While pain is a good indicator of an emergency for many health related problems, pain is NOT a good indicator of an emergency with spine problems.

Unlike other orthopedic injuries where pain is an indicator of an emergency (e.g. fracture, dislocation), with spine problems, pain is not a good indicator of an emergency. That’s because a back spasm can be excruciating and knock you down to your knees; yet a back spasm doesn’t require surgery and can go away with rest and anti-inflammatories.

With back and neck problems, numbness and weakness in a hand or foot, or loss of control of bowel or bladder, are the true red flag emergency signals. These symptoms need to be seen within 48 hours to prevent permanent paralysis of these nerves, which would mean a permanently numb foot or hand, or permanent loss of bowel/bladder control.

If you have any loss of control of bowel or bladder, go to an emergency room same day.

For numbness in a foot or hand, or if you have “footdrop” where you aren’t able to raise your toe as you walk, you need to see a spine surgeon within two days. This symptom can be caused by a herniated disc putting pressure on a nearby nerve root. Left untreated, the symptom could become permanent.

The era of the super-specialist

There are tremendous advances taking place in medicine today, but in order to benefit from them, the healthcare consumer must take an active role. The best healthcare will not find you; you have to seek out a true spine center of excellence to avoid a lot of misinformation directed at back and neck pain sufferers.

While heart care is the undisputed domain of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, the same is NOT the case with back or neck pain, which involves a variety of “treatment providers” and self-proclaimed experts from massage therapists, yoga instructors, and other “specialists” all with their own biased beliefs about treatment.

While the United States offers the highest standard of healthcare in the world, there is still huge treatment variation based on the doctor you see. Bottom line, the doctor you choose will determine the quality of care you will receive. Here is an overview of how to navigate through the healthcare system to find the best doctor for you.

First, the healthcare consumer needs to understand that today’s medical field is divided into very narrow specialty categories. Twenty years ago, the specialty of orthopaedic surgery addressed a variety of problems including knee, foot, hip, shoulder, hand and spine. While an orthopedic surgeon in a small rural town may still address all these problems, most orthopaedic surgeons today in larger cities specialize in only one of those areas.

Therefore, the educated healthcare consumer with a knee problem should seek out an orthopaedic surgeon who only works on knees. This increases the likelihood that the surgeon will be more proficient in surgery and will use the most advanced surgical techniques available for knees.

Spine specialists can include spine surgeons specialized in spine surgery, orthopaedic surgeons specialized in spine surgery, physical medicine doctors, anesthesiologists and physical therapists who specialize in the nonsurgical relief of back and neck pain symptoms.

As with anything in life, practice makes perfect. All clinical outcome studies confirm that the more times a surgeon performs a procedure, the better they become at it. Consequently, spine surgeons who perform more than 150 surgeries per year will be more proficient than those who perform 50 each year.
A second indicator of quality is training and experience of the physician. It is important to make note of where the physician has trained. Training at a large or prestigious institution would expose the physician to more complex cases, which in turn makes them more proficient in their chosen specialty. In spine, the best trained spine surgeons and spine MDs are “fellowship-trained” in their specialty, which is the highest level of medical education in the United States.

About using your health insurance directory as a guide

Most people are surprised to learn that their health insurance provides little help in finding the best specialist within a specific niche. Offering a preferred provider directory of specialists gives no real indicator of quality.

Secondly, it’s important for the consumer to understand that inclusion in a PPO directory typically only means that the physician has agreed to accept a discounted rate for payment from the insurance company.

In this sense, “preferred provider” simply means that the insurance company would “prefer” you to see doctors who have agreed to discount their rates. These discounts can be steep, depending upon the health insurance plan. With mature industries, consumers expect to pay more for higher quality.

Unlike other industries, in which market demand and the highest quality product commands the highest price, healthcare is an industry that is woefully behind the times. But that is changing.

A growing trend nationwide is that super-specialists, who are in the highest demand by virtue of reputation and outcomes, can be less motivated to accept discounted reimbursement from some health plans. These super-specialists typically have full schedules and don’t need to discount their services to attract patients. Consequently, they are opting not to be included in a PPO panel, while other physicians may have to rely on discounting to attract patients.

Most PPO plans have out-of-network benefits that enable patients to see a physician who is not listed in the PPO directory. Typically, the person may have to pay a larger percent of the bill and a larger deductible. But for complex problems, this still may be the more prudent approach in the long run to access the most current technology and the specialist with the least invasive treatment alternatives.

