These cards are best printed with name, address, telephone number, etc., on one side and on the other six or twelve spaces ruled off at one end for punching to indicate adjustments given, and the words, “Good for six (or twelve) Chiropractic adjustments at (office) (residence) when properly countersigned.” A line should be left below for your signature and at the bottom the price of the card should be printed plainly. If desired a space may be left for the patient’s name so that the card may be made non-transferable.
The card is issued at the beginning of a course of adjustments and a duplicate is kept on file. Each time the patient is adjusted he presents his card before leaving and one space is punched out. By this system both the patient and the adjuster may know exactly the number of adjustments given and accounts may be easily kept. Without it, a book entry of some sort must be made for every adjustment.
The best thing about this system is that it reminds the patient that you expect to be paid in advance without the necessity of your saying so, since the words “in advance” follow the statement of price on the card. At the time of payment you give him, as a receipt, a card entitling him to a certain amount of your service at a stipulated place.
Schedule of Examination
This method of procedure for the investigation of new cases is offered as a suggestion to be followed as far as the education of the Chiropractor will permit. If every practitioner adopts some such method of making his own diagnoses he will advance in ability much more rapidly than by accepting the diagnoses given his patients by physicians or others. We should remember, though without arrogance, that our special ability to discover subluxations and our knowledge of their significance as the primary causes of disease renders us better prepared for correct diagnosis than our medical friends, other education being equal.
It should be quite obvious that in attempting the accomplishment of any object it is necessary first to have in mind a clear preconception of the things to be accomplished, and second, to have a clear and concise, yet complete, outline of the steps to be taken, their order or sequence, and their relative importance in the accomplishment. These two needs, as regards a Chiropractic diagnosis, we shall endeavor to supply in this section.
Chiropractic Diagnosis properly consists of three parts, Vertebral Palpation, Nerve-Tracing, and Symptomatology, together with the reasoning necessary to properly weigh and summarize the facts ascertained. Of these three divisions two fall properly under the head of Physical Diagnosis and the third, symptomatology, should consist principally of physical diagnosis.
Everywhere the physical or objective sign is given preference over the subjective symptom. Before a single question is asked of the patient relative to the case or its history, every other means of obtaining information properly coming under the head of a Chiropractic diagnosis should be utilized. The questions should come last and be very few and direct. They should serve only to illuminate the few remaining doubtful points in the mind of the examiner, points which perhaps exist only because of some fault or weakness in his methods of examination.
The proper order of examination is as follows: