It's curious what you remember. The math professor in my probability and statistics class (almost 20 years ago) told a story to demonstrate a certain fallacy in thinking:
A famous mathematician (you would recognize the name if I could remember it) was returning home on his horse and buggy in 18th century England. As he travelled, the horse would stop occasionally to relieve himself. Pondering the population growth and the impact of too many horses relieving themselves, he set about to compute the future effects of more people and more horses.It's appealing to try to predict trends and extrapolate their impact. The mathematician, given the selective information he possessed, drew a logical conclusion, but the basis of his conclusion was an erroneous assumption. Obviously our mathematician friend had not envisioned the horseless carriage and the impact of automotive technology.After estimating the increasing number of horses, quantifying their bodily functions, and calculating the rate at which horse dung would decompose, the mathematician was quite alarmed. According to his figures, if the current trend continued, within 50 years, he and everyone else on the British Isles would be waste deep in horse dung!
In the 1980s, many health care providers bought homes and developed lifestyles based on an income level that was unsurpassed in our history. Practice management consultants bragged of "million-dollar practices" to their clients. Many defined a successful DC by their income, home, car, and annual vacation. It appeared the good times would never end.
The 1990s not only brought an end to those "good old days," but introduced us to a new nemesis: managed care. Almost overnight, "political medicine" changed from being our number one antagonist to a co-victim in our war against the HMO/PPO hordes. As these managed care "tyrants" ground down reimbursement values and treatment plans, it looked as if chiropractic's Armageddon was upon us.
But as my father often reminded me, the pendulum swings both ways. Just when you think the entire world is headed one way, it changes direction.
Consider these two interesting developments which have already happened in the new year:
There is always a better way to do something. Price is not the only criteria. Ultimately, the consumers (our patients) do have a voice. Even if you offer the same service, it can be administered more effectively.
Quality chiropractic care will always have a market. But as the market re-focuses, how you offer that care may have to evolve.
What have you done so far in 1997 to better equip your practice for success in the 21st century?
What should you be doing?
Don't put it off. Make a plan for the growth and development of your practice in 1997. As our world continues to change, are you ready to compete?
Reference
1. Focus: Business Health Care Action Group. Business Week, January 13, 1997.
Donald M. Petersen Jr., BS, HCD (hc), FICC (h)
Editor/Publisher of Dynamic Chiropractic
Many relevant diagnostic signs are not performed deliberately by the examiner or by the patient at the examiner’s direction. They are observed as the patient reacts to their condition. Fortin’s finger sign, Minor’s sign, and Vanzetti’s sign are three examples of this principle.
Spearheaded by burgeoning scientific and clinical research literature, psychedelics have reached a level of media coverage and popular interest that has not been seen for over half a century. By “psychedelics,” we are referring to the unique class of substances that includes psilocybin (the active compound found in so-called “magic mushrooms”), LSD, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ayahuasca, 5-MeO-DMT, and mescaline – each of which occurs in the natural world (except for LSD, which is a semi-synthetic compound).
While working at the Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, N.M., one of the primary care physicians stated that imaging every patient prior to receiving chiropractic was not medically necessary. It was at that point I reconsidered the need for the imaging of every patient to avoid malpractice.
