Short North Accident Injury Care

Whiplash Accidents Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio
Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.

In My Short North, Columbus, Chiropractic Office I treats many individuals for neck pain, back pain and headaches.  In many cases, the causes of these symptoms are related to auto accidents or other types of personal injury.  More often than not, the auto accidents in question occurred years earlier and the initial symptoms were not taken seriously by the patient.

Most people don’t take the time to seek treatment for themselves yet they scramble to get their cars fixed.  This thought process extends into other scenarios as well.  I ounce had an acquaintance who smoked but proudly proclaimed that she didn’t smoke inside her car because she didn’t want to ruin it!

I don’t know why so many of us carry these kinds of thought processes.  In the case of auto accident injuries, the little bit of neck pain or the headaches or the low back pain is often overlooked or dismissed and minimized as being un-important.  This is flawed thinking.  Imagine if we treated other health conditions with such disregard.

The injury mechanisms in whiplash type accidents are complex.  Muscles are stretched and torn, ligaments can sometimes partially tear or rupture, intervertebral discs can become herniated and spinal fractures can occur.  These injuries can lead to a vast number of symptoms that can cause neck pain or back pain that ranges in intensity from a slight irritation all the way to severe disability.  Back pain and neck pain are bad enough in the short term and much worse in a long term chronic situation.

While the mechanism of injury in whiplash cases is complex, the typical resulting spinal injuries follow a well established path.  Initially, the muscles and ligaments in the injured area are irritated.  This irritation leads to inflammation.  Inflammation is not only responsible for many of the initial symptoms that you experience but it is also responsible for scar tissue formation which can make your symptoms permanent or chronic.

Statistically, approximately 25% of auto injury victims will suffer from some ongoing symptom related to their accident.  I see this statistic come to life in my Columbus chiropractic office.  Chiropractors are experts in dealing with the types of neck pain, back pain and headaches that occur as a result of auto accidents.  The best way to insure that you are not a member of this group of 25% that never fully recover from their auto accident injuries is to get an examination and possibly treatment, if recommended by your chiropractor.

Whiplash Accidents Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio

Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.

Whiplash Accidents Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.

In my  Short North, Columbus Office, “When the rains begin to fall, we know to expect calls from our regular patients and new referrals to address pain stemming from car accident injuries. When roads are slick and slippery, it is around 4 to 5 times more likely for an accident to occur when compared to calm weather. In the last decade and a half, my Chiropractic office in Columbus has seen hundreds of car accident and personal injury victims.

Whiplash is the classic neck injury that is most commonly caused by automobile accident”

Whiplash Accidents Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio
Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.

Whiplash Accidents Injuries Treated, Short North. Columbus, Ohio Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.

In my  Short North, Columbus clinic, I provide treatment for many types of injuries. Typical injuries that result in neck pain, back pain, chronic headaches, sciatica etc., include auto accidents, work related injuries, injuries caused by domestic chores and sometimes things as simple as sleeping in an awkward position.

Of these patients suffering from neck pain, back pain and other injuries, I would say that at least 50% of them ask, “what can I do for myself to make sure that this doesn’t happen again?” This question served as the inspiration for this article and I will address in this post.

To begin with, neck pain and back pain are great motivators.

When people are in pain they take a proactive approach to their health. People often inquire about what kind of stretch or exercising that they can start right away. Unfortunately, the best thing that you can do while your injury is new is to apply ice packs to the injured area and rest.

Over my 16 plus years in practice I have seen a large percentage of enthusiastic patients ignore this advice and end up giving their conditions a major set back. The time to start exercising and stretching your back for most of us is when it is out of its acute stage of pain.

My biggest struggles in practice have been dealing with my patients exercise and diet habits. Exercise is one of the few things that a patient can do at home, outside of chiropractic care, to help prevent or diminish the chances of developing back pain.

After an injury, you should approach exercise cautiously – almost to a point where the exercise that you are performing feels like it is doing nothing. If you can get through a few low intensity exercise sessions like this without aggravating your condition, you should slowly add resistance, allowing you to build confidence and strength at the same time.

You have to remember to incorporate a sensible approach to exercising after a back injury. Be sure to exercise and stretch under the advise of a health care professional. Strong and flexible muscles add strength and support to your spine and will provide much needed stability.

I have always tried to help the patients of my Columbus Chiropractic office with their neck pain and back with stretches and exercises. The combination of chiropractic care with stretches and exercise allows for quicker, more complete healing.

