

This knowledge makes one more confident. The more that you know, the more you can understand and predict what your patient will run into along the way.

Every patient is different. A patient that is 45 years old, out of shape, obese, has high blood pressure, is on two or three different medications for health conditions, is not going to rehab the same as a 25-year-old who has 6% body fat, is in the gym four times a week and is a vegan and completely hydrates their body. These people will rehab differently.

But when you have spinal ligament injuries and you know spinal ligament injuries, then you can predict.

One of the biggest predictors, when you get backtest results that show how badly damaged a person is and you’re explaining it to the actual patient at that point, it’s very easy to say, “Look, most people will find that they will start to gain improvement in recovery quite nicely. However, ligament injuries cause instability. Anything that’s unstable is prone to erratic or unpredictable behavior”.

Inform the patient about what can happen. For example, “You can feel that you’re doing great, you’re moving along just great, and all of a sudden you have a setback. You slept on the couch wrong, you slept in a funny position wrong, you slept with somebody’s pillow that was different than your own pillow, you fell asleep at work in the chair and your neck was in a funny position, and it feels like you’re right back at day one with care. You’re not. You need treatment or two”.Especially if a chiropractor is a treating doctor, they need an adjustment or two, and usually, they’re right back to normal.

Now, if you don’t tell them, “Hey, one month, two months, three months into care, you can experience this,” and they experience it, then they think that your care did not work. They think that your care is not good. They think that it’s failing simply because you weren’t competent in the route, you weren’t competent in guiding the patient.

Because if worked with ligament injuries enough to predict what may happen, you can explain that to the patient. And when you explain that to the patient, if a patient now hits that, if they now hit, “Oh my gosh, I woke up… I was watching the Green Bay Packers get beat by the San Francisco 49ers and I fell asleep, and, oh my god, it feels like, my neck, right like it was after the car accident three months ago. And I’ve been in treatment for three months. Oh my god, this isn’t working.”  If you communicated beforehand, they will know you are competent

Now, here’s another example. When a patient has a serious ligament injury to the spine, because it causes instability, they may need lifetime care. As a Doctor of Chiropractic,  a licensed Doctor of Chiropractic for 30 or 31 years, I have been adjusted ever since I was born. My uncle was a chiropractor. I have very little spinal issues. Matter of fact, I’ve never had a problem with my back. I’ve never had a problem with my neck. Have I been in car accidents? Yes, I have. Have I been in rugby accidents, have I had rugby injuries? Yes, I have. Have I had sports-related injuries? Yes, I have. I broke my arm in two places. I broke my leg once. I broke my collar bone twice. I broke my scapula, my shoulder, in five places. So yes, I have had injuries. But do I suffer from any kind of ongoing chronic pain in my spine as a result of any of these injuries? No, I do not.

Why? Because I routinely take care of my spine. I routinely practice maintenance of my own spine. Now, a lot of patients don’t understand that concept. When you have a ligament injury it can cause the patient to need more care. As the doctor in charge of the patient’s care,  you predict where this comes in.

Week one tell them about the severity and location of a ligament injury and also explain that this can mean that they need some ongoing care, two visits, three visits, four visits a year just to help maintain their spine, much like you would go to the dentist twice a year just to help maintain your teeth. They may need that.  Begin talking about supportive care in week one, not when it comes up three months, four months, five months later. I’m talking about it right away because it’s a fact of life.

If at the end of care, the patient is feeling perfect. They don’t have any problems, they don’t have any pain, and now they’re having a hard time understanding why should they come back and see me four times a year for the next year or two just to make sure that this all stays stable. They don’t understand that, so they don’t opt for it.  I’m explaining because I have the ability to predict. I’m competent in this field.

Just for example sake, a patient’s name is Mark. “Mark, do you remember what I told you about these ligament injuries? I said that they cause instability. And anything that’s unstable is prone to erratic or unpredictable behavior. Well, the reason why I’m saying that is because you can start to have a symptom come back because of that instability. It does not mean that our care failed. 

