Backfire: AHCPR practice guideline for acute low back pain

The AHCPR "Guideline for Acute Low Back Problems in Adults" is a must-read for every South Carolina physician treating low back pain. The 25-page pamphlet excels as a practical guide for swiftly triaging acute low back problems into the 90 percent majority who recover within a month, from the few "red flag" and "red herring" serious back problems requiring urgent attention. But the Guideline panel overstepped its policymaking mandate by venturing into the quicksand of treatment by committee edict, rather than by on-the-spot caretakers. The rumbling backfire is that U. S. Government document, intended as practice guideline for routine acute back care, will come to haunt us as a practice standard for all back care. One-size-fits-all proposals for the majority short-change the few with more demanding healthcare resource requirements. Be sure to read the pamphlet; your patients, insurers, providers, administrators, journalists and attorneys will!