Author: Ambler Chiropractor 19002

Workers Compensation Doctors

One of the most rewarding parts of being a chiropractor is helping patients get back to work after an injury. Recently in my ambler office, I had a patient that was injured at work. While standing at his work bench someone ran him over with a golf cart. Ouch. This patient entered my ambler, pa office with low back and hip pain. Together the patient and I have worked with both passive and active rehabilitation to enable him to keep his activities of daily living at a normal level. Workers compensation has also paid the bills for his physical therapy. This patient let’s call him bob had no out of pocket expense for his work injury except for the gas it took to get to my office . My chiropractic office click here

Workers Compensation Doctors

One of the most rewarding parts of being a chiropractor is helping patients get back to work after an injury. Recently in my ambler office, I had a patient that was injured at work. While standing at his work bench someone ran him over with a golf cart. Ouch. This patient entered my ambler, pa office with low back and hip pain. Together the patient and I have worked with both passive and active rehabilitation to enable him to keep his activities of daily living at a normal level. Workers compensation has also paid the bills for his physical therapy. This patient let’s call him bob had no out of pocket expense for his work injury except for the gas it took to get to my office . My chiropractic office click here

Dr. Richard Schwartz on Pediatric chiropractic in Ambler, Pa

LITTLE bodies are the big winners from a new trend in chiropractic treatment.

Pediatric chiropractic is growing in popularity because more people now understand the link between chiropractic health and overall well-being, says Dr. Richard Schwartz, from the Advanced Chiropractic and Wellness Center in Ambler, Pa 19002

“The changes we make affect the nervous system as well, which affects the function of the whole body,” Dr Schwartz said.

“It makes such a difference – it helps kids sleep better, concentrate better at school and even kids with growing pains, if that pain is referred from their lower back and not originating in their legs, it helps them feel 100 per cent.”

He said many health conditions were connected to the skeletal system and could be treated by a chiropractor.

“All kids run around and fall over and all these things have an impact on the muscles and the skeletal system,” she said.

“I think it’s important all kids get checked to see if they’re on track and developing as they should be.”

We also over chiropractic and massage for adults. Call our office today 215-283-2844.

 

Ambler Area Chiropractor Talks about Sport Injuries

Horsham and Ambler  area chiropractic and rehabilitation specialists, Ambler Chiropractorunfortunately common summer sport injuries.

In the summer, as physical activity increases with competitive recreational leagues in full swing, so to do unfortunate injuries. Ambler chiropractor and rehabilitation specialists at Advanced Chiropractic Spine and Wellness Center would like to remind summer sport enthusiasts who have found themselves on the sidelines that there are other options besides pain medications and surgery. In fact, a comprehensive and professionally administered program of chiropractic care may be their best option.

“Studies show that a large number of patients who have had spinal operations did not actually need surgery in the first place,” says Dr. Richard Schwartz, DC, founder and head of the Advanced Chiropractic and Wellness team.

Ambler, Pa Chiropractor Dr. Richard Schwartz 215-283-2844

Drug Errors Persist Despite Computerized Prescriptions – How To Protect Yourself

 
 

 

Reading prescriptions, and other doctors’ notes, makes you wonder if doctors attend special handwriting classes that make it virtually impossible for someone to read what they’ve written. As a result of doctors’ notoriously bad handwriting on prescriptions, patients sometimes get the wrong drugs, wrong dosages and wrong schedules – which can have dangerous and sometimes fatal consequences. In an attempt to remedy that situation, many doctors now use a computerized system that is supposed to take the guess work out of filling prescriptions. However, a new study shows that using computers didn’t improve the situation – just as many medication errors are being made as before.

To determine the success of computerized prescription systems – known as e-prescribing – analysts reviewed 3,850 prescriptions received by three major pharmacy chains in three states  over a four-week period. They found errors in 11.7 percent of the total – not much different than the errors in the hand-written variety.

Of the prescriptions with errors found, one-third could lead to dangerous drug reactions or interactions.

Most of the errors involved prescriptions for antibiotics, nervous system, respiratory and cardiovascular medications. The errors on antibiotics were most likely to cause adverse reactions and interactions.

