by Dr. Gary Farr on 20 April 2002
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The role of chiropractic is characterized by direct access and conservative healing, emphasizing the promotion of good health and patient centered diagnosis and management. Optimal patient care can best be achieved when chiropractic is vertically integrated within the health care system. Although doctors of chiropractic have been recognized as effective primary caregivers and gatekeepers to the health care systern,1 integration of chiropractic is particularly valuable in relation to treating, insuring or managing patients with neuromusculoskeletal injury (either acute or chronic) - especially injury to the lower back.
In North Carolina, nearly one-fifth of all on-the-job injuries involve the back or neck, and nearly one-third of the cost of all payments for on-the-job injuries is related to spinal conditions. These conditions - particularly those of the lower back - have remained stubborn to many efforts to provide effective medical treatment at reduced cost. Frequently they have responded well under the chiropractic option.
Chiropractic treatment of spinal and other neuromusculoskeletal conditions is not the only answer, but it has been shown in numerous studies to be a highly cost effective and therapeutically effective form of treatment, frequently providing longer-term results at a lower cost than conventional medical interventions.
Professionals across traditional and alternative medical fields are arriving at the consensus that chiropractic care is under utilized as a source of efficacious, safe, cost-conservative treatment with a very high degree of patient satisfaction. Health management organizations and third-party insurers who have chosen to incorporate chiropractic are drawing this conclusion based on experience with patients and professionals in the field.
As an approach to many types of injury and chronic medical conditions, chiropractic - while not new - is an increasingly popular treatment option. For administrators, patient gatekeepers and medical professionals who have not explored its full range of benefits, chiropractic provides a vast, untapped resource of patient care and cost reduction that is well worth investigating.
At the heart of chiropractic health care is spinal manipulation. While manipulation may be practiced by other health care professionals, 94 percent of all manipulations in this country are performed by doctors of chiropractic.
Today there are approximately 60,000 chiropractors in the United States and nearly 1,000 in North Carolina. Across the country these trained professionals treat some 20 million people. Most use manipulative methods for the spine, other joints and connective tissues. When appropriate, chiropractic care incorporates the use of various mechanical, electrical and other therapeutic modalities to assist the manipulative process. In some limited cases, manipulative procedures are carried out under anesthesia by chiropractors in a hospital or other institution.
While most doctors of chiropractic practice privately, many teach or serve on the physician staff of managed care practices, senior or retirement homes, hospitals and professional athletic teams - almost any organization with consistent, ongoing medical needs. In their practice they have frequent and direct access to diagnostic testing, such as x-ray, laboratory, MRI imaging, nuclear medicine and other sophisticated procedures.
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