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Life University unveils the C-HOP and a new standard for outpatient clinics.
By Jean McAulay

By Jean McAulay Just as sporting a special outfit or donning an official uniform can instantly change how we feel, immersing yourself in the unique attributes of a well-designed building equipped with leading-edge technology can profoundly impact human behavior. When 12th-quarter student Aletha Dougherty walks into Life University’s new Center for Health and Optimum Performance, she just feels more like the professional she’s training to be.

“Moving into the new C-HOP has encouraged us as students to step up to a different level of professionalism. To me, personally, it feels like a gateway to greater confidence and a more real manifestation of the profession we’re stepping into,” she explains.

Walking into the 30,000 square-foot facility, you hear the soothing sounds of trickling water, notice the pleasing palette of sage, deep blue and forest green (even the staff uniforms match the décor), nestle into the richly upholstered furniture and enjoy 85 eye-catching works of contemporary art. The space is at once calming, revitalizing and refreshing while also boasting the latest chiropractic technologies.

In the well-appointed patient education rooms, student doctors educate patients about their unique health needs with the help of flat screen televisions that can display digital X-rays or educational films. In the generously-sized exam rooms they use computerized Myovision thermography systems to identify temperature differences along the spine and then graphically display the readings via in-room computer screens. After a chiropractic adjustment, patients are re-scanned and then student and patient alike can see visual evidence of the changes in thermal readings. The rooms also provide plenty of space for students, faculty doctors, patients and even family members to comfortably interact.

The C-HOP also features adjusting rooms dedicated to specialized techniques, such as Gonstead, Thompson, Activator, NUCCA, Atlas Orthoganol or pediatric work, with the unique equipment permanently in place and expert faculty on hand to guide students in the mastery of those techniques.

The first-class surroundings go hand-in-hand with an entirely new approach to optimizing health. “In the organization and arrangement of this new facility, we have captured Life’s unique vision for partnership health care and unveiled one of the most significant chiropractic clinics in the world,” explains Tim Gross, D.C., dean of clinics.

Visitors are greeted by wellness coaches who will work with them to assess their health care needs and establish personal goals that will guide the approach to care.

“The first step is establishing a relationship. We want to be partners with people in helping them identify and meet their health goals with a model that rests on outstanding chiropractic care in conjunction with functional rehabilitation services, nutrition and counseling provided by Life’s diverse student body,” Gross says. “We are educating people around a model of health and wellness development, rather than a disease and sickness orientation. We want to look at the whole person and arm them with information and choices they can exercise to reach their health goals,” Gross says.

Within the C-HOP format, patients (or practice partners) will enjoy a more meaningful and life-enhancing model of care, and students will train to be the collaborative, interactive health providers people seek today. “Students will grow in their appreciation for how varied health professionals can work together in a coordinated way and how great of an impact they can have in people’s lives when they do so,” Gross says. Chiropractic students will practice professional interaction and consultation with their student colleagues in Life’s nutrition, psychology and sport health science majors.

Ongoing quality of life surveys will help faculty and students research the impact of services on well being and chart progress practice partners make toward their goals. Teaching students how to build and nurture ongoing relationships will also assist them in growing their own private practices and retaining patients when they enter professional practice.

Located at the front entrance to the campus, the new C-HOP serves as the University’s most visible and active link to the community. With an anticipated schedule of outreach events to bring community members to the facility for learning opportunities and personal development, the C-HOP is quickly becoming the public face of the campus.

“The general consensus among students is that we love having such a beautiful environment to bring our patients to,” Dougherty says. “It’s just an amazing representation to the public of our school and our learning facilities. Everyone comments about how welcome they feel here, how well they’re treated and how professional the environment is.”

In addition to the beautiful ambiance and new furnishings, the C-HOP is equipped with digital X-ray equipment that provides higher quality images than conventional film and enables faculty and students to enhance images so they can pick up subtle pathologies more easily. “If we take a cervical spine X-ray and then want to see the soft tissue better, we can bring those images out with the digital X-ray,” explains Kathleen Linaker, D.C., DACBR. “We can get a lot more information off that one X-ray without exposing patients to additional studies.”

Student doctors can also perform line analysis on X-rays much more easily and more quickly. “You can magnify the image sufficiently to focus on the exact part of the anatomy you’re aiming for and the computer calculates your lines so you will be dead on and not giving it your best guess,” Linaker adds.

In the theater-style Case Presentation Room images can be blown up to fill a large, wall-mounted screen in high resolution so everyone in the room can actually see the specifics of studies being discussed. Because the room accommodates numerous students and faculty at one time, students have the opportunity to learn from their own case presentations with the faculty radiologist and to sit in on reviews of other students’ films as well. “Everyone can see the image while I’m talking about it so it provides a much better learning experience,” Linaker says. The presentation room has a secure link to a server that stores all the images taken at the C-HOP so files can be pulled at any time for study. It also provides access to Internet information.

“I took X-rays yesterday and within seconds they were on the computer screen where I was standing and I could tell while the patient was right there if I had the images I needed,” Dougherty says. “We also have more equipment now, such as a recumbent table, to accommodate X-raying a much broader range of people.”

The opening of the C-HOP has also brought all clinic services together under one roof for students. Faculty have spacious and attractive offices where they can meet with students. Students enjoy an attractive private lounge and changing area and everything from clinic administration to the offices for community education, quality assurance, clinic advisement, international clinic programs, dedicated information technology staff and the PEAK externship program are in one place to create ease of access for students and ease of interaction and collaboration for colleagues.

Prospective students are also wowed by the new facility. “We had a tour for prospective students the other day and they were quite impressed,” explains Steve Mirtschink, D.C., director of the C-HOP. “I don’t think there is another facility like this on any other chiropractic college campus.”

As new students rotate through their C-HOP experience, it will seem commonplace to them to offer a partnership model of health and wellness care within a sophisticated, life-affirming environment of rich colors, textures, sounds and sights that calm and refresh. With that mindset, they will become pioneering practitioners who collaborate with people to identify, provide and coordinate an array of services that will help them reach toward true health and optimum performance; exactly what their experiences in Life’s C-HOP educated and ?inspired them to do.