An emergency can be somebody tripping on the doorstep as they walk in and break in a leg. Having an emergency procedure, process and information in your office says you're prepared. You've thought about this. You're taking the right steps and you're doing the right thing. Having your emergency contact in- formation at your fingertips is just simply good procedure and good practice. Ultimately, document, document and document. I had a question in a presen- tation similar to this that I made not too long ago. A person asked for how do we fair in court when these things come up? I said, "We fair pretty good but the problem isn't how the patient is or what the chiropractor did. It's the docu- mentation of the chiropractor provides the attorneys to represent them." Invariably, that documentation is weak and the weaker it is, the more vulnera- ble the chiropractor is simply because the background information that's needed to defend them isn't in the record. If it's not there, it didn't happen. It didn't exist. Take a look at your records. Think about how much you're docu- menting. Think about how clear they are. Think about the exam procedures you're using and beef them up a little bit. Next slide, please. Now there's an- other perspective on this that I'd like to chat about for a little bit. That's our re- action as chiropractors in putting this thing in context. I know some of you have been thinking in the back of your minds that this entire presentation started. Listen, I know for a fact that 3 people per hour, every day of every week, of every month, of every year are dying in the United States from opiate use and abuse. We know for a fact that thousands died of surgical complications, surgi- cal errors and preventable complications in the hospitals. We know that medi- cal care is considered to be the third leading cause of death in the United States. This is not a surprise. People know this stuff. We know it. Next slide, please. Now as I continue this discussion, I'll be very clear. I am not dismissing or discounting any death, certainly not the death of Katie May. What I am asking is why the unfortunate passing of one patient possibly not definitively, not confirmed, but possibly as a complication of chiropractic care, why has that become national news? Now I can't answer that definitively. I have my thoughts on it. I'm sure you have your thoughts on it but at this mo- ment, whether we think it's unfair, whether we think the reaction of the press has been disproportionate, whether we think people are picking on us, how- ever that is, it doesn't matter. The bottom line, it is the way it is. We need to turn our attention back putting the patient first, putting the patient second and putting the patient always in the focus of our attention as we're going about our practice. Our concern about how we're dealt with by the press in this thing is secondary to the patient's needs.
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