I noticed you’re not opting to see me on a regular basis for the next two visits a year or four visits a year. You don’t want to schedule that. That’s fine. I understand that. But here’s what I want you to also understand. Two things. One, if the pain starts to come back, I do not want you to think for one second that our care didn’t work. It worked perfectly. It just means that the instability has now gone active and you need to come back in for an adjustment or two, a treatment or two, and you’ll be right back to where you were.”

If you tell them that and you basically tell him, “Hey, look, you can hit this,” and they hit it, your credibility goes up, not down. If you don’t tell them about it, so if you don’t give them their future prediction of what they can hit, and you don’t tell them about it and they hit it, they think your care failed.

This inability to communicate will cost you a lot in referrals. It’ll cost you a lot in goodwill. It’ll cost you a lot of patients who think, “Oh my gosh, I just went through three months, six months’ worth of care, and now this thing is starting to go chronic. This didn’t work.”

This occurs simply because most doctors don’t understand ligament injuries enough to understand what to communicate to the patient. If they do communicate with prediction, their patient understands more about their condition.  They are more compliant.  They get better results.  And you get better referrals.

It is very, very simple.

You have the ability to predict. I have the ability to predict. If I have a patient who’s somewhat unhealthy coming into these injuries, then it’s going to take longer. I have the ability to predict that it’s going to be slower.

I have the ability to predict, if they’re not compliant with their treatment program, that it’s going to be more problematic.

I have the ability to predict, if they’re super dehydrated, that their risk for long-term chronic pain is higher.

I have the ability to predict, if they’re obese, that same thing, their long-term risks for chronic pain is much higher.

I have the ability to predict a lot of things.

The providers that we train to do as well.

When you have a spinal ligament injury, you have to find somebody who understands this injury. It is the most common cause of chronic pain and disability in the world today and it’s the most expensive injury in the market today.

There are too few doctors whose primary focus is this condition, whose primary focus is leading their competency in this area to be extremely high.

I have a program called the Smart Injury Doctors Program. We’re creating some of the most competent doctors in the market today for spinal ligament injuries.

That is what these programs are about.

They are short, sweet, and to the point.

What I’d ask you to do is, if you have difficulties in the personal-injury market right now, you have difficulties in the work comp market, you have difficulties in the injury market, tell me what they are.

These are some of the easiest injuries in the market to work with once you’re competent with the condition. Really.

These are not hard injuries to work with. It’s just that there are so few doctors that even understand how to at first just confidently diagnose it and really be competent with it. I mean really certain with it.

For more information on Spinal Ligament Injuries please check us out at http://www.smartinjurydoctor.comor check out our SmartInjuryDoctors® Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or Stitcher.

For information on spinal ligament testing by board-certified medical radiologists go to www.thespinalkinetics.com

Want to learn more about Smartinjurydoctor's Program?

Reach Us

Want to know more? We are happy to receive a message from you.

246 Tierney Drive, Suite 1,
New Richmond, WI 54017

1-800-940-6513, ext 700

Leave A Message

CONTACT US

Smart Injury Doctors
701 Richards Ave
Clearwater Florida 33755

[email protected]
Call Lee Ann at 1-800-940-6513, ext 700

SEARCH THIS SITE

© 2019 Biocybernetics Inc.

SmartInjuryDoctors are Aligned with Insurance Company Needs

SmartInjuryDoctors are Aligned with Insurance Company Needs

SmartInjuryDoctors are Aligned with Insurance Company Needs

SmartInjuryDoctors are aligned with the insurance company needs. That may sound a little bit interesting, but I train doctors all over the country, with attorney groups and with groups where insurers were present.  The thing that has always baffled me is that the injury market is such an adversarial market. This is because there is so much confusion in the market.  As a trainer of doctors and lawyers on ligament injuries, one of the things that I found fascinating is that my role in this market is to help doctors to identify really significant injuries to the ligaments early so that you can get great outcomes with the patient.

In the personal injury market, everyone is looking at the injuries and the resolution process. And it is an interesting process. I have doctors that approach me in seminars and say, “Well, how do I make attorneys more money so they refer to me?” My answer is “Well gosh, your actual job in the market is to reduce insurance benefits. You’re more aligned with the insurance carrier than you may believe.”

