Chiropractors as Primary Care Providers

Dynamic Chiropractic,  Jun 4, 2007  by Vivo, Meghan

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

"In those integrated practices of which I am aware, referral by chiropractic practitioners to other CAM practitioners is a routine matter. Unfortunately, what I see developing at the present time is a whole new turf battle. It is not enough that DCs and MDs have engaged in this turf war for a century; now we have new entities beginning the same thing. This is why, after reading Warren I. Salmon, PhD, Alternative Medicines (1984), I concluded that we must find a way to work in concert with other CAM providers and become colleagues, rather than competitors.

"Fortunately, the Board of Trustees of National University of Health Sciences saw this as well, and the result is that we changed National College of Chiropractic into National University of Health Sciences, precisely so that we could form an environment in which various CAM providers could learn together and could develop a collegiality.

"Will it work? I can only hope so, for it is the patient we must be most concerned with, and I do not think competition among various types of providers serves patients well."

References

1. "DCs as Primary Care Providers: New Managed Care Study Finds Improved Patient Outcomes and Significant Cost Savings With DC Gatekeepers." Dynamic Chimpractic, Sept. 1, 2004. www.chiroweb.com/ archives/22/18/16.html.

2. Sarnat RL, Winterstein J, Cambron JA. Clinical utilization and cost outcomes from an integrative medicine independent physician association: an additional 3-year update, journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, May 2007.

By Meghan Vivo, Associate Editor

Copyright Dynamic Chiropractic Jun 4, 2007
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved