a nutrition store (including specialty foods and natural body care products), a fitness centre and a footwear division. iNTeGraTed pHilosopHy Being able to truly integrate services begins with under-standing what this concept really means. “I have heard those from all sorts of health-care disci-plines talk about how they are integrated practitioners, because they prescribe behaviours outside of their ‘normal’ script, but that is not integration to me,” says Dr. McCann. He says integration is not about how many tools you have in your box, but the awareness of how different stressors can manifest, and of how the treatment modalities required to bring the body, mind and spirit back into balance and create optimal health and function with that person. Dr. McCann believes integrated care in a conservative setting is what health-care should aspire to – a patient-cen-tric approach administered by a group of like-minded practitioners. “The progression from dis-function to dis-ease is not ‘measurable’ until the disease state is reached or almost reached, and oftentimes patients are only motivated to take action when some crisis arises,” he notes. “In conservative health-care, money is often a factor for people. We are all competing for the discretionary spending of our patients, and they need the right information to decide how to achieve the best bang for their buck. Otherwise, their best bang is generally focused on the relief – instant, if possible – of their symptom, and rarely on their overall health. But overall health should be the focus.” In terms of his development of integration, Dr. Bair-Patel was influenced early on by his post-graduate training in applied kinesiology. “This philosophy of care integrates the best knowledge from chiropractic, medicine, dentistry, functional medicine and acupuncture to develop an integrated approach to the whole patient under the care of one person,” he explains. His approach enables patients to access a comprehensive set of services that weren’t as easily accessible previously. For example, Dr. Bair-Patel offers the largest laser therapy clinic in eastern Ontario, and its creation was based on the growing need for arthritis treatment options. Dr. Bair-Patel says it was not a business model decision, but a care model decision, to create an integrated centre. “If making the maximum amount of money was the goal, we would not have done this,” he states. “It was all about being able to provide the best care possible to the people here, and that is integrated care.” THe NuTs aNd bolTs Dr. McCann wasn’t sure initially about what professionals he really wanted at his centre. “I left a couple of the rooms empty while I worked through that,” he says. “I was not willing to have a discipline that I don’t typically refer to, or have too much in the way of redundant care.” He adds, “Twelve years later, I have learned that having a truly functioning integrated setting is really hard to ac-complish. Just because there are lots of different professions under one roof doesn’t mean that the clinic is integrated. www.canadianchiropractor.ca Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College December 2013 Canadian Chiropractor 35
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