I have been in practice in the city of Lynwood since 2004. I have had the great opportunity to work side by side within a clinical setting with various specialists who address musculoskeletal injuries to include physical therapists, acupuncturists, pain management physicians, and orthopedic surgeons. This opportunity has provided me with a sort of “informal training” in these additional specialties. This has shown me that ultimately, each specialty has its own special and unique role to play in the assistance of recovery from injuries to the skeletal and muscular systems of the body. I have also learned firsthand, that we all have very similar approaches to addressing various injuries, and to a great extent, all of these specialties are quite successful in addressing chronic joint and muscular pain.
Care For Injured Workers
Providing care to injured workers has exposed me to complex injuries beyond what one would see in a common chiropractic office. I have been fortunate to have my clinical skills challenged due to the exposure to these complex injuries requiring additional research and fine-tuning of my skills. I have had the great luxury of the “informal training” I was referring to earlier, through the guidance and coaching by orthopedic doctors who have been so generous with their time and patience.
This unique opportunity has allowed me to bring sharper clinical skills and outstanding compassion for patient care to our office. Here we provide active rehabilitative care to patients in conjunction with manipulative therapy of the spine as well as non-invasive pain management therapies of the muscles of the spine and extremities.
Given the multifaceted aspect regarding the care of injured workers, the challenge arose to better determine the injured workers’ return to work abilities. Injured workers are often limited in their ability to perform duties as compared to their pre-injury status. It is the responsibility of the primary treating physician to assist the injured worker in this return to work transition. The Functional Capacity Evaluations (FCE’s) which we perform, help in determining this ability and the extent to which the injured worker is able to return to work. A few years ago I became one of fewer than 300 certified work capacity evaluators in the world. My passion and interest in this area lead me to additional training in this area and participation in the Advanced Training Program for Work Capacity Evaluators.