Hospital, Chiropractic College Collaborate on Patient Care

More hospitals are now making chiropractic care available to patients. One such program was reported in the March 2003 issue of the magazine, Chiropractic Economics. In that article it is reported that Monroe Community Hospital, a teaching nursing home in New York, has teamed up with New York Chiropractic College to establish a chiropractic clinic to serve individuals with a host of chronic disabilities. The target patients for this are frail nursing home residents who traditionally could not receive chiropractic services.

The article notes that this collaboration allows patients to experience relief of their spinal pain through chiropractic care. Monroe Community Hospital and New York Chiropractic College have since decided to commit additional time for patient visits in the consultative clinic, and the program has spawned related research projects. Chiropractic services at the hospital are now offered three days per week under the direction of a NYCC professor.

The program was initiated after Dr. J. Donald Dishman, a New York Chiropractic College clinician and researcher, introduced the pilot program in 2002 that demonstrated chiropractic's efficacy in treating chronically ill patients.