Meghan Luttrell's Blog

"Straight" By Name...No More

As most students here at Sherman College are aware, the name of our school has recently dropped the word “Straight” and is now just  “Sherman College of Chiropractic.” Some people are outraged by this, but I think that faction is few…most students don’t really care, and other students think that dropping the “straight” will attract more students in the future. While I don’t have a passionate opinion about this, I did take notice of the word “straight” in our school’s name in my own search for chiropractic schools. I wondered what made this school different from the others; my dad graduated from Palmer in Iowa and my brother graduated from Life in Marietta. I still think that a school’s philosophy in the profession is a very important reason to choose it.

I’m still wondering what exactly about the word “straight” that deters future students from choosing this school. I think that many young people like the bigger cities and flashier facilities that other schools offer, and we can’t offer either of those things…so a name change won’t make too much of a difference, in my opinion.

On another note, the word “straight” wasn’t added to the name of the college until years after it was founded, because we needed accreditation from a different agency from the CCE. The founding fathers of the school maintained that chiropractors do not diagnose disease; we locate, analyze and correct vertebral subluxations. Now, though, we are accredited by the CCE, and we do diagnose, based on our terms of accreditation. So the purpose of having the word “straight” in the name of the school is obsolete.

Entrance/Exits

Thanksgiving Holiday is looming, and entrance/exit exams in the Health Center are dominating at least two quarter's worth of students' lives right now. 8th quarter is starting sweat, looking over old notes and asking upper quarter interns what will be in the entrance exams. They will pass just fine, I have all kinds of confidence in them. When I took entrance exams, two quarters ago, it was on my birthday...that's right, on my birthday. That was a crappy day, let me tell you! I passed everything just fine, though...I guess that's an ok birthday present. Entrance exams let you officially become a Sherman College intern in the Health Center...ready to start seeing patients, both student and outpatients.

Exit exams are still coming up for me; just before I graduate, I have to pass them. It's kind of a strange requirement; if I don't do well on exit exams, does that mean I've been a crappy intern for a full year? I think it makes more sense to do periodic intern procedure grading (which we already do.) I've heard that exit exams are supposed to kick us in gear and get us prepared for Part IV of the National Boards, which is a practical exam, with actors portraying certain symptoms and case histories, and the interns have to figure out a diagnosis/treatment plan. However...exit exams are usually after the Part IV...so I don't see that they help prepare interns for the National Boards. Exit exams are a part of every chiropractic college (as far as I know), though, so it must be one last chance for the college to monitor the state of intern knowledge and skill before they are set free into the world.

Good luck to my fellow interns who are taking the entrance or exit exams next week! I hope you all do well.

All Hallow's Eve

We had two trick-or-treaters this year; I think the rain discouraged a larger turnout. They were a little girl zombie, and her big brother zombie victim, with some of his brains eaten. Cuddly.

Mike and I met up with some other Shermanites to see a band called The Consumers. We were tipped off to this event by Dr. Power, of the Sherman College Health Center, because his son is the lead singer. Incidentally, the younger Power will be starting his first quarter here at Sherman College in January, if my sources are correct.

The show was great, complete with tons of crazy costumes (see if you can spot who the guy in the bottom picture is supposed to be), great music, and a projection of The Evil Dead in the background. For those who have never had the pleasure of watching The Evil Dead, now is the time. It is one of the worst, and therefore one of the best, movies ever made. And, part of the movie was filmed in the town where I went to high school:  Morristown, Tennessee. In fact, the credits at the very end say: "Filmed in Morristown, Tennessee, and Detroit."  Evidently Detroit has no state. 

Has anyone seen "The Hangover?"

The Health Insurance Game

I have heard lots of hype lately about how much we all need health insurance coverage, and about how so many thousands of people die every year because they have no insurance. I feel the need to mention, at this point in the blog, that this is untrue. In fact, the reason that hospital prodedures are so expensive is because they are required, by law, to treat any sick person that walks through the door, regardless of whether they can pay for the service. As per Dr. Wise, Sherman College's on-staff business and insurance knowledge guru, the insurance companies haggle with the hospitals, until a deal is reached in which the hospital charges $2,000 for a procedure, and the insurance company then pays the hospital $800, which is what the hospital was hoping for in the first place. And yes, this is also how it works in chiropractic offices across the country. DCs charge a couple hundred dollars for a visit's worth of adjustments (or manipulations, pick your flavor), P.T. modalities, etc, and they will get maybe half that from the insurance company.

So then, one might ask, would it not be cheaper A) for the patient and B) for the practioner, because of a serious decrease in administrative costs, to charge a reasonable fee, and avoid the insurance fee-bloat game, in chiropractic and in medicine? Yes. Yes it would, and many people in private offices are doing this. Which begs the question, what is the actual healthcare problem in America today? I can guarantee, it's not that every family needs health insurance coverage. It's that the insurance game is out of hand.

Dr. Berry, from Greenville, Tennessee, runs a cash-based medical office.

 “The only way I can keep my price so low is by avoiding the crushing overhead and hassles that other physicians allow third-party payers to impose on their practices,” testified Dr. Berry, who plainly posts prices in his office, ranging from “Poison Ivy - $25” to “Simple Lacerations - $95.”
When patients buck at the concept of foregoing their insurance and $10 co-pay, Dr. Berry uses a simple analogy. “If you don’t have insurance for routine car maintenance, then why have it for routine medical care since fees at our clinic run anywhere between an oil change and a brake job.”