The most common error, found in nearly two-thirds of the cases investigated, was omitted information – e.g. nothing on the prescription about the dosage, how often the patient should take the medicine, or for how long.

Not all e-prescribing software gets the same results: error rates ranged from 5.1 percent to 37.5 percent, depending on the software functionality. For example, software that forces a doctor to fill in required fields – like the dosage, frequency and duration –  in order to be able to generate the prescription at all would reduce the error rate and, in fact, eliminate most of the problems.

As of 2009, doctors who use e-prescribing receive bonuses of 2 percent of the amount they bill to Medicare in any given year. Computerized systems were supposed to save $ billions in healthcare money. Instead, hundreds of millions are being paid in bonuses – with no change in the cost of prescription drug errors to taxpayers, or the dangers to those taking the drugs.

Medical errors, including the errors e-prescribing were supposed to correct, continue to play a huge role in rising healthcare costs, but when it comes to prescriptions, patients can protect themselves by verifying the following information whenever their doctor wants them to take medication:

  • The name of the medication
  • The strength of each pill – e.g. number of milligrams
  • What the drug looks like (to avoid getting the wrong medication – another error)
  • How many pills they’re supposed to take with each dose, when each dose should be taken, and the number of days they’re supposed to stay on the medication
  • Is there anything in their medical history that could be reason to not take the drug?
  • Are the doctor and pharmacist fully informed about the patient’s allergies?
  • Do the doctor and pharmacist know about any other medication or supplements the patient is taking so they can minimize the possibility of a potentially dangerous interactions?

 
 

Sources: Journal of American Medical Informatics Association, 

Could A Trip To The Chiropractor Help A Colicky Baby

Interview with Local Ambler/Horsham Patch Reporter


Horsham, Pa

Though they recover quickly and never remember the milestone, some babies’ bodies bear a lasting mark from their delivery day.

“Especially in the neck, there can be a bone that’s shifted out of place during delivery,” explained Dr. Richard Schwartz, “and the communication to the brain where the nerve may be pinched could result in crying, colic or other conditions.”

Dr. Richard Schwartz is a Ambler, Pa 

Dr. Richard Schwartz /215-283-2844/ Ambler Chiropractic / Can Poor Posture Predict Mortality?

Dr. Richard Schwartz / 215-283-2844/ Ambler Chiropractic

Can poor posture

predict mortality?

Maybe so according to a recent study and that ain’t all! Turns out that posture (in this case thoracic HYPER kyphosis) is getting some attention in the literature and appears related to a wide range of ailments, of which increased risk of death is only one. Only problem is that chiropractors aren’t doing the research. OH NOOO!!!

Because while half of our profession has relegated spinal structure to the dustbin of chiropractic history in pursuit of more “sophisticated” theories, our MD and PT colleagues are more than happy to lay the scientific ground work relating spinal structure to a wide range of ailments. End Of Rant…promise.

First off…thanks to Dr. Roger Coleman at ScienceInBrief.com for making me aware of this research. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the ScienceInBrief.com
project, we review scientific articles on a wide range of subject which are of interest to chiropractors. Unlike this newsletter, very little of what we do at SIB is directly related to posture based chiropractic. But occasionally, I run across articles which are relevant for readers here at Postural Rehab. Here’s a recap of the article along with some thoughts on managing thoracic HYPERkyphosis.

Hyperkyphotic Posture Predicts Mortality in Older

Community-Dwelling Men and Women: a prospective study 1

The Facts:

a. The authors studied the association between thoracic hyperkyphosis and mortality in over 1300 individuals with a mean age of 73.

b. If the individual laid on their back and was unable to rest the head on the table without putting the neck into hyperextension they were considered to have thoracic hyperkyphosis.

c. Patients were followed for an average of 4.2 years.

d. Those “with hyperkyphotic posture had greater mortality rates. Increased severity of “kyphotic posture” appeared to be associated with a higher risk of mortality.

Discussion: Obviously, the inability to bring the head back to neutral resting position COULD be also caused by factors other than thoracic hyperkyphosis, but what’s important here is that POSTURE appears to be associated with early mortality. Interestingly, thoracic kyphosis was found to be twice as common in men (44%) as women(22%) in this study, which seems to be at odds with conventional thought that thoracic hyperkyphosis is commonly caused by osteoporosis, a condition much more common in women.

