Re: St. Augustine to explore offering t-DPT to DC's?

[Guest guest]

Kathy,

You state, " If they are going to carry both licenses and

practice/bill as a PT and a DC then you are held to the standards of

both boards. "

This very question, and the assumptions that we're making about what

SHOULD happen is exactly my point. DC's I've come in contact with

either believe that rehab performed by a DC isn't physical therapy,

but rather chiropractic rehab, or that chiropractic envelopes all

that physical therapy does --- like a lawyer to a paralegal.

Creating DC/DPT's could create a situation where our skills are

enveloped by chiropractic, and the " physical therapy is just a part

of chiropractic " argument, strengthened. Either way, there is LARGE

potential for DC's in states such as land, to complete the

program, actually have the same skills that the DPT has, NEVER TAKE

THE PT BOARDS, practice as a DPT, saying that it's just

chiropractic . . . and then proclaim on a national stage how the

program was useless, that it was an incomplete rehash of parts of

their chiro education . . . and that all DC's should, in fact, be

considered the superior to the DPT subordinate.

It will only take ONE DC who slips under the radar of Dr. Paris for

such a situation to occur, backed by the ACA's financial warchest.

Make no mistake, it's larger in financial support, financial size,

and arguably better utilized than the PT PAC. There is large

potential for Dr. Paris to, by unintended consequence, create a

situation for which clinicians will dearly pay professionally, and

the APTA, PT PAC, and state boards of examiners may have to pay

financially to fight. Call me an alarmist, call me a pessimist, but

I don't think our profession has sufficiently congealed as a clinical

doctoring profession that we're ready to handle any potentially

negative fallout from even a small group of DC/DPT's with a concealed

mission of being the " four horseman of DPT apocalypse. " A program

like the one Dr. Paris proposes is a GOOD one, in my opinion, but the

timing is, in my opinion, way, way off.

We need to think larger about this. The program proposed could have

much larger consequences than simply that of the individual DC/DPT.

Let's not be naive.

Drew