Read the rest of this article:   http://www.aapsonline.org/press/nr-optout.htm

Technique Woes

I've been exploring a couple of chiropractic techniques this quarter. Here at Sherman, we have what are called "technique clubs;" we meet at ten o'clock breaks or in the evening to practice setups and talk about analysis. This quarter I've been attending Gonstead Club and Results Club, which discusses the work of Pierce. I'm learning some good stuff about analyzing x-rays, and fine-tuning some of my setups. In classes here, we get an overview of several ways to move segments, and a conglomeration of ways to analyze the spine, using x-rays, motion and static palpation.

We get a decent start, but I am currently irritated with that system. Now that I am actually on the floor here, seeing and adjusting patients, I think we should have taken specific technique packages, including the analysis and the adjustments that go with them, and learned them as a whole. Mixing up the work of Thompson, Gonstead, Palmer, Pierce, and others into one class causes confusion for me, because each of these people had a special way of analyzing the spine, and coupled their technique choices with this analysis. Analyzing the spine with Gonstead, then adjusting with Thompson doesn't make much sense to me, and it doesn't help to make the decision about what I need to do with the patient lying on the table in front of me.

I know I'll get better at this with more experience, but I have to start somewhere--and I wish this start had been more clearly organized.

Jack-O-Lanterns!

Micah (another Sherman student), Abby (his wife), and Wyatt (their son) Dunn just came over to our house to carve "Jack-o-Lanterns." We had a blast! I was ambitious; I used the complicated witch stencil on my pumpkin, and I actually thought that it would look terrible after I got it all carved. Then we turned the lights off and lit the candles in the pumpkin...it looks very cool. Micah and Abby were all about the layered, glow-through effect,and my fiance, Mike, was all about the cartoon-ish, traditional, crooked-toothed pumpkin.

We ate Halloween candy, drank some good beverages, and ate some quesadillas...and...I tried my hand at making a pumpkin pie, from the actual pumpkin, instead of the can. It turned out pretty well, I think. It was a great afternoon for fun and spookiness, even if my cat was weirded out by the baby crawling around after her.

I don't know if Mike and I will go out for Halloween this year; we have been busy every year so far since we've been in South Carolina. I love to dress up, though...maybe this year we'll turn on our porch lights for the trick-or-treaters. Is there any tradition more wonderful than going house to house, asking strangers for candy, while disguised in gory paint or maybe fairy wings? Nope.

Bridal Shower Weekend

I had my bridal shower in Tennessee this last weekend. It was great! My mom, aunts (both acquired and blood-related), and friends all threw me a great party, and gave me lots of generous gifts. I gotta say, between starting up several patients, plowing through mountains of paperwork, driving up to Tennessee, celebrating all day and most of the night Saturday...I'm pretty tired. My friends themed the evening, "Marriage...it's an adjustment!" as a corny nod to me being a chiropractic intern. It was cheesy, but great. I'll post pictures just as soon as someone sends me some.

This weekend really made me realize how lucky I am to have a supportive group of strong women in my life, and how truly important it is to have a group like that.

The farm saw lots of socialization this weekend: at one point, there was a birthday party for my brother's girlfriend, the party at my mom's friend's house for me, the party at the cabin for the spouses of the women, and the party at the house for us younger generation of girls. Just a preview of what is to come at the wedding next summer. It's pretty different from the quiet life that's the usual in the hills of East Tennessee... And now...back to the Health Center paperwork. There's nothing like a dose of responsibility to bring me back to reality.

New Patients

I started up my future father-in-law and future sister-in-law today at the Health Center. I was a little nervous; I wasn't entirely sure how to start a brand new patient. I had to get them a new patient appointment, give them a New Patient Orientation (giving them Health Center info, telling them about chiropractic and what they can expect from their care here), take a case history on both of them (that takes hours!) and then I started in on my future sis-in-law's physical exam. Whew!

To establish a vertebral subluxation pattern, we interns have to do at least three spinal exams on the new patient. "Pattern" is when the body is static; this means it's not adapting like it should. If the patient's findings are constantly changing, their bodies are adapting, and not subluxated. So, I got all that stuff started today. And I sure was tired at the end of the day.

Happy 30th, Pauley

Yesterday was Pauley's birthday. If you have not visited Paul Polak's blog yet, check it out. Paul is the big birthday guy, who likes to surprise our other quartermates with singing balloons, gag gifts, you name it. We didn't even try to out-outrageous him, but Teresa (our quartermate) made a great football-shaped cake with the Steelers emblem. Danna brought in gold and black balloons. Paul's truck has been breaking down all over the place...so we brought him a new car. Well, a Hotwheels, anyway. And then we all went out to eat Japanese food.

Pauley has tons of zest for life, and for chiropractic. He's always bouncing around the Health Center, dressed to the nines, doing paperwork and seeing patients and telling ridiculous jokes. Happy Birthday, Pauley!! I'm glad you are in my quarter.

Evidence-based?

"Evidence-based" chiropractic care is becoming the buzz-word for insurance companies. I'm just learning really what this means, but as far as my understanding goes, we (chiropractors) can't give care that is not backed by research papers published in peer-reviewed journals. There are thousands of papers on low back pain regarding chiropractic care. But what about the better functioning of patients' bodies?

The philosophies of practicing chiropractors differs so widely that it's hard for the profession to agree on a definition of "chiropractic" and "subluxation." This makes backing research projects somewhat difficult, at best. We have a new research director here at Sherman College, Dr. Luo, and I hope we really start punching research a little harder.

As a side note: who pays the bills, makes the calls: if you work with insurance companies, or if we nationalize healthcare, you will not be able to create your own office practices. I'm going to be as cash-based as possible. We'll have to see what's coming over the horizon in America's healthcare policies.