Schedules of care for patients, by Dr. Ogi Ressel

Thursday, May 14th 2009

Warm hellos to everyone!

Ok........I need to mention an issue which I wrote about in the WCA
Journal some 3 years ago, and which has been the subject of one of
my weekly THOTS not that long ago. It is an issue which has thorny
sides to it and it keeps on resurfacing - schedules of care for patients.

We seem to have two trains of thought when it comes to adjusting
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 this. Oh, my

......a little blaspheme to start your week.....good for the adrenalin.
Listen...I talk with doctors all over the world and not many have seen
that an adjustment can help Asthma, or Colitis, or Ear Infections, or..... 

Don't get me wrong, all of them want to see these stellar results and
have all these amazing and wonderful stories they've heard from others,
become real for them. But....it is not happening. Is it because you are
just not good enough with your hands? Absolutely not! BJ once said: "Hit
them over the head with a shovel and they'll get better." So that is not it.

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

Here is what I found:Most doctors do not place their patients on appropriate
schedules of care - care which is designed to correct something. 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. Here is a typical schedule: 3x/week for 3-4 weeks, then 2x/ week
for 5-6 weeks, then 1x/wk for 10 weeks and then "Maintenance" - somewhere
around 40 adjustments or so. I have to tell you this: In my experience,
most of these schedules simply maintain the problem the patient already
has - the only difference is that, now, the patient has no symptoms - maybe.
The problem with this approach is that a few years into care, the patient will
confront you with the fact that their x-rays are worse and ask you to explain
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. Not a good place to be......The other reason is real,
but rarely used when approaching an actual live patient:

Most of us adjust our own children, spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, lover, toyboy, 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.
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 take care of our patients with that same
panache and love as we do our loved ones? Are they lesser people?
Do they take a back seat somehow? Here is where we can readily see
our two sets of values.
Right?

Here is what I want you to understand: A Vertebral subluxation is a
habit - an error in neural programming. Something which has been formed
years ago, probably as a child, and has directed the programming of the
nervous system and has affected patient physiology. It has redirected a
patient's physiology to minimize the impact of the Vertebral Subluxation on
body economy - adaptability. Do you realistically think that your schedule of
care for some 40 visits will break that habit? If you say, yes, I need to ask
you what planet you are from. Should you perhaps explain to your patient
what I am explaining to you and place them on a schedule of care more
designed to wipe this out? To blow it out of their universe. To annihilate it.
To end it. Do you think that your patients would want to hear this? Do you
think they may be remotely interested?

I can tell you with absolute certainty that they would.

So....no more Mr. Niceguy. Do your job. Tell the patient what they need,
not what you think they'll accept, pay for, be ok with, buy, sign up for, etc.
Take care of your patients - even if at first it feels uncomfortable.
Do that which you were trained for.

.......all part of my Program.

My warmest wishes,
Dr. Ogi Ressel