Whenever someone pays for a service or product they have certain expectations. When you take your car to the dealer or service station for repairs, you expect it to be running properly when they have finished. When a service or product does not meet our expectations, we naturally are upset.
The legal and the health professions are unique with regard to expectations. When you utilize the services of a litigation attorney you may have expectations that are different than what you should have. You of course expect to win your case. However, the attorney’s expectations are different. He or she expects to argue your case as effectively as possible. Attorneys hope to win a case but they know that there are factors out of their control. Their client may not have a good case. The judge and jury are variables that always have to be considered. These factors and many more are why attorneys don’t give guarantees.
In the health field a very similar situation exists. The doctor, whether medical or chiropractic, would like to see you get well. There are factors, however, over which he or she has no control. Most of them are rather obvious.
With chiropractic it is even a more unique situation. The chiropractor’s objective is not to cure or relieve any condition, but to enable the patient’s body to work at maximum efficiency. The problem arises when we make the treatment or relief of a condition our objective. That is quite obviously communicated to the patient. If that objective is not attained we have failed, the patient is disappointed or worse, and problems arise and we all know what kind of problems to which I am referring. The only safe approach is to have a clear objective, one that can be attained, and which is known and agreeable to the patient. In a litigous society it is even more important than it was in the past. Fifty years ago chiropractors could be unclear or vague regarding their objective. That is no longer possible. v5n1