Patient: My buddy at the gym is a chiro and said it looked like I have a shoulder problem. He offered to treat me real quick. Can he do it?
Dooley: You don’t have a shoulder problem, according to our assessments.
My intake is 15 pages.
Each appointment takes one hour.
My assessment and therapy are based on a doctorate education in chiropractic, a masters education in anatomy, and tireless time spent studying biomechanics, correctives, and Chinese medicine theory.
So, when you give a quick and dirty suggestion at the gym to my patient without all the above, you give disservices.
You disservice yourself as a professional.
You disservice my patient, for making a judgment call without proper assessment.
You disservice me as another healthcare professional, for not respecting me as a doctor making a call for my patient.
I know I’ll continue to have pain management doctors pumping my patients full of meds, while they tell my patient that my services don’t help. (Yes, this happens.)
I know I’ll continue to have other manual therapists rub, prod, and crack my patients – bringing mobility corrections to their stability problems. They want the “it feels good in the moment,” while my patient gets their issue exacerbated in the long run. (Yes, this happens even more.)
How about this?
Hands off, pretty please.
Hands off, please, until you properly assess.
Hands off, please, until you pay me a phone call or send me an email to discuss my diagnosis and treatment plan.
I vow to you I will show you the same respect. Let’s work together – through solid assessment and collaboration – to help people be well.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley