Screening Patients, Part 6: Miscellaneous Red Flags & Difficult Situations

Welcome to the sixth and final installment of this post series on screening potential new (or possibly already-existing) patients.

In previous posts in this series, I’ve covered various potential “orange/red flags” to watch out for when evaluating new or existing patients in your practice, if for no other reason than to have prior notice that they exist, so that you as a doctor can take whatever precautions you feel might be necessary, ranging from a simple “okay, that’s good to know” to “refer them to a colleague–now”, or anything in between.

Today, I’m going to cover a variety-pack of situations or patient types that I consider to be on the latter end of that response spectrum – the “refer them out–now”.  Grab some popcorn and enjoy.

Screening Patients, Part 4: The Seekers

 This is Part 4 of a multi-part post series on various types of potential new patients to screen for, the characteristics of these types, and the importance of screening for them, if for no other reason than to have prior notice regarding what you (as a doctor) could be facing when working with them.

This post series is indeed intended for doctors, although I’m putting it out in the open, which means that anyone could read it.  Some of the people (doctors or patients alike) who come across this post series could start thinking to themselves, “what a judgmental prick.”  But I promise that’s not my intent, nor is it the attitude I take.

Chiro Cleanup – Part 4: Dirty Laundry

It certainly seems that the millisecond some of us walk across, the stage, out the door, and into the great wide open, we start accumulating some.  Indeed, in time, each of these items will warrant–and receive–its own post, but for now, I’ll provide the Cliff’s Notes, which are by no means a complete list.

(I’ll preface all this by acknowledging that there are a few bad apples in every profession, and that the field of chiropractic is not in any way unique in that regard.  I also wholeheartedly agree that most DCs get sick people well on a daily basis, without breaking laws or resorting to unflattering schemes.  However, over the years, my dismissal of extreme stories as simple urban legends, horror stories, or exaggerated rumors gave way to a realization that we have a few more bad apples than we care to admit to.  And it’s time we did some admitting, followed immediately by some cleaning house.)

We have closet perverts in our midst.