Technic and Practice of Chiropractic

by Joy Maxwell Loban

A curtained recess separated by a screen from the remainder of the room will serve if no separate room is available for a dressing-room. It is better, if possible, to have a separate dressing-room and better still to have separate dressing-rooms for men and women. If extra rooms are not at your command and you use a curtained recess be sure that it contains good light, a dressing-table with mirror, a small chair, and hooks for clothing. Provide also a few dressing-sacks for women though most of them will prefer to furnish their own.

The Rest Room

It is a known fact that the patient who can be kept in a quiet, restful, and relaxed state for some time following the adjustment derives the greatest benefit therefrom. Having loosened subluxated vertebrae by adjustment their tendency is to settle in their old abnormal position and every movement of the patient for a time aids this tendency. Quiet permits adaptation of surrounding tissues to the changed position of the vertebra; action facilitates the re-adaptation of the vertebra to the state of surrounding tissues.

If possible a special room should be provided in which patients may lie down in comfort for twenty or thirty minutes following an adjustment. If more than one patient at a time is to rest, separate rooms should be provided for men and women. The rest rooms should have high ceilings and excellent ventilation without drafts. The floors should be carpeted so as to soften footfalls and suggest quiet and rest. Potted plants adorn such a room very well and always afford a pleasant suggestion.

The patients lie on cots, foldable for convenience when not in use, and should lie on their backs as quietly as possible. Some prefer solid cots on rollers so that the cot may be noiselessly rolled beside the adjusting table after the adjustment, the patient may by one turn move himself upon it, and it may then be gently rolled into the rest room. This is a more finished, if more expensive, handling of the problem.

It may be well to furnish some occupation for the mind and to this end, since reading in such a position is injurious to the eyes, a good phonograph is a valuable addition. Equip it with a soft parlor needle and select only soothing, restful music. Just as you would avoid doing the walls of the rest room in striking or garish colors, exciting to a diseased mind, so avoid exciting or harsh music. The object of this room is rest for mind and body. Let every thought be directed to that end. With some patients the use of the phonograph or other amusement must be avoided. Study your cases with care.

The trip to the Chiropractor’s office is too often regarded in the light of an unpleasant necessity. If proper care be used in equipping an office and if such means as have been suggested for the rest room be employed, these in addition to the pleasing personality of the Chiropractor may make of the visit a pleasant thing, a part of the day to be anticipated with eagerness.

A Complete Suite

The number of rooms in a perfectly convenient suite depends upon the approximate number of cases to be handled daily. If it is needful to economize the practitioner’s time a greater number of rooms will be required than would be desirable with a small practice.

A waiting room, a consulting room, two or more adjusting rooms, and two rest rooms make probably the best number and employment of rooms. It is desirable if possible that the adjusting room be used for that purpose only and that there be separate rooms for men and women. Each adjusting room can then have its own dressing room or recess. Or in addition to the other rooms named above there may be many small rooms each containing an adjusting table and a rest cot and each serving as the rest room after the adjustment. If a sufficient number be provided as many patients can be handled in this way as time permits, the practitioner need lose no time at all, and each patient may have a room entirely to himself throughout his visit.