“I don’t want this pain to worsen.”
“I want some pain relief.”
“I want pain relief.”
“I want this back pain to go away and never return.”
Back pain and neck pain patients have a tendency to have assorted goals for their pain. The goal of healthcare policy is mostly curative. Many chronic pain patients know otherwise. New Hampshire Spine and Sport knows otherwise. We all want relief and some hint of control over how and when back pain and neck pain appear and disappear. Chiropractic care is for these patients. New Hampshire Spine and Sport’s chiropractic care examines a problem like back and neck pain and recognizes that often there is no “cure,” but there is “control.” Back pain and neck pain patients who have had a few bouts with either condition realize this, too. They associate their healthcare goals with their experience: there isn’t always a cure, but there is often control to avert pain episodes and relieving care to get through the pain episodes as quickly as possible. New Hampshire Spine and Sport is the Southern New Hampshire chiropractic place for back and neck pain patients. New Hampshire Spine and Sport is home of the Southern New Hampshire back pain specialist.
PATIENT EXPECTATIONS: HOW THEY INFLUENCE AND HOW THEY’RE MET
Chiropractic back pain specialists know their back pain and neck pain sufferers well. A recent study of 1614 patients experiencing chronic low back pain (885) and chronic neck pain (729) reported their goals for chiropractic care of their issues. About a third of them wanted the pain to go away forever and were more likely to have had pain for a briefer period of time and hold a stronger belief in medical cure; they sought a cure. 22% of low back pain and 16% of neck pain patients wished to stop their pain from coming back and were more likely to have lower pain levels. 14% of low back and 12% of neck pain patients sought to keep their pain from getting worse. 31% of back pain and 41% of neck pain patients wanted temporary relief of their pain. These last two sets of patients tended to have had pain for a longer period of time. Which group do you fall into? Like most humans, there is a discrepancy from person to person depending on their experience that chiropractors and other healthcare providers really should recognize. (1) Such patient expectations are documented to predict short-term outcomes of chiropractic care for low back pain. Another study detailed that patients with a high expectation of improvement were 58% more apt to report an improvement at the fourth visit. (2) Surely, having an interdisciplinary team of healthcare providers working together can raise low back pain patients’ chances of relief. (3) Today, the patient is the center of healthcare. Patient-centered care relies on patient-reported outcomes to tell the story. The patient’s perspective must always be taken into account. And when it comes to non-pharmacological treatment of low back pain, active patient involvement is essential. (4) At New Hampshire Spine and Sport the Southern New Hampshire back pain patient is at the center of all we do.
CONTACT New Hampshire Spine and Sport
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Ed Hutter on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson in which he shares his story of being a back pain patient desiring pain relief and how the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management helped him.
Schedule your Southern New Hampshire chiropractic visit with your Southern New Hampshire back pain specialist today. Bring your expectations of care. We’ll make a treatment plan together to meet them.