I was in the injury market for a time as a young practitioner and I used to think the insurance companies were hard to deal with or constantly trying to cut my bill even though my bill was legitimate. They are always using independent medical examination and utilization reviews. Then I would have to write a rebuttal.  It was a bit traumatic for me at the time because I didn’t like the paperwork aspect of it.

What I liked was treating patients, diagnosing their condition accurately, and getting great results with them. One day, I had this big ‘aha’ moment.  The thought that came to me was that my purpose and my goals were perfectly aligned with the insurance carriers’ purpose and goals. I’m going to explain that to you really simply.

For example, a patient came into my office and they were in a wheelchair due to a low back injury that they received in a car accident and they couldn’t walk. They went for 4-6 months’ worth of care in my clinic and now they were able to run a 5K, they had no chronic pain, and they had no activity of daily living that was interfered with at all by their trauma. They could do everything they did prior to the trauma and they had no disability of any kind.

My role was complete and my role significantly reduced down the future benefits need of the patient. And that’s my role as a doctor. That’s any doctors that are really good at injury work. Our role is to reduce down future benefit needs. That’s our job. Our job is not to take an injury and make the patient so that they need care for the rest of their life. That’s not our job. In some situations, patients can need care for the rest of their life. I am a licensed Doctor of Chiropractic and I believe very much in wellness care, elective care that patients choose to actually help maintain their spines, but that’s significantly different than what the insurer’s responsible for in an injury scenario.

In an injury scenario, that insurance carrier, for the most part for the types of injuries that we deal with spinal soft tissue injuries, patients that don’t fully recover, may need future care. And that future care can be argued and needs to be paid for by the insurance carrier that’s insuring the person that caused the injury in the first place. But the bottom line is, my role as a really good injury doctor is to reduce the benefits need. It’s to reduce the long-term benefit needs. It’s to minimize it significantly. If I can minimize it completely, that’s my job. That’s my role. That’s what I teach our smart injury doctors is their role.

We may be one of the only groups in the country that teaches that. What draws attention to you is that your job as a doctor is to get great patient results. Your job is to do this as efficiently and as cost-effectively as you possibly can. If you can do that, especially in the back and neck injuries and you can minimize the cost significantly, you should be the most sought-after doctor in the market.

Employers will be searching for you. Insurers eventually should be searching for you. Patients should definitely be searching for you and attorneys should be searching for you because your goal as a doctor that actually can accurately diagnose what the patient has and then treat them to a great result, in a relatively short, and when I say relatively short, I consider three to six months to be relatively short, amount of time.

According to research, 50% of patients with significant ligament injuries are going to be chronic. If you can get them not to be chronic and you can do that in a relatively short amount of time and in a cost-effective manner, you become one of the most sought after doctors in the market today.

What is nice about that is that you learn to sleep extremely well because you realize your purpose and your drive are actually aligned with everybody in the market. It’s aligned with exactly what the patient wants. It’s aligned with exactly what the insurer wants. It’s aligned actually exactly what the attorneys want. It’s aligned with what employers would be looking for. It’s aligned with everyone in the market. When you’re aligned with everybody in the market and you’re producing a valuable service that everybody in the market wants, it makes it a whole lot easier.

Now I’m going to tell you a funny story and this is problematic for all of us in the injury market that do really good work. I was asked to speak with a very large defense medical defense firm in Michigan years back. I went and spoke on ligament injuries. I had only an hour. I gave a very good talk and I thought, okay, why would insurers want somebody who points out objectively a patient’s injuries? Why would they want me to speak on ligament injuries? This is the most costly injuries that there are. And then I realized, okay, remember Jeff, your purpose and your goal is very much aligned with what the insurers need.

There were approximately 100-150 people in the room. And I started off the talk with the fact that half of you in the room right now are probably suffering with some form of chronic pain. And the reason why you suffer with it is because you don’t have a doctor that knows how to accurately diagnose it because it’s a ligament condition. If you’re suffering with any kind of back, back-related, neck related problems, you’re suffering with a ligament condition that’s gone undiagnosed. And I gave this talk and I had a lot of case managers and defense firm people and utilization reviewers come up to me afterward and say, “Well, Dr. Cronk, how do I find this kind of doctor?”

