MPC: Malpractice Advanced Protection Shields
MALPRACTICE PREVENTION
IN HONOR OF CHIROPRACTIC’S 130TH ANNIVERSARY this September, Dr. KSJ Murkowski explores a critical question: What is chiropractic—legally?
This article breaks down how chiropractors and C As should define their profession in both clinical and legal settings, especially when malpractice is on the line. With decades of expert witness experience, Dr. Murkowski offers practical, courtroom-ready guidance every practitioner should know.
If you are a DC at a state or national CE meeting sharing fellowship over cocktails or dinner, it may be philosophical with some art (technique) comments. If you are a CA at your hair salon, it might be a general statement based on personal experience and knowledge or the general office philosophy of where you work. If you are a chiropractic student, you are given a definition based on the college that you attend and its policies and philosophy.
Well, if you are in a deposition or trial for a motor vehicle accident (MVA), personal injury (PI), or workers’ comp patient, there will probably be some philosophy, art, and science comments based on your technique, office policies, patients injury, and the medical necessity for care based on your chart-SOAP notes, plus CE seminars you have attended.
I have reviewed, given opinions, and testified in chiropractic malpractice cases since 1989. Some of the answers DCs give under oath regarding “What is chiropractic?” never cease to amaze me.
I would like to offer some suggestions that every DC and CA can give in a deposition or trial in front of a judge and jury — or at a cocktail party, at a hair salon, or at your children’s school. My suggestions are very adequate for MVA, PI, workers’ comp cases, and any malpractice case.
All DCs and CAs know chiropractic is basically a philosophy, art, and science (PAS) interacting with innate intelligence to allow the body to heal itself naturally after the VSC and its components (eight physical and eight chemical) have been addressed and reduced or stabilized (PAS).
I suggest you define chiropractic by saying chiropractic is the oldest, largest, worldwide, evidence-based integrative nonpharmacological, nonsurgical healthcare delivery system in the world today. The doctor of chiropractic (DC) is a primary care physician who specializes in disorders of the locomotor system (nervous system) and the effects these nervous system disorders have on the patient’s general health and natural immunity.
The chiropractic physician’s primary diagnostic focus is on the vertebral subluxation complex (VSC) and its eight physical components and eight chemical components (subclassified as nociceptive irritants — traumatism and chemical).
Chiropractic physicians today are found in primary healthcare delivery systems, such as hospitals, walk-in clinics, multidisciplinary clinics, private practice, VA facilities, corporate work-site employer clinics, luxury cruise ships, etc.
Chiropractic is whatever your state law says it is. I recommend in all my MPC DC/CA seminars to get a copy of your state chiropractic law. After you give your initial answer about the definition of chiropractic in testimony, I would add, for example, that in Michigan, chiropractic is Part 164 of the Public Health Code, revised in 2010.
“Remember, you must educate the judge and jury.”
I would then state that I have a copy of the Michigan chiropractic state law and introduce it as evidence and as an exhibit for your testimony. Your answer would then be based on your state law, standards of care, standards of practice, and PALS (philosophy, art, legal, science).
If you are in any legal situation, I recommend you never start out by talking about your personal philosophy and mention “the power that made the body can heal the body,” “above down, inside out,” etc. Yes, I agree with these philosophical statements, but they have no place in any legal setting.
Remember, you must educate the judge and jury. Chiropractic is what your state law says it is. You must always know what is legal and how the judge and jury look at you at trial.
So be proud of our PALS but be “smart” and recognize that chiropractic has a legal component where you practice and follow the standards of care (SOC) and standards of practice (SOP) along with the pillars of practice (POP). So document everything you do. If it is not written, it didn’t happen, and then you cannot defend it.
Give my suggested answers consideration, and include a copy of your state law, look good in a deposition or in court as an educator and doctor, and then be quiet and wait for the next deposition or trial question. This is a winning strategy to protect you and chiropractic.
Good luck with all your patients at all your arbitrations, cocktail parties, dinners, depositions, trials, salons, school settings, etc. See you soon at an MPC CE Seminar. My next article will cover informed consent.
*These are opinions and suggestions. This is not to be considered as legal advice.
Chiropractic is the largest, worldwide, evidence-based, integrative, nonpharmacological, nonsurgical healthcare delivery system in the world today. The doctor of chiropractic (DC) is a primary care physician who specializes in disorders of the locomotor system (nervous system) and the effects these disorders have on the patient’s general health and natural immunity.
The chiropractic physician’s primary diagnostic focus is on the vertebral subluxation complex (VSC) and its eight physical components and eight chemical components. These eight chemical components are nociceptive irritants from a traumatic or chemical component.
Dr. KSJ Murkowski, D.C., is an internationally recognized chiropractic leader, educator, and motivational speaker. He serves as President of Master Practice Counselors and has earned numerous honors, including Michigan Doctor of the Year (twice) and multiple meritorious awards. A former state president and board chairman, he has testified before the U.S. Senate, contributed to ICD-10 coding for the WHO, and serves as an expert witness across North America. He is also a proud father of three accomplished chiropractic doctors.