The “NORMAL” Thoracic Kyphosis…

Obviously, a radiographic evaluation of the T spine gives us a much more accurate idea of the sagittal curvature.

Harrison defined the thoracic kyphosis as ELLIPTICAL in shape, having a Jackson’s (Cobb) angle of 44.2 degrees from T1-T-12. Realizing the difficulty of visualizing both T1 and T12 on the radiograph, Harrison recalculated the model to reflect a thoracic kyphosis of 33.3 degrees between T 3 and T10. 2

Vaz et al, define the average thoracic kyphosis as 47 degrees in healthy young adults. 3

Boseker et al, defined a range of “normalcy” between 20-50 degrees in healthy children. 4

So you can see that opinions vary as to what is actually normal. I encourage interested readers to come to do some reading and establish in their mind what they consider to be the appropriate upper limits of thoracic kyphosis. Personally, I generally tend to view curves in excess of 40 degrees (as measured from T3-T10) as suspect. That’s just my opinion based on my reading of the literature, but 40 degrees is an upper limit you will find frequently cited. Regardless of which value you consider appropriate, it is important to have some sort of firm upper limit, above which you will start considering clinical intervention.

Clinical Management:

A number of tools have been looked at for treating thoracic hyperkyphosis but definitive research is still sorely lacking. Some options you may want to consider are exercise, bracing, and spinal remodeling. Here are two simple, inexpensive tools I have found to be helpful.



Thoracic Rolls

One method of actively addressing the thoracic kyphosis is to simply place the patient over a large foam roll ( our Multipurpose Rolls in the 10-13″ range work well for this), have them raise their hips up, and then “roll” themselves up and down over the roll by alternately flexing and extending the knees. This does two things. First, it introduces a fulcrum effect into the mid T spine to help reduce the kyphosis. Secondly the rolling motion helps mobilize the spine and costovertebral articulations to promote a reduction of kyphosis.

Thoracic Arch

Another method is to simply allow the patient to passively rest over a foam roll or fulcrum for 20-30 minutes. This time frame allows for stretching of the paraspinal tissues to occur and for the spine to “remodel” into a reduced kyphosis. I use our Thoracic Archfor this purpose and we now have lots of doctors using these arches on a regular basis to remodel the T spine.

I generally start with the patient over the arch with the fulcrum at the apex of the kyphosis as shown above. Once they can comfortably relax for the full 20-30 minutes without any problems or soreness, I place a 1″ spacer beneath the arch to raise it up and increase the leverage effect into the mid thoracics. Occasionally, I may end up placing an additional spacer or two as needed to effectively introduce extension into the thoracics.

References:

1.Kado DM, Huang MH, Karlamangla AS, Barett-Connor E, Greeendale GA. Hyperkyphotic posture predicts mortality in older community-dwelling men and women: a prospective study. JAGS 2004;52:1662-7

2. Harrison DE, Janik TJ, Harrison DD, Cailliet R, Harmon SF. Can the thoracic kyphosis be modeled with a simple geometric shape? The results of circular and elliptical modeling in 80 asymptomatic patients. J. Spiinal Disord Tech. 2002 Jun;15(3):213-20.

3. Vaz G, Roussouly P, Berthonnaud E, Dimnet J. Sagittal morphology and equilibrium of pelvis and spine.Eur Spine J. 2002 Feb;11(1):80-7.

4. Boseker EH, Moe JH, Winter RB, Koop SE. Determination of “normal” thoracic kyphosis: a roentgenographic study of 121 “normal” children. J Pediatr Orthop. 2000 Nov-Dec;20(6):796-8.

AmblerChiropractor 215-283-2844


If you have suffered an accident at work, you could be entitled to make a claim for compensation.

Injured in a work accident?

    If you are involved in an accident at work which causes a personal injury, or if you have contracted an industrial illness through the work that you do, you may be entitled to make a no win no fee accident at work claim for compensation. You are also allowed to see the doctor of your choice after the first 90 days of care with the company doctor. If the panel of doctors does not include a chiropractor, you may contact one. Ambler Chiropractor

All employers have a legal responsibility to provide employees with a safe and secure workplace.  This responsibility includes providing adequate equipment and materials, providing competent co-workers, providing a safe system of work and providing proper training and supervision.

