FEATURE PRACTICE mANAgEmENT UNdER ONE ROOF Chiropractors are following their passions in the integrated health-care arena and achieving success C by treenA hein treenA hein is a freelance writer and editor based in Eastern Ontario. Treena is the proud winner of two awards: the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists “Star Prize” and the Canadian Farm Writers Federation “Gold” feature award. 34 Canadian Chiropractor December 2013 www.canadianchiropractor.ca Photo credit: Port Moody Integrated Health onvenience and integration are two words we hear a lot today. There is an increasing trend in many areas of life – including health-care – to offer integrated services, easily accessi-ble in one building. Some Canadian chiro-practors are among those leading the charge. At this point in time, there are many dif-ferent interpretations and models of integration. And it is early days. “How integrated health-care will evolve, where it’s going, is hard to say at this point,” notes British Colum-bia Chiropractic Association president Dr. Jay Robinson. “It’s about efficiency. True integrated care is more cost-ef-fective, treating what needs to be treated, with virtually no duplication. We are only at the beginning right now, and some are embarking on this in a fantastic way.” Dr. Robinson adds, “At its best, integrated health-care is treating patients with no bias with regard to the treatment they need to receive, and at its worst, it is the creation of an environment of upselling – pressure on patients to purchase more services or products. Will integrated health care be good for chiropractic over the next decade or in decades to come? Who knows. But it will be good for patients. It is the way of the future, and patients will win.” “Working in an integrated setting is something that I envisioned way back in chiropractic school,” says Dr. Mi-chael McCann, owner of Port Moody Integrated Health, in Port Moody, B.C. “In my mind, the reasons were obvious: Integrated health care is increasingly being embraced by many health-care practitioners for efficiency. to have like-minded professionals from different disciplines working together for the benefit of the patient under a single roof.” In addition to chiropractic treatment, the clinic offers massage therapy, naturopathic medicine, custom orthotics and “holistic” counselling. “I started this in 2001, after 10 years of practice,” Dr. McCann explains. “I bought a building and set it up to provide an environment and space that would care for both the patients and our team.” Dr. Nikhil Bair-Patel – who owns Integrated Health Cen-tre in Pembroke, Ont., with his wife and clinic director Rebecca Bair-Patel – has also long held a desire to offer integrated care. “I always, from the start in 1992, had a small gym and was recommending good shoes and always had a focus on nu-trition, but it was fragmented,” he notes. By 1997, he had added a nutrition store, and in 2011, the couple bought a building and had it gutted and rebuilt to create the present centre. The centre’s treatment clinic offers chiropractic, acupuncture, laser therapy, massage therapy, lifestyle/weight management, custom/semi-custom orthotics, gait analysis, body composition analysis and more. The centre also offers
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