Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark, in Odense investigated how these chiropractic patients were scheduled for treatment, with special emphasis on maintenance care.

First, the details.

• 16 chiropractic students in chiropractic clinics in Norway and Denmark recorded whether or not patients were classified by the treating chiropractor as a maintenance.
• Dates for last and subsequent visits were recorded, and a judgment was made on whether the patient or chiropractor decided on the next appointment.
• Data were collected on 868 patients from 15 Danish and 13 Norwegian chiropractors.

And, the results.

• Non-maintenance care patients were most frequently seen within 1 week.
• Among maintenance care patients, the previous visit was most often 2 to 4 weeks prior to the actual visit, and the next appointment was between 1 and 3 months.
  • This indicates a gradual increase in intervals.
• The decision for the next visit was mainly made by the chiropractor.

The bottom line?

The authors concluded, “There were 2 distinctly different patterns for the time period between visits for maintenance care patients and non-maintenance care patients.”

The authors caution against extrapolating these observations to other groups of patients and chiropractors.

3/10/10 23:29 JR