Whiplash Accidents Injuries Treated, Short North, Columbus, Ohio Call

614 299 9797

to make an appointment.

Whiplash Accidents Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio

Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.

In my  Short North, Columbus, based Chiropractic Clinic we provide treatment for those patients involved in auto accidents on a regular basis.  The most common injury resulting from car accidents is whiplash.

Whiplash is most frequently associated with rear-end auto accidents in which the heads of those in the front car are suddenly snapped backward and forward by the acceleration caused by the impact.  The more descriptive medical phrase used to convey this type of injury is cervical acceleration/deceleration (CAD) trauma or syndrome.  CAD accurately describes the rapid movements that can injure the vertebrae of the neck and the muscles and ligaments that support them.

Anyone can be subjected to whiplash at almost any speed, even in a minimal-force auto accident at speeds as low as 5mph.   Incidents that cause whiplash can also be related to other incidents or mishaps in which the head is pushed or jerked beyond its normal range of motion.  Whiplash commonly causes serious and chronic neck pain, as well as back pain, headaches blurred vision, ringing in the ears, nausea, numbness and dizziness. More serious injuries such as bruising of the brain can sometimes occur in auto accidents.

The sudden accident that caused the initial whiplash injury may fade into memory, but the physical and psychological damage of whiplash can become chronic, severely eroding the victim’s quality of life.

Chiropractic techniques are particularly well-suited to relieving the neck pain and other debilitating effects of whiplash because they can
• restore movement lost after the accident,
• overcome muscle weakness and enhance muscle tone,
• speed recovery, and
• diminish chronic symptoms that can persist or recur over many years.

Chiropractic adjustments and supportive treatment have proved successful for many thousands of patients. Chiropractic care significantly reduce patients’ distress and allow them to return to their normal activities.

Whiplash Accidents Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio

Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.

Whiplash Accidents Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.
________________________________________
Mark van Hemert, DC, DACS

Short North, Columbus Chiropractor explains:
IME was originally an acronym for independent medical examination, but the IME doctor is now chosen by and paid by the insurance industry. The acronym now stands for insurance medical examination.

The most recent development in the insurance medical examination has been the multidisciplinary examination, where a chiropractor and a medical doctor, both with higher credentials than the average clinician, examine the patient simultaneously.

This creates an appearance of a high level of specialization and expertise. The opinion in a majority of these reviews is that care beyond two months is not needed. The rational is that the laying down of scar tissue is completed by the eighth week and therefore further treatment in not medically necessary or therapeutic.

They state that the patient is at maximum improvement and no further treatment is necessary. This rational does not consider the remodeling and strengthening of scar tissue, nor the need to restore maximum joint function.

However, without an attending physician who is knowledgeable about the guidelines and who has accumulated objective data of improvement, the professional response to this rational will be based solely on opinion and not fact.

Mercy specifically does not give a limit for reasonable care, but observations, assessments and the definitions of care based on scientific evidence.

It states that these guidelines are not designed to be a cookbook. The listed time for acute stage of care ranges from 8-16 weeks, depending on which of three cited references you go by.

In reviewing those references, I believe that the eight weeks refer to the acute healing cycle of the injury, and the 16 weeks to the acute physiology or rehabilitative healing time.

The healing and rehabilitative acute stages are followed by the subacute stage, before the unresponsive chronic phase of function and pain begin. Rebuttals of IME opinions using the Mercy guidelines increase your credibility when justifying your clinical rational to claims adjudicators.

The insurance industry recognizes the Mercy document as the authority in the chiropractic profession. The parameter of clinical practice that Mercy most fully addresses is the trauma induced patient.

Perhaps if “Acute Traumatic Cases” had been added to the title of the guidelines the criticism of the document would have been muted. Mercy creates a solid, well thought out guideline for the traumatic personal injury and workers’ compensation case.

Mercy very effectively deals with narrow minded, nonflexible professional rational and makes the third-party payers conform to a set of standards which is fair to the patient and respectful of.

Whiplash Accidents Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.

Whiplash Accidents Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio
Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.

The patients in my Columbus Chiropractic clinic often complain of “hip pain”. When I ask them to point to the pain they almost always point to the area right next to the spine just below their belt line.

That is the difference between a medical definition of the hip and that of a patient. From a medical standpoint, the “hip” is the joint where the femur articulates with the acetabulum. While I do see and provide care for those with pain in this joint, it is much less common to see pain in this “hip” joint versus the “hip” joints that most often trouble my patients.