A representative from one of the major insurance carriers came up and said, “Well, Dr. Cronk, how do you explain, I’ve got four months’ worth of chiropractic care and a $42,000 bill.” And I said, “Well, okay, I don’t know. That sounds excessive to me. I don’t know anything about the specifics of it. But you have your internal fraud detection procedures that you can use to reduce that. Let me follow up and ask you a question. Why do you treat the good doctors exactly the way that you treat the bad doctors?” I asked a preliminary question, “Are there good doctors?” And she said, “Yes.” And I said, “Well then why do the insurance carriers treat all doctors the same as if they’re all bad? You have to reward the actual good injury work when it is occurring. You have to reward the behavior that you want.”

When I talk about the new injury market, I am referring to the new injury markets that is about innovation. It should be about getting great results with patients right away and not being so inefficient in the market. The medical/chiropractic/osteopathic/physical therapy market needs to become a much more efficient market. It needs to get a lot better results very quickly with these neck and back injuries.

If you get great results in a short amount of time, you are very much aligned with the insurance carrier, so why are you adversarial with them? Now, I realize they do things that are kind of different and they can do things that are adversarial and they can outright attack good doctors. I understand that. But if you’re doing the right things and you’re attacked, you can withstand the attack. It changed me when I started to realize that the insurance carriers themselves were not the enemy.

And take a look today when you’re sitting there and you’re thinking about what I just mentioned, think about this person, he’s in a wheelchair, six months later, he’s running a 10K run and he has no problems. I’ve seriously minimized his long-term insurance benefit needs. And that’s my job as a doctor. That’s your job as a doctor. And again, that’s what I teach in our SmartInjuryDoctor’s program.

For more information on Spinal Ligament Injuries please check us out at http://www.smartinjurydoctor.comor check out our SmartInjuryDoctors® Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or Stitcher.

For information on spinal ligament testing by board-certified medical radiologists go to www.thespinalkinetics.com

Want to learn more about Smartinjurydoctor's Program?

Reach Us

Want to know more? We are happy to receive a message from you.

246 Tierney Drive, Suite 1,
New Richmond, WI 54017

1-800-940-6513, ext 700

Leave A Message

CONTACT US

Smart Injury Doctors
701 Richards Ave
Clearwater Florida 33755

[email protected]
Call Lee Ann at 1-800-940-6513, ext 700

SEARCH THIS SITE

© 2019 Biocybernetics Inc.

Good Injury Patients are Not Interested in the Money

Good Injury Patients are Not Interested in the Money

There is a misconception out there about injury patients.

In the 17 years that I practiced chiropractic, I never once spoke to a patient about the money that they were going to receive or how much money. I do remember one time a patient asking me how much money they thought this injury was worth in my experience. I told him I had no idea, and I didn’t, because injuries can be all over the place. My job is about recovery.  It is about being a doctor.

Every time I hear colleagues say, “Look, the patients are just interested in the money,” I always contest that. I may be naive. I may be a doctor that is just too optimistic.  Patients interested in the money was never my experience.

If that is your experience out there, if you are treating patients that are coming in and saying, “Well, doc, how much do you think I’m going to make?” I really would be questioning my marketing strategy.

That may alienate some colleagues right now, and that’s not what I want to do. What I want is for you to understand is that marketing is attracting who you want and repelling who you don’t want. Your marketing and how it represents you determines the type of patients you will attract.  I have talked about this in my podcasts and articles many, many times.  

In my own private practice, I would not want patients who are thinking about how much money are they going to make on their injuries because to me, that’s another intention.

I wanted the people that are injured that are completely 100% focused on finding the best doctor that they can possibly find because their sole interest at this point is just recovering, just getting better.

That’s the way the injury market should be.

Again, I’ve spoken with consultants before and I’ve heard other doctors in the field and it’s always, “Jeff, you’re so naive. You got to talk to doctors about the money. You got to talk about the money because all the patients want is money.” I maintain that is not true.

I think that when a doctor is talking to a patient about settlement money that they possibly can get from the insurance carrier, I think it is ludicrous. I don’t think that’s a good practice at all. I think what that does is it draws the type of patient who is looking at the money.