If you are injured in the workplace, or at any point whilst carrying out your employment duties, you should always ensure that the accident is reported. Most companies should have an accident book to record such incidents. This will not only act as evidence that the accident occurred if you decide to pursue a compensation claim, but may also help your employer to prevent similar accidents from happening in the future.

As accidents at work are common, your employer must have insurance to cover any compensation claims that are made against them by employees who are injured at work.  This is known as Employers Liability Insurance. Compensation awarded following a work accident claim is paid by your employer’s insurance company – it is never paid directly out of your employer’s pockets.

Types of Accidents at Work

Below are some examples of accidents in the workplace and some information on some of the common questions and concerns regarding accident claims.

Accidents at work caused by unsafe work premises

Your employer has a responsibility to ensure that the place, or places, where you work are safe.  Therefore if you have an accident at work due to a slip on a wet floor, a trip on a raised floor tile, or a fall down some damaged steps, you may be entitled to make a work accident claim against your employer for the injuries your have sustained

Accidents at work caused by unsuitable equipment or materials

If you are involved in an accident at work which is caused by unsuitable equipment or materials, you may be entitled to make a work injury compensation claim for any personal injuries that you suffer.  Even if your accident is caused by faulty equipment, materials or machinery supplied by another company, the responsibility for ensuring that they are safe for you to use and that you are adequately trained to use them will usually remain with your employer.

Accidents at work caused by unsafe system of work or lack of proper training

Your employer has a responsibility to take reasonable steps to ensure that you are able to carry out your work duties in a safe way in order to avoid any inherent dangers.  For example, if your work involves a lot of heavy lifting, your employer should provide training so you are aware of the correct way to lift items in a way which minimises the risk of suffering a lifting accident at work. If you are not provided such training, and suffer an injury as a result, you could be able to make a no win no fee work accident compensation claim.

Accidents at work caused by incompetent staff

Your employer must ensure, to the best of their ability, that the people they employ are competent in their jobs and do not put other people in the workplace at risk by their actions. Therefore if you are injured at work due to something a fellow employee did, or did not do, your employer is potentially liable for those actions.

Common Work Accident Questions

Below are some common questions relating to the process of making an accident at work personal injury claim.

If I make a compensation claim for an accident at work, who pays the compensation?

It is a legal requirement for your employer to have insurance cover, known as Employers Liability Insurance, to cover them in case of any work related accidents.  If your personal injury claim is successful, it is the company’s insurers who pay the compensation awarded, not your employer.

Can I get the sack for making a work accident claim?

An employer cannot legally dismiss an employee for making a compensation claim for an accident at work. Therefore if your employer did dismiss you on these grounds, it could be classed as unfair dismissal, which could entitle you to make a separate compensation claim through employment law.

Ambler Chiropractor Maple Glen Chiropractor

Ambler-Chiropractor

On-the-Job Back Pain Isn’t Going Away

Lifting boxes, pushing brooms, reaching for files, carrying supplies — is it any wonder that so many people suffer from job-related low back pain? No matter what your occupation, back pain can make your life miserable at any time. Chiropractor ambler, Ambler Chiropractor

http://www.integritymanagement.com/P_Library/index.html


But how big is the problem?

To answer that question, researchers analyzed claim data from three major sources: the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries; the Bureau of Labor Statistics; and a national workers’ compensation provider, over a period of 4-9 years. Results indicated that low-back pain claim rates decreased by 34% from 1987-1995, and claim payments declined by 58% over the same time period. But the problem isn’t going away, either. Just look at these numbers:

  • $8.8 billion was spent on low-back pain workers’ compensation claims in 1995.
  • Nearly two out of every 100 privately insured workers filed a low-back pain claim in 1995.
  • Payments for these claims accounted for almost a fourth (23%) of the total workers’ compensation payments in 1995.

So if you think you can avoid low back pain at the workplace, just look at these numbers, and think again. Better yet, help continue the decline in low back pain cases by getting regular adjustments at your ambler chiropractor

Reference:

Murphy P, Volinn E. Is occupational low back pain on the rise? Spine, April 1, 1999: Vol. 24, No. 7, pp691-697.