Why Traditional Approaches to Healthcare Is Not Working
The United States has spent more than 4 trillion dollars (about $12,000 per person in the US) per year on healthcare in our country. We consume more than 75% of the entire world’s medications. Out of the top ten industrialized nations, we are ranked dead last. Traditional medicine’s focus on symptom management is a flawed approach to healthcare – by the time symptoms are present, usually the patient is in full blown disease.
The traditional approach to healthcare focuses on compartmentalizing a patient instead of looking at the patient as a whole person – which is how our body is designed to work.
We have seen thousands of patients in our practice, many of them with other healthcare conditions requiring co-management with their physicians or specialists. We noticed the same thing happening with patients suffering from pain – many sought care with their primary care physician, then maybe saw a chiropractor, pain management specialist, and/or physical therapist. The problem is that the providers did not communicate well with each other, and no one was overseeing the entire picture. This often means that the patient is left to self-advocate for their own care – which is ineffective and stressful.