The best way to respond to patients like this is, “Look, I have no idea. That’s between you, the insurance company. That’s between you and an attorney. That’s between you and that process. My job here with you is to take your injuries and get them to a great recovery, and that’s what I’m interested in. Now, if you’re interested in that, you’re interested in fully getting committed to fully recover quickly, fast, effectively, if at all possible, then I’m in. If that’s not your intention, you may not be in the right center. You may not be working with the right doctor. I may not be the doctor for you”.

That’s how strongly I feel about that because what I wanted to have and what I want doctors that are Smart Injury Doctors to have, is a practice where they’re attracting people who are injured and are looking for the best doctors to actually work with so that they can get a full recovery.

Think about it, if you have someone that you love, a son, a daughter, a wife, a significant other, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a mom, a dad, a sister, a brother, somebody that you really care about and they get injured, say, in a car accident and now they have neck pain and they are getting migraine headaches.
Your first thought generally is not, oh my, gosh, they’re going to make so much money in an insurance settlement. This is so great for them.

Or, let me just send them over to this guy I’ve heard he’s really good at getting claim values up and he’s good at making sure that patients need long-term benefits.

That’s not the doctor you’re going to look for, for a loved one. If you wouldn’t look for that doctor for a loved one, don’t be that doctor.

Be that doctor that people would search out for. The doctor for a 19-year-old daughter who had major spinal ligament injuries to her neck. Now she is getting migraine headaches. Be the doctor sought after that really understands this so that she doesn’t suffer with these for the rest of their life. Because she is someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, someone’s girlfriend, someone’s mother. She deserves the best possible care

Now you’re going to tell me that they are interested in $1,500, $2,000, $10,000? How much would you pay? How much money would somebody have to you receive to have headaches for the rest of their life? How much would they need to receive to have migraine headaches for the rest of their life? How much for chronic pain for the rest of their life?

I don’t think there’s enough money in the settlement amounts that you’re dealing with.

Simply said, they are not in it for the money

If they are, it may be the wrong patients for you. Those to me are the patients that maybe are doing some questionable things or possibly are also restricting or retarding their care and their results.

I am old school. Maybe I’m optimistic, but I believe that there is a new market based on results. It’s a market based on searching for and finding SmartInjuryDoctors  The doctors that can get great results quickly, cost effectively, and can seriously reduce down long-term benefit need.

Whether it’s through work comp for an employer or  auto insurance carrier, or cash payers. These people are all interested in finding doctors that can get truly great results.

That is what I was interested in. It always grates me when I hear doctors talking about these injury patients are just interested in the money. That’s a real low look at human beings in my experience.

Now it can be true. Like I said, if it’s true in your practice right now and you want to change that, then you have to look at how you’re marketing and how you are being perceived.

Because if that’s how you are being perceived, if an injury patient is saying,  I just got into an auto accident and you know what? I can make some money on this. I heard there’s this really good doctor that helps you make money on these cases, so I’m going to go to that doctor. If that’s how that doctor is perceived, that’s what he’s going to attract.

That to me is not a very purpose-driven injury practice. That’s not why I got into being a doctor in the first place. I don’t think it’s why a lot of you became doctors either.

If you’re in a practice like that, it’s marketing that will get you out of it. I’ll tell you what.

It feels so good to have a practice that you are making a difference in peoples lives.

Like I said, in my 17 years, I had one guy ask me one time about the money.

Some doctors would say, oh my, God, that’s crazy, but I also know there’s some of you out there that are saying, you know what? That’s my practice too. If that is your practice and you are capable of getting great results.

I don’t think that the average injury patients first thought is, “Okay, I’m injured. I’m going to make some money here.” That’s not their first thought.

Their first thought is, “Hey, I’m injured. How do I get help? I don’t want this. I don’t want to have this for the rest of my life.” Again, doctors, think about if you have a loved one, where would you send them?

You’d need a great doctor.

You need a SmartInjuryDoctor. 

All I’m saying today is be that great doctor.

Be that great doctor that everybody would look for. Strive for that and you will really excel in the injury market.

For more information on Spinal Ligament Injuries please check us out at http://www.smartinjurydoctor.comor check out our SmartInjuryDoctors® Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or Stitcher.