More to the point, in some cases a spine center of excellence may actually tell you that you do not need to have a surgery at all — which can save the consumer money as well as the risks and pain of an unnecessary surgery.

More and more employers are recognizing that traditional healthcare plans have historically done a poor job of establishing panels of physicians based on quality care. Consequently, several employers are seeking out centers of excellence for the treatment of complex problems like cancer, heart disease, neuroscience, organ transplants, joint implants and spine problems. It is clear that the healthcare insurance industry is in great transition having to adapt to the demands of the patient who is the most overlooked person in the equation. But it will take time.

Part of the problem related to PPO panel discounting is that it penalizes top super-specialists who invest in the most advanced and expensive technology for their offices, highly trained physician assistants and a modern clinic facility with multiple capabilities under one roof for patient convenience. By being on a PPO panel, a super-specialist who has invested additional years in training, fellowships and advanced, continuing education courses in the latest procedures must accept the same level of payment as a generalist who has not similarly invested in training, support staff and clinic facilities.

In this sense, health insurance plans are not able to steer consumers to the highest quality physicians. They are in a difficult position because they find themselves somewhat handcuffed and unable to direct consumers to the highest quality physicians. On one hand, every healthcare plan medical director knows that the best physicians and super-specialists will save money as their outcomes are better and they provide minimally invasive surgery options that are less risky. These directors are trying to determine ways to subtly encourage patients to seek out centers of excellence for complex problems. However, they are also concerned with possible litigation from other physicians that may develop if they overtly favor one center over other physicians.

Under this current scenario, healthcare consumers are left on their own to search for a top healthcare provider. It is their responsibility to research the best center of excellence for treatment of a complex health problem.

How to find a super-specialist

There are many ways to identify the best specialist within a given area. One place to start is to consult a family practice doctor who addresses your general healthcare needs. This “primary care” doctor will usually know the best super-specialists within a specific region. Also, since this primary care physician may have referred patients to that specialist before, they may have seen firsthand their clinical outcomes after surgery. If these outcomes are poor, the primary doctor will not refer additional patients.

On the downside, this referral process abdicates the selection process to someone else. Also, some physicians refer to other physicians out of habit, or in the hope of reciprocal referrals back. The educated healthcare consumer would do well to perform secondary research to identify the best possible specialists and clinics within a given specialty.

The other problem with this approach is that many family practice physicians are employed by hospitals now and those hospitals want to capture the lucrative surgical patient in their hospital. These hospitals consequently can pressure the primary care doctor to refer surgical patients to the surgeons on their hospital campus, rather than the best spine surgeon in the city located elsewhere.

The Internet can provide a wealth of helpful information. The educated consumer can locate information on a doctor’s education, training, clinic and area of specialization.

Fellowship-training is the most important

Yes board certification is important, but that can include most physicians who pass that benchmark. The additional thing to look for in a spine surgeon is fellowship-training. A fellowship trained spine surgeon means that the orthopedic spine surgeon or spine neurosurgeon completed an additional year of training specifically in their specialty, performing highly complex spine surgeries in a regional spine center.

These ortho spine surgeons and neuro spine surgeons become proficient in spinal cord surgery; nerve decompression; spinal fusions; minimally invasive surgery techniques using tubular retractors the size of ballpoint pens; and the most advanced artificial disc replacement in the lumbar and cervical spine.

The physician visit

The best specialists within a given niche will typically provide all the appropriate nonsurgical and surgical treatment options for your problem, along with the pros and cons of each approach. In some cases, treatment may include watchful waiting. If your doctor is unwilling to answer questions about your diagnosis or treatment, you’re in the wrong place. Go find another doctor.

Be a good patient

After all the searching, if you have found a good doctor, the rest is in your hands. To be a good patient, you must comply with the physician’s recommendations and prescriptions. Too many times, it’s natural to want a magic pill or miracle surgery to provide an easy route back to activity. However, you should always view surgery as the last card to be played, after all nonsurgical options are explored.

For nonsurgical treatment alternatives to work, the patient must often follow physician and therapist prescriptions, which may include a commitment to therapy. For spine and joint problems, this may mean incorporating special strengthening exercises that rebuild supporting muscles, so that surgery is not necessary. While athletes are familiar with the required commitment and pain associated with the exercise gym, others may not. It can be new territory for many people, but it is essential if you are to give nonsurgical options a chance to work.