The joint that my patients point to when they complain of hip pain is usually the sacroiliac joint. The sacroiliac joint is formed from the ileum aka, hip bone and the sacrum which is a triangular shaped fusion of the bottom five vertebra in the spine. The spine (and the weight of your upper body) sit directly on top of the sacroiliac joints making the stability of these joints extremely important.

There is a network of ligaments and muscles that act to stabilize and move the sacroiliac joints. Since the sacroiliac joints have to support some of the greatest forces that our bodies are subjected to, the muscles that act on these joints are some of the strongest in the body. Because of the sacroiliac joints close approximation to the spine and the hip proper, the larger muscles that act on the sacroiliac joint are also movers of the hip and the lower lumbar spine.

Since the sacroiliac joints are large joints that are supported by big muscles and strong ligaments, they are able to withstand much of the stresses that we ask of them. However, they do break down with the constant postural stresses (sitting), poor lifting habits, falls and other injuries leading to pain and stiffness in the lower back.

Because of its size, once the sacroiliac joint is irritated, it can be difficult to treat. Treatment always involves reducing inflammation, mobilizing the joint (restoring normal motion) then stabilizing the joint with stretches and exercises. This is the course of care that I have followed with great results in my chiropractic office in Columbus.

Hip Pain & the Sacroiliac Joint Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.

Whiplash Accidents Injuries Treated, Liability & Labor Disability Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio

Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.
________________________________________
Mark van Hemert, DC, DACS

The design of this article is to give the chiropractic profession an introduction into the value and usefulness of clinical outcome assessment procedures. Using outcome assessment methods of case management gives the chiropractic profession an effective way to document the need for care.

This results in receiving the compensation for services they rendered.
In today’s environment of manage care, the attending clinician’s care is constantly being reviewed and challenged.

The chief areas of concern for the third-party payers is over-utilization and costs. Over-utilization is a problem in chiropractic, whether it be real or only perceived by outside reviewers.

This perception can only be overcome on a case by case basis by objectively proving that care provided was reasonable and necessary. Á Due to the acceptance of the Mercy guidelines

(Guidelines for Chiropractic Quality Assurance and Practice Parameters) by the insurance industry, the document is the authoritative reference to counter the insurance industry’s attempt to limit quality and the quantity of care.

The primary reason the Mercy guidelines carry a high level of acceptance and credibility by the insurance industry, is because its ratings are based on scientific evidence.

A synopsis of today’s situation reveals that the care rendered by the attending clinician is constantly being challenged by the third-party carriers. IME opinions of excessive care or no permanent impairment are detrimental to the patient’s medical/legal case.

Cases that involve acute injury with associated liability frequently require the intervention of the court system or workers’ compensation system to resolve the case.

This inherent intervention leaves the door wide open for the probing eyes and opinions of the IME. Due to a lack of knowledge and documentation by the attending physician, patients receive inadequate medical care and inferior documentation of their injury, rational for therapeutic care, determination of maximum improvement, and final impairment.

Third-party carriers are aggressive in their review of care to determine the point of maximum improvement. Many clinicians feel that if patient care is within the guideline numbers, their fees will be paid.

However, the therapeutic necessity of care is frequently being challenged. A lack of knowledge of the practice guidelines does not substantiate the patient’s contractual right to receive care to the maximum ability of the injury to respond to active care and improved function.

power… the 1980s witnessed a shift in power from the providers of health care to the payers of it … and those practitioners whose services are labeled worthless could face financial ruin … chiropractors are especially vulnerable.”

Whiplash Accidents Injuries Treated, Liability & Labor Disability Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio

Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.

Liability & Labor Disability Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio
Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.

Even when all aspects of case are well managed, problems for reimbursement can ensue. If the liability for the automobile accident is disputed, the settlement will often be different when compared to an undisputed case.

For example, if the treated patient is found to be 20 percent comparatively negligent for not wearing his seat belt, the final award of $10,000 would now total $8,000.

This final award now reflects the 20 percent comparative negligence. In our opinion, it is not fair for the doctor to reduce his bill by any amount to compensate the patient for his negligence.

Labor Disability

There are times, most often in severe traumas, when a labor disabling status will be afforded to the patient.