For information on spinal ligament testing by board certified medical radiologists go to www.thespinalkinetics.com

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Basic Injury Recommendations to Enhance Patient Results

Basic Injury Recommendations to Enhance Patient Results

Basic Injury Recommendations to Enhance Patient Results

I talk a lot about how spinal ligament injuries are the number one cause of chronic pain and disability in the world today because they are.

Spinal instability is the number one cause of lumbar problems, cervical problems. It’s the number one cause of the headaches.

There are basic recommendations that you can do to improve your injury results with these patients.

Communication to your patient is a key factor. These injuries are the primary cause of chronic pain. They must understand that their injury recovery is not to be taken lightly.

Patients that have ligament injuries have a 50% chance of never fully recovering. According to the latest research, 30% of those patients are going to have a significant disability. These ligament injuries are the leading cause of long-term residual complaints. You cannot impress upon the patient enough how serious their injury is.

Educating them that during their recovery time, there are some general things that they could do to help themselves.  You will need their help. Their compliance with your treatment program, their active participation in their own recovery is the key to optimal results.

You are treating them, not an insurance company, or their attorney. Everything you do is geared to assist them with optimal recovery. Let them know that you use state of the art imaging procedures in order to assess these injuries. That’s how significant they are.

Tell them that you use the top board-certified medical radiologists in the world to locate and identify these injuries to assist you with what are called excessive motion tests. Let them know that this treatment plan that you created is individualized to them and to their needs. It is very important to comply with the schedule because you are trying to help them to meet the goal of recovery.

If you’ve got them under a dose schedule care, that dosing of the schedule care is very important,  If they need to change an appointment, they must work it out to come in the amount of times you put in their program.

They need to know that if something on the plan is not consistent with producing results for them, they need to communicate and let you know right away.

They may have need for supportive care. Let them know this at the very beginning while you do your initial exam. When patients have ligament conditions, ligament injuries, they can need ongoing supportive chiropractic spinal care on a regular basis.

Regular basis might be twice a year, it might be once a year, it might be five times a year, might be six times a year. But patients do better long-term with maintaining a spine. This is called supportive care because it maintains the ability to keep the symptom away.

A general and vital recommendation is proper body hydration. Proper hydration is essential in the wound healing stage.

The lack of body hydration will halt cellular migration, decrease oxygenation to blood, and vastly delay the wound treatment process. The majority of patients in the market today are dehydrated. You need to get them to drink more water. Now that sounds really, really simple, but there’s so few doctors that do it. In the Smart Injury Doctors program, we have a thing called the Smart Injury Recommendations. Those recommendations are basic things to the patient’s recovery.

Typically, the body fluctuates from 60 to 70% of the total weight is water. To maintain that positive level of hydration, you need to have no less than 64 ounces of water be consumed on a daily basis. The recommendation is half your body weight in ounces a day. Now, if a person weighs 300 pounds, that’s 150 ounces. If they weighed 400 pounds, it’s 200 ounces. If they weighed 100 pounds, it’s 50 ounces. You must get them to hydrate and be hydrated.

Another recommendation to injury recovery is proper sleep. When patients have a spinal instability, they could have neck pain, lower back pain, shoulder pain, scapular pain, pain radiating down their arms, pain radiating down the legs, numbness, tingling, sense of weakness or heaviness in the legs, numbness or tingling or a sense of weakness or heaviness in the arms, headaches, migraine headaches, facial pain, ear pain, visual disturbances, ringing in the ear, difficulty swallowing, difficulty breathing, bladder or bowel dysfunction, sexual dysfunction, severe fatigue, loss of voice, disturbances in concentration, disturbance in memory.

These are common symptoms. Some are more common than others but they all can cause, especially when we’re talking about pain, to start to reduce their ability to sleep.

Your body needs to sleep because that’s when it repairs. You must work with them to make sure that they are getting good sleep. When your body’s tired, also, it’s usually seeking ways to create more energy. This can lead to cravings for sugary, fatty foods, things that are not good for your body, things that are not good for your sleep cycle, so you got to get them to work on sleep.

