Why is the first appointment Online?
If you’ve been dealing with pain for a while and are looking
for help, you may expect your first appointment to look something like
this:
You come into the
clinic, explain what’s happening, get examined, and then someone starts working
on the problem.
So when we tell new patients that their first appointment is
an online consultation, it’s understandable if they wonder:
“Why do I need to speak to someone online first?”
It’s a fair question.
The answer comes down to one thing: We want to properly understand the problem before we decide what needs to be done about it.
Your Story Matters
When you’re dealing with a persistent problem, there can be a lot to understand.
What is happening now?
What have you already tried?
How did it start?
What has happened since?
What makes it better or worse?
Are there tests or diagnostic images to review?
And what else might be relevant?
These details aren’t simply background information. They’re part of the process of working out the diagnosis.
In our experience, this is something that can easily get rushed when the initial consultation is trying to cover everything at once — history, examination and treatment. So we’ve separated the process.
Your first consultation is dedicated entirely to understanding the problem.
There is time to listen, ask questions and start making sense of what’s causing your symptoms. This gives us an opportunity to begin thinking diagnostically before you even walk through the clinic door.
It also gives you the space to properly explain what’s been
happening, without feeling like you need to squeeze your entire history into
the first few minutes of an appointment.
Why not just examine & treat you straight away?
The physical examination (and treatment) is an important part of our process. But an examination is much more useful when we build it based on your unique history.
We know that starting online isn’t what everyone expects. You may even wonder how much can really be achieved without someone physically examining you.
The answer is: quite a lot.
The first consultation isn’t intended to diagnose everything from behind a screen or replace a physical examination. It’s about making sure that when you do come into the clinic, we’ve already taken the time to understand your story and have a reason for what we’re doing next.
Because when you’re dealing with a chronic problem, we don’t
think the answer is just treat the spot that hurts.
We think the first step is to understand what we’re
dealing with.
Chronic cases are chronic for a reason. Our job is to understand what has kept the problem going — and then work out what needs to change.
That’s why we start with a dedicated online consult.
Dr. Christopher Aysom, Principal Clinician
BChiroSc, MChiro (Chiropractor)
Apex Soft Tissue & Spine
Pymble, NSW, Australia
https://apexsofttissue.com.au
