"Ethical purchasing put simply is buying things that are made ethically by companies that act ethically. Ethical can be a subjective term both for companies and consumers, but in its truest sense means without harm to or exploitation of humans, animals or the environment."¹

We would like to suggest another way of looking at ethical purchasing - from a chiropractic professional viewpoint. Chiropractic ethical purchasing occurs when chiropractors, chiropractic colleges and organizations make purchasing decisions based upon both the ethical purchasing model (above)and by purchasing goods and services only from vendors that support the chiropractic profession. "Vendors that support the chiropractic profession" means that the vendor has a corporate membership or sponsorship in chiropractic associations (international, national and regional/state/provincial/local), makes regular donations or other financial assistance to chiropractic colleges, participates in chiropractic causes (e.g., the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress) and/or exhibits regularly at chiropractic events. 

This includes the simple concept that, other things being equal (quality of the products, level of service, fair price, prompt delivery, convenience factors, what is best for the patient, ethical purchasing concerns, etc.), the chiropractic purchaser should give preference to the vendors who support the profession, not necessarily the individual chiropractor.

This means there are no kickbacks, improper rebates, or referral fees. Making one's purchasing decisions based upon what the doctor of chiropractic gets from the company make us no better than those in the medical profession who prescribe drugs based upon the free samples, pens, dinners and other perks they get from the drug companies. There has been significant discussion in journals, newspapers and on the Web about problems with drug company inducements.

Some years ago I [Dr. Baird] coordinated a group of chiropractors seeking to obtain hospital admitting privileges. A few months after gaining the sought-after medical staff appointments and concomitant hospital privileges, I was called to a confidential conference by the hospital administrator, who had been a strong chiropractic advocate. He regretfully informed me that one of the DCs was well-known to use a private radiology group for his MRIs and CT studies. This violated the administrator's expectation that DCs on staff would patronize the hospital's own radiology department - after all, we were now all members of the same fraternity, and certainly should have been patronizing the only hospital in the area that was chiropractic-friendly and had granted us privileges.

When I investigated, I found that both the private facility and the hospital had comparable equipment and well-qualified radiologists and technicians, but that the marketing manager of the private group was giving the DCs a $200 "rebate" for each procedure performed! Not only did this renege on the DC's commitment to the hospital and violate medical ethics, and was even potentially illegal, but it also was not an ethical purchasing behavior by the chiropractor. The hospital had shown its support for the chiropractic profession; we should have done the same and showed support to the hospital.

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