When we look at an adult today, it’s recommended by the Mayo Clinic, that optimal sleep for an adult is seven to nine hours a night. If you got a 14 to 17-year-old, it’s eight to 10 hours. If you’ve got a six to 13-year-old, it’s nine to 11. Three to five is 10 to 13. Two years, it’s about a 11 to 12 hours a night, plus one to two-hour afternoon nap. 12 months, about 10 hours at night plus four hours of naps. Newborns, 14 to 17 hours a day. So, you can see as the body is growing it needs more sleep. When the body is in repair it needs more sleep.

The patients should be educated that there are three stages of correction in the body.

Phase one is called the inflammatory phase. That’s first four days, that’s when the injury is pain, painful. There’s a lot of heat, there’s swelling, it draws the healing chemicals to the area.

Then from day four to 21 we call this phase two, it’s called the proliferation phase. That where the damaged tissue is gotten rid of and new temporary tissue is being built and new blood supply lines are also being formed.

Then we have from 21 days to two years, a remodeling phase where permanent tissue is being built, replacing the temporary tissue. All tissue is then remodeled for optimal function. This is what’s occurring. Again, that is why hydration and sleep are so important.

Another recommendation is to educate the patient about an anti-inflammatory diet. Inflammation can cause injuries to be retarded in the repair process and it can cause ongoing chronicity.

What should they eat? More anti-inflammatory fats, like fish oil, flaxseed oil, avocados, fish, mackerel, salmon, sardines, olive oil, mixed nuts, seeds. They should eat fewer pro-inflammatory things like processed foods, high in saturated fat, vegetable oils like corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, foods with trans fats, those are fried foods.

They can eat more pineapple, it has a lot of bromelain in it. They can eat more garlic, they can eat more curcumin or turmeric or curry powder, more cacao, teas and berries. These are things that are in the anti-inflammatory area. Any of your vegetables are anti-inflammatory.

Additionally, they need to eat adequate protein. A balanced diet would be one third fat intake from saturated fat, one third from monounsaturated, and one third from polyunsaturated fat.

Bottom line is you want good fats, you want great vegetables, and you want things that are anti-inflammatory. There is herbs that you can take in order to do that, garlic is one of them, curcumin is one of them, turmeric, curry, cacao.

Educating your patients on these basics things will help and assist in their long term recovery. Because remember, when you’re treating that patient, you’re treating that patient’s future, you want that patient’s future to be the best possible future for them.

There are the three general things. Hydration is excellent. Sleep and anti-inflammatory diet. These are three things that you can add to whatever else you’re doing in your clinic that will significantly improve your results and make your patients healthier.

As a result of that, they’ll get better results, you’ll have better referrals, you’ll have a better reputation These are things that are very, very easy to put into a clinic.

In the Smart Injury Doctors program, we have a form called the Smart Injury Recommendations that go over these three basic recommendations.

 

https://www.smartinjurydoctors.com/
https://www.thespinalkinetics.com

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246 Tierney Drive, Suite 1,
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Clearwater Florida 33755

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Call Lee Ann at 1-800-940-6513, ext 700

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Three Simple Tips for Getting Better Spinal Injury Recoveries

Three Simple Tips for Getting Better Spinal Injury Recoveries

Three Simple Tips for Getting Better Spinal Injury Recoveries

Injury recovery, especially in the spinal ligament injury market is significant because 50% of the patients that received this type of injury will not fully recover, and 30% of them will have a significant amount of problems associated with that type of an injury.

These injuries are not the sexiest injuries in the market, but they are the most common injuries in the market. They cost the most amount of money. They cause the largest amount of personal trauma and trials and tribulations simply because so many people with these types of injuries result in a chronic outcome.  As a matter of fact, if we have 4 million auto accidents or auto injuries in this country, 2 million people every year are going to become chronic as a result of those injuries.

When you are dealing with patients, you want to get the best results.  I’m not going to get into specifics of adjusting for chiropractors or type of modality you’re going to use or anything similar. I’m going to start with some very, very general tips for you. In a Smart Injury Doctor’s Program, we call these Smart Injury Recommendations and they’re just some very, very general recommendations.

We know that when a person has a spinal ligament injury, they need to take this injury quite seriously. Your approach to that patient, your level of professionalism, your level of certainty, your level of handling the patient, will guide their response to their injury and compliance in their care.

