Thinking in CT
Scholar
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2003
- Messages
- 59
Here is the text of a letter I sent today to the Professional Investigations section of the Connecticut Department of Public Health:
"I am a Connecticut state employee stationed at 55 Elm Street in Hartford. This afternoon as I went out to lunch I noted a most curious scene. Two women, who I later learned were clerical employees of a chiropractor, had set up a series of placards advertising chiropractic. Alongside the placards was a most curious apparatus. The apparatus consisted of two electronic digital scales set side by side. Attached to each scale was a rod extending perpendicular to the ground to a height of about 6.5 feet. The rods were connected at their tops by a fixed cross piece and there were three sliding rods connecting the two upright rods that could be manipulated by the “operators”.
The two persons in question were soliciting passers by to submit to a test on this apparatus to determine if their spines were in proper order. I observed a person being tested. The “patient” was told to stand on the device so that one foot was on each scale; based on the different weights indicated by the scales the operator would slide the movable rods to indicate the discrepancy. When the person got off the scales the skewed angles of the movable rods were noted and the patient was informed of the severity of his spinal condition and referred to the chiropractor.
I am not a health care professional (in fact I am a lawyer) but I am a person of, at least, normal intelligence and experience of the world. I am quite sure that most people hardly ever distribute their body weight evenly on their feet and that the measurement of this almost certain discrepancy in no way indicates a pathological malformation of the spine.
My question to your office is this: is it a violation of the rules of practice for Connecticut licensed chiropractors to drum up business in the manner described above? When I inquired of one of the two test operators as to who she was and whom she was representing, she stated that she worked in the office of a chiropractor on Platt Street in Hartford. I note that on the DPH web site there is a David Webber D. C. located at 99 Platt Street, Hartford.
If the above described activity is in fact permitted (or rather not prohibited) by Connecticut statute and regulation , I would like to suggest that your Department may consider promulgating the necessary regulations to protect Connecticut health care consumers from such questionable schemes. I appreciate your attention to this mater and your response to my inquiry."
I will keep you posted on any reply
"I am a Connecticut state employee stationed at 55 Elm Street in Hartford. This afternoon as I went out to lunch I noted a most curious scene. Two women, who I later learned were clerical employees of a chiropractor, had set up a series of placards advertising chiropractic. Alongside the placards was a most curious apparatus. The apparatus consisted of two electronic digital scales set side by side. Attached to each scale was a rod extending perpendicular to the ground to a height of about 6.5 feet. The rods were connected at their tops by a fixed cross piece and there were three sliding rods connecting the two upright rods that could be manipulated by the “operators”.
The two persons in question were soliciting passers by to submit to a test on this apparatus to determine if their spines were in proper order. I observed a person being tested. The “patient” was told to stand on the device so that one foot was on each scale; based on the different weights indicated by the scales the operator would slide the movable rods to indicate the discrepancy. When the person got off the scales the skewed angles of the movable rods were noted and the patient was informed of the severity of his spinal condition and referred to the chiropractor.
I am not a health care professional (in fact I am a lawyer) but I am a person of, at least, normal intelligence and experience of the world. I am quite sure that most people hardly ever distribute their body weight evenly on their feet and that the measurement of this almost certain discrepancy in no way indicates a pathological malformation of the spine.
My question to your office is this: is it a violation of the rules of practice for Connecticut licensed chiropractors to drum up business in the manner described above? When I inquired of one of the two test operators as to who she was and whom she was representing, she stated that she worked in the office of a chiropractor on Platt Street in Hartford. I note that on the DPH web site there is a David Webber D. C. located at 99 Platt Street, Hartford.
If the above described activity is in fact permitted (or rather not prohibited) by Connecticut statute and regulation , I would like to suggest that your Department may consider promulgating the necessary regulations to protect Connecticut health care consumers from such questionable schemes. I appreciate your attention to this mater and your response to my inquiry."
I will keep you posted on any reply
