I want to change the face of Medicine.

I want to change the face of medicine.

Lofty goal, right? It almost sounds… unattainable. However, I refuse to accept that. For those who know me well know I love a challenge. Now that you know WHAT I am going to do, let me tell you WHY.

I absolutely love my patients. I’ve known many of them for years. Not only do I know them, I know their families, friends, and coworkers. I hear about their victories and losses. I know their passions. Often times the reason they are in my office centers around pain interfering with their passion. 

My patients are frustrated with big business medicine.  -They're sick of being a number. 

-They're sick of not being heard. 

-They don’t want to go on meds. 

-They can’t get in to see their provider for months. 

-They're tired of being told they can't do what they love. That there's no solution.

Hearing all of this makes me frustrated for them. 

I have my own frustrations. I am recognized as a primary care and portal of entry physician in our state. 

I know how to:

-diagnose ear infections, the common cold, etc.

-I know what lab work to order. 

-I can order imaging (MRIs, etc) . 

What I don’t do is prescribe medication. 

It can be very difficult for me to coordinate care and work as a team with many other physicians when medication is needed. Often times, it isn’t their fault.  They operate in a broken system:

-They are busy and their wait times extend for months. 

-They have expectations of patient numbers their clinics set.

-Clinic visit times are dictated by someone else. 

-The walk-in is not meant to function as a primary care doctor and is limited in availability of long term solutions.

Any time you work on a team, you also want to know and develop trust with the people you work with. Of course, there are so many providers in town, it is impossible for all of them to know and trust me. None of this feels like patient centered care to me. 

Alright. You’ve got the what and the why, now for the how. 

Move Chiropractic is not just a new name and a new location. Move Chiropractic will serve as an interdisciplinary clinic.  We will provide interdisciplinary care plans. These are detailed plans of care created by representatives from several medical disciplines or specialties, each focused on a specific patient’s condition, treatment goals, and methods for improving outcomes. I want to bring doctors who have the patient at the center of their philosophical and care model under one roof. 

As a sports chiropractor, my main focus is helping you move better, feel better, live better and get back to the things you love doing, pain free. I usually do this with active care plans. The gap I notice is that many patients come in injured, we work with them and do some rehab, and the transition to be fully discharged from the office has some bumps in the road. I am working to add a very competent exercise professional, who can spend a visit or two with you after the rehab and care with me is done, who can assess your movement and fix anything that likely contributed to your injury. I will work with this professional to choose what to assess and work on, and they will help execute this at a far reduced cost for you. What we know about injury for certain, is that the one factor that always increases your risk for injury, is prior injury. This will help curb re-injury rates. 

Another example, I work with so many active mothers. For some reason, status quo maternal care doesn’t include a rehab component during the postpartum period,.Even if you deliver by cesarean and literally have the core of your body cut open.

Women deserve better. 

-Women deserve to not pee their pants during a run, when they sneeze, or when they jump. 

-Women deserve to not have painful sex. 

-Women deserve to have all of the physical complaints that go along with lugging around a heavy car seat, diaper bag, and baby around addressed. 

So, we are going to house a pelvic floor and fourth trimester specialist, who is also a lactation consultant. 

We are working on finding an NP or MD who wants to focus on primary care for our patient family. One that listens. One that knows you and your family. One that can work with care plans for our patients that are a good fit for medication management. 

We are also working on finding a massage therapist that understands biomechanics and works with therapeutic and deep tissue massage, because we recognize how important this is for our patients’ recovery. 

Last but not least, we are working to consult with a counselor as research shows how important cognitive behavioral therapy can be in chronic pain issues, and how things like depression and anxiety can contribute to physical conditions. 

If you have other ideas for how we could serve you, I am here to listen. We are here to make you move, feel and live better, and we are really passionate that!

In health,

Dr. Amy