Spinal ligament injury conditions can cause them problems. It is a fairly permanent condition. It can cause an unstable segment or segments for a long time to come. The patient needs to take their initial treatment very seriously because that’s where you’re going to try to reduce down their risks for long term residual complaints and get them a great, great result.

One of the first things that you should be discuss is dehydration. When your body is not receiving the amount of fluids and the amount of water that it needs, it takes a toll on injury recovery. It slows it down, making recovery not as swift. Remember, water is the primary way that oxygen and nutrients get delivered directly to a spinal injury. Dehydration is one of the most common reasons why cell function becomes disrupted, no matter what. Essentially if you lack fluids, you’re going to create a delay in recovery and less optimal result of recovery.

Typically the body fluctuates from anywhere to 60% of its total weight is actually water. So how much water do you want the person to consume? About half their body weight in ounces of water every single day. They will improve their injury results if they are hydrated.  If they drink coffee, they need  to offset that cup of coffee with an extra cup of water. You want them drinking water. It’s a very general recommendation that basically hits home. Hydration.

The next Smart Injury Recommendations is proper sleep. Sleep is so misunderstood. But if we look at the course of injuries and how injuries heal successfully, they have to have healthy tissue growth. They have to repair the damaged tissue and now have healthy tissue growth. According to the National Sleep Foundation, growth and repair of tissue occurs in the third and fourth stages of sleep, which after you’ve completed about 70% of your rest, that’s when those stages happen. This means that your patient needs  to get an uninterrupted night of sleep. It’s crucial.

So what’s enough sleep? According to Mayo Clinic, the optimum sleep for adults is 7 to 9 to hours. A teenager, needs 8 to 10 hours. That’s what required in order for optimal healing to occur. Optimal healing and the repair of tissue occurs in the later stages of sleep.

The third recommendation that our doctors recommend, is they need to eat a healthy diet. You want them to consume a good non-inflammatory diet. One that is reduces inflammation. Consuming more anti-inflammatory fats. These fats are fish, salmon, sardines, olive oil mix and nuts and seeds, avocados, flaxseed oil, fish oil. Staying away from processed foods that are high in saturated fats. Vegetable oils, like corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean oils, or foods with trans fats. Those are high inflammatory foods.  Also include anything that is a leafy green vegetables, highly anti-inflammatory. Anything that’s a vegetable that’s grown above the ground is highly anti-inflammatory.

There are also some spices that are anti-inflammatory, like bromelain from pineapple, garlic, curcumin, turmeric, curry powder, cocoa, tea and berries. They provide anti-inflammatory substance and they also provide a lot of nutrients. They’re nutrient dense, and that’s what the body needs when it’s going to repair.

You don’t just recommend these three, you follow up by asking about it in your re-examinations. Especially if you have a patient that’s not progressing in a manner that you deem to be appropriate for what you normally see under your care.

It is easy to just talk to the patient about better sleep, better hydration, and better diet at least while they are going through your treatment program. If they adopt these habits, you’ve created a healthier patient. You’ve created a much healthier patient. That’s one of the things that as you as an injury provider can significantly help and influence a person to become healthier and now they can also look at long term things that keep their health such as ongoing care, supportive care in your clinic.

All of us have a spine. A spine is like the teeth, if you don’t maintain it, you’re not going to get as much mileage out of it. People should take their spinal health very seriously and you as an injury provider can seriously influence that.

Three simple recommendations.

Hydration

Enough Sleep

Anti-Inflammatory Diet

 

In the Smart Injury Doctors Program, we call these Smart Injury Recommendations. There’s other recommendations that you can give the patient to get better outcomes, but these are three simple things that you want to go over with the patient that will improve your injury results.

 

https://www.smartinjurydoctors.com/
https://www.thespinalkinetics.com

Want to learn more about Smartinjurydoctor's Program?

Reach Us

Want to know more? We are happy to receive a message from you.

246 Tierney Drive, Suite 1,
New Richmond, WI 54017

1-800-940-6513, ext 700

Leave A Message

CONTACT US

Smart Injury Doctors
701 Richards Ave
Clearwater Florida 33755

[email protected]
Call Lee Ann at 1-800-940-6513, ext 700

SEARCH THIS SITE

© 2019 Biocybernetics Inc.