To justify this status and the accompanying reimbursement for lost wages, the doctor must document what specific occupational activities are prohibited by the injury. Failure to document the need for temporary disability will cause the patient to lose financial compensation for his loss of earning.

Documentation

This is a broad classification which encompasses all written words concerning this accident. We are of the opinion that “travel cards” and “fill in the blank exam forms” are no longer sufficient in the current medical/legal system.

They tell what was done but not the reason. The literature is very clear as to how to properly document each of the patient’s office visits. The SOAP acronym is most often used:
“S” refers to the patient’s subjective complaints,
“O” refers to the objective evidence for care seen on each office visit,
“A” stands for the doctor’s assessment of the patient’s condition, and the
“P” pertains to the treatment plan of that visit.

This type of documentation is not only taught in the chiropractic schools, but is also recommended by most malpractice insurance carriers as the proper way to document each of the dates of service.

It should be mentioned that even the best attorneys can not adequately represent their clients interests without proper documentation from the doctor.

We hope this discussion has enlightened and provided a reasonable source of reference for both sides of these issues.

The doctor has a heavy burden. He must not only adequately treat the patient, but also assume the responsibility placed upon him by the legal system. The financial and personal rewards for his efforts will be more than adequate for the effort expended.

Liability & Labor Disability Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio
Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.

Chronic Pain & Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio

Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.

Chronic pain is defined as pain that persists longer than 90 days beyond the course of the natural expected healing time. As a chiropractor in Columbus, Ohio, I get calls from both new and established patients on a regular basis who complain of back pain, neck pain, etc.

One of the factors that comes into play when planning a chiropractic treatment program is the duration of the patients pain. In general, the longer that a patient suffers with a painful condition, the longer / more intense the treatment is needed in order to fix it. Acute or recent episodes of pain respond much quicker than do chronic conditions.

Pain is very difficult to quantify by any practitioner. Pain is subjective in nature and completely defined by the person experiencing the symptoms, the fact that chronic pain can exist without an obvious cause makes it much more difficult to treat.

I see the difficulties that my chronic pain patients have with their conditions on a daily basis. Aside from the actual pain that they experience, those who suffer with chronic pain often limit their activities for fear of exacerbating their conditions. They also have a much harder time focussing on mental tasks as the pain is a constant source of distraction. The more severe the pain, the more difficulties these people have with attention demanding tasks.

While we strive to avoid pain, pain is a wonderful tool of the nervous system. Pain lets us know of actual or potential tissue damage with an unpleasant sensation that directs our attention to the affected area so that we can either immediately take action to stop the process or focus on healing the injured body parts. Chronic pain sensations are a bit more insideous.

Chronic pain often involves a decrease in the sensativity of the nerve fibers that send messages of pain from the damaged area. With a decreased sensativity (threshold), the nerve is much more likely to transmit painful sensations to the brain then a healthy nerve / tissue combination. This activity within the nervous system is know as a wind up phenomenon and it is very difficult to stop once it has been established. In some other cases, nerve fibers that normally don’t carry painful sensations not only begin to transmit pain signals but it is thought that they may actually generate the signals themselves.

In my office, chronic pain is often the result of untreated sprain / strain type injuries of the joints. In untreated or under-treated sprain / strain injuries, the joint or the muscles that move the joint are laden with scar tisuue that acts to either limit or alter motion of that joint. With time, the awkward, unnatural biomechanics of the scar tissue laden joint results in irritation, inflammation and finally pain and spasm.

While chiropractic care is often successful at re-establishing “clean” biomechanics of a joint, it is always better to get the care in the beginning of an injury versus waiting for that injury to become chronic, with a requiring more care with a decreasing chance of complete recovery.

Because of the possibility of an acute painful condition becoming a chronic one, I always encourage my patients to take care of themselves immediately when they first start to experience pain. I have practiced chiropractic care for almost two decades now and I can say that chronic painful conditions of the spine are devastating.

Not only do they make you experience pain, but in most instances they limit your physical activities creating a situation that can easily degrade from inactivity secondary to pain, to deconditioning and eventually to obesity and ill health in general leading to a dissatisying lifestyle.

The bottom line on chronic pain is this – avoid it if you can. Don’t ignore your pain. Painful acute conditions that are left untreated can easily spiral into a chronic condition that has the potential to alter your lifestyle in a negative way.

Chronic Pain Injuries Treated, Short North Columbus, Ohio

Call 614 299 9797 to make an appointment.