did a physical examination and she provided her treatment.” The initial phone conversation between Thompson and Al-Dhaher, and the subsequent meetings with the doctors and staff at the Central Lambton clinic essentially confirmed that Thompson’s efforts sending patient notes to the doctors did not go unnoticed and were, in fact, appreciated. More importantly, it also instigated what would be a steady patient referral stream coming from the clinic’s family doctors. This new collaborative environment paved the way for more discussions about patient management and the progress of treatments. The doctors also find they could easily talk to each other about research and evidence-based practice. It also provided an opportunity for the chiropractors to have open conversations with the medical doctors about chiropractic in general, and break down some mispercep-tions they may have about the profession. “I think their eyes were opened to really see what our education was like and what we do treat,” says Thompson, who graduated from Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. One area of concern was in cervical adjustments, she says, as doctors relayed stories from their patients who would go to a chiropractor for low back pain and they would leave having their neck adjusted. Thompson and his associ-ate, Dr. Amanda Core, explained that is not how they practice. “I knew we had to talk about it… and we had a good conversation about cervical spine adjusting – who it is suit-able for, who it is not,” Thompson says. Frequency of care was another question doctors posed, noting some chiropractors will require patients to book multiple visits. “We let them know that our professional association does not support that type of care program, that we do promote evidence-based medicine, having re-evaluation and making sure that people are making progress,” Thompson says. The patient referrals that have steadily come from the family health clinic to Thompson’s chiropractic office are indications of the medical doctors’ confidence in their care protocols. The family health team had even made the process easier for medical doctors to refer patients to the chiropractors, Thompson explains. Soon after the chiropractors met with the family doctors, the clinic’s administration added the chiropractic clinic to the patient referral feature in its elec-tronic health system that allows the physician to facilitate a referral just by simply clicking a button on the screen. That button initiates a message sent to Thompson’s clinic with the treatment request, the patient’s information and pertinent diagnosis. Thompson’s office then contacts the patient to book an appointment. “It’s a nice, smooth transition, very patient-friendly,” Thompson says. “(The patient) now feels like they don’t just have one person looking after them but it’s a team ap-proach.” Butler and Al-Dhaher say they would typically refer pa-tients with mechanical back pain, sciatica and various mus-culoskeletal conditions. “Most recently, I’ve had patients with osteoarthritis of the neck – so the cervical spine,” Al-Dhaher recollects. “When 20 Canadian Chiropractor February 2017 Rita Paget (left) became a patient of Dr. Amanda Core (right) after a referral from her family doctor for persistent neck pain. we had Dr. Core and Dr. Thompson come over and we expressed our concerns about osteoarthritis of the neck, they were able to show us journal articles, peer-reviewed journals that demonstrate the effectiveness of chiropractic techniques on neck pain. “By sharing that with us, we feel much more comfortable in having our patients referred and receive that sort of care at their clinic.” Patient outcome Tressa Brown, a school teacher, came to see Al-Dhaher about a persistent back and neck pain. At that time, the family health team just started engaging with the chiroprac-tors and upon hearing Brown’s complaints, he readily sug-gested chiropractic care. She was impressed at how well Al-Dhaher and Thompson worked together to address her health issues. “Dr. Al-Dhaher really talked it up like, ‘this is going to work,’” recalls Brown who, at the time was in a lot of pain so Al-Dhaher called up Thompson to get an appointment right away. “It ended up being one of the most efficient medical treatments I’ve ever received,” Brown says, adding she felt that both doctors were treating her as a “whole person” not just her symptoms. www.canadianchiropractor.ca
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor February 2017: Page 20
