Why You Can’t Self-Refer an EKG—and What That Reveals About the Future of Chiropractic

A real-world signal hiding in plain sight

Recently, I tried to do something objectively responsible: I attempted to self-refer for a simple EKG.

No symptoms. No emergency. No drama.

Just baseline cardiovascular data required for medication clearance.

What followed wasn’t care—it was friction.

Community responses overwhelmingly pointed to the Emergency Room as the “solution.” Not because it made sense, but because culturally, it’s the only door people know exists.

That experience exposes a deeper truth chiropractors—and practice owners—need to understand:

Modern healthcare is not built for prevention. It is built for incident response.

The system doesn’t know what to do with “responsible adults”

An EKG is:

• Non-invasive
• Fast
• Inexpensive
• Foundational data

Yet in today’s system:

• Imaging centers require orders
• Urgent care requires justification
• Primary care requires gatekeeping
• ERs become the default workaround

The message is clear:

If you’re not actively sick, you don’t belong in the system.

This is not a bug. It’s a design constraint.

Sick-care thinking vs. data-first care

The prevailing healthcare logic is backwards:

Sick-Care ModelPreventive ModelMeasure after symptomsMeasure before breakdownTreat eventsTrack trendsGatekeep accessNormalize accessReact to damageReduce risk

The result? People are forced to pretend something is wrong to get data that could help prevent it.

That’s not healthcare. That’s liability management.

Why this matters for Chiropractic CEOs

This gap creates a massive strategic opportunity.

Chiropractic already operates closer to:

• Preventive care
• Functional baselines
• Longitudinal relationships
• Whole-person monitoring

Yet most practices still market and position themselves inside a sick-care narrative.

That’s the miss.

The future belongs to practices that normalize prevention

Forward-thinking chiropractic leaders are already moving in this direction by integrating:

• Baseline assessments
• Neurological & postural metrics
• HRV, balance, coordination, motor control
• Functional movement screening
• Long-term outcome tracking

Not as “extras”—but as expected care.

The practice that wins isn’t the one that treats pain best. It’s the one that helps patients stay out of the ER entirely.

The ChiropracticResults advantage

This is where verified outcomes matter.

When practices can show:

• Measurable improvement over time
• Baseline vs progress data
• Prevention-oriented care journeys

They stop competing with:

• Urgent care
• ERs
• One-off medical visits

And start competing with:

• Neglect
• Delay
• “I’ll deal with it later” thinking

CEO takeaway

If the system only works when people are broken, then the future belongs to providers who serve people before they are.

Chiropractic is not an alternative to sick-care. It is the missing infrastructure for preventive health.

And the practices that understand this—early—will own their markets.