Key takeaways
- Sometimes the reader is not the injured one. The useful handoff is small and concrete: name, a number that reaches them, one sentence on what happened and when, where it hurts today, which room.
- Say two things on the phone for them: auto injury, and scoliosis. Bring their curve history if you can find it.
- Call the room first so nobody arrives at a closed door. Every room closes from 12 to 2.
- Tell the injured person what you told the clinic. A handoff they did not hear about is not a handoff.
- Then step back. Do not promise an outcome, a schedule, or a dollar figure on anyone else's behalf.
A lot of the mail this desk gets is not from people with curves. It is from the people next to them. The mother of a fifteen-year-old in a brace whose carpool got hit on Highway N. The daughter of a seventy-year-old with a degenerative lumbar curve who was tapped at a light on Manchester. The husband whose wife has said she is fine three times since Saturday and has not turned her head to the left once. This dispatch is for you, and it is deliberately short, because your job is smaller than you think.
What your job is
Your job is to get them an exam this week. Not to diagnose, not to decide what the crash did, not to sort out what the curve did, and not to manage what comes after. A person with a curve has an especially hard time telling a new injury from an old pattern, as we explain in the curve, and the single most useful thing a bystander can do is remove the friction between "I'm probably fine" and an exam table. That is it.
The handoff, on an index card
The useful handoff fits on one card, and the clinic's front desk will thank you for it.
- Their name, and a phone number that actually reaches them, not yours unless they cannot speak for themselves.
- One sentence on what happened and when. "Rear-ended at a light on Highway K on Saturday afternoon, about 20 miles an hour, no airbag."
- Where it hurts today, in their words, and whether it is different from their usual.
- The curve, in whatever detail you have. "Diagnosed at thirteen, wore a brace, last film two years ago" is plenty. If you can find the folder of films, bring it.
- Which of the three rooms is the shorter drive this week.
The call
Call the room first so nobody arrives at a closed door. Missouri Injury Clinic's Lake St. Louis room at 2163 West Terra Lane in O'Fallon, (636) 280-0990, is nearest for most of our readers and is open Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday 9 to 6, with Wednesday and Friday by appointment. Hazelwood, (314) 627-1411, and Tesson Ferry, (314) 530-5480, run Monday through Thursday 9 to 6 and Friday 9 to 12. Every room closes from 12 to 2. Say two things: it was an auto injury, and they have scoliosis. Take the earliest opening. If the injured person is a minor, ask the clinic what they need from a parent or guardian and take the answer from them; we do not publish intake rules for a clinic we do not own.
Then tell the injured person what you told the clinic, and when the appointment is. A handoff they did not hear about is not a handoff. If they push back with "I'm fine," the honest answer is that fine on Saturday and fine on Tuesday are different things for soft tissue, and the slow week is the dispatch to hand them.
Where your job ends
Once the exam is booked and they know about it, step back. You are getting someone an exam, not managing their care. Do not promise an outcome, a schedule, or a dollar figure on anyone else's behalf. Do not tell them what the findings will say. Do not tell the clinic things about their history you are not sure of; "I think she was around twenty degrees" is fine, "she is twenty degrees" is not, unless you are reading it off a report. The record works because it is honest, and the record explains why that matters for a spine with a curve in particular.
Drive them if they need driving. Sit in the waiting room if they want company. Hold the folder. That is the whole of it.
The part that is not a clinic call
Chest pain, a sudden severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side, trouble speaking, a loss of bowel or bladder control, or a head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion is an emergency room trip right now, not a call to a clinic. If you see any of that, you are not driving them to a clinic; you are driving them to an emergency room, or calling 911. A person with a curve who has had a spinal fusion and reports new numbness or trouble walking after a crash belongs in that category too. Say it on the phone first.
For the teenager in the brace
One specific note, because it comes up. A growing child with a moderate curve who wears a brace has a spine that is being actively managed, with films on a schedule and a clinician who knows the number. After a crash, that clinician should know about it, and the crash exam should know about the brace. Bring both pieces of paper to both people. The crash exam does not replace the scoliosis follow-up, and the scoliosis follow-up does not replace the crash exam; they are two chapters of the same record.
Book it, tell them, then step back.
Call the nearest room for them, say auto injury and scoliosis, and take the earliest opening. A documented exam this week protects their health and their options.
Missouri Injury Clinic · Joseph L. Hollingsworth, DC · rooms close 12 to 2 · all rooms
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