Skip to main content

Table 3 Barriers to and challenges for patient-PCP communication

From: Primary care physicians, acupuncture and chiropractic clinicians, and chronic pain patients: a qualitative analysis of communication and care coordination patterns

Patients

PCPs

“I guess it just didn’t really cross my mind to discuss it with [my PCP]. I guess he never said, well…Probably if he’d said well, [Name], you know, give me a call or come in and discuss it”

“I never did [talk to my PCP about seeing an A/C]. […] I paid for it. They didn’t ask. They didn’t have any interest in any of that.”

“[Interaction with PCP has changed] In that, when I go to see my primary care physician, I don’t tell her anything about if I’ve had chiropractic or massage therapy or acupuncture, or anything, because her attitude was not one that seemed like it was…would be received well.”

“I just figure that I’ll talk about things that they [PCPs] will help with. And it’s only fifteen minutes. So, I will talk about the other things.”

“Fifteen minutes is not enough time when you’re there for a sore throat or for something else. You can’t talk about everything. And I just figure, he really told me he didn’t believe in it. So I just go, forget it. You don’t need to know, I guess.”

“I get no records, and have no chart information, I don’t have anything to look at or review, it’s not like there’s something that’s going to trigger me asking it. Because, you know, if they go see the physical therapist there’s a note. And I can review the note. And I can see that their last three visits were with the therapist. And so I’m much more likely to say, oh, how did it go with the physical therapist? Whereas with the chiropractor, there’s nothing. It’s just a big blank.”

“It’s like most of medicine, and what we hear about is failures. Okay? If they get better, nobody bothers calling us back. We only get called back if somebody says, oh, I didn’t get better.

Well, if they’re better, they don’t come back and I don’t know.”

“If they get the referral, I may not see them again for six months, or nine months, or whatever. And so, no, they don’t make that feedback loop to me that, yeah, it was great benefit. You know, was it the chiropractic, or was it the time that it had actually gotten better. Who knows. But, no, I don’t normally get short term feedback from patients who have gone to chiropractors.”