Sending someone in: the handoff is small, and that is what makes it work.

The call after a crash is often made by someone else: the mother of a seventeen-year-old who got rear-ended on Clarkson, the office manager whose delivery driver got sideswiped on 141, the coach whose player was in her dad's car when it happened, the friend who is still answering the phone at nine at night. The person in the seat is sore, rattled, and busy insisting they are fine. You are reading this because someone else is hurt and you are the one who is going to make the call. This file is for you.

The sender's job is small

It is tempting to manage the whole thing. Do not. The useful handoff is small, and keeping it small is what makes it work: get the injured person to an exam at a room they can reach this week, tell them what you told the clinic, and step back.

1. Check the bright line first 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 anything on that list is present, the call is 911, not a clinic. The triage file has the full list.
2. Collect five things Their name. A phone number that actually reaches them, not yours. One sentence on what happened and when. Where it hurts today. Which of the three rooms is the shorter drive.
3. Call the room Tesson Ferry for most of West County, (314) 530-5480. O'Fallon for the Chesterfield and Wildwood end, (636) 280-0990. Hazelwood for anyone north, (314) 627-1411. Rooms close 12 to 2; call in the morning or after two. Say it is a crash exam.
4. Tell the injured person what you told the clinic The room, the time, the number, and the one sentence. A handoff they did not hear about is not a handoff.
5. 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.

For the parent

Teenagers underreport, and they underreport concussion symptoms most of all. The car is fine, practice is Tuesday, and nobody wants to be the one with the injury. If a kid who was in a crash is moodier than usual, foggier, sleeping more or less, squinting at a phone, or complaining of a headache they are trying to play through, do not wait for them to volunteer it. Make the call. The concussion file has the full list, and any feature on the emergency list means the ER, not the clinic.

Ask the clinic on the phone what they need from a parent or guardian. Bring the one-paragraph story of the crash written down, because the kid will not remember which way their head went and you were not there.

For the office

If an employee was in a crash on the job, your company will have its own reporting steps and this desk has nothing to say about them. What the desk can say is that the same twenty-four-hour logic applies: the soft-tissue injury shows up on day two, the exam should be booked on day one, and the room the person can actually drive to is the right room. Give them the number, give them the afternoon, and do not ask them to tough it out through the week to see.

For the coach

Missouri Injury Clinic publishes sports injuries as one of its three lanes, alongside auto injuries and TBI and concussion rehab. A player who was in a crash on the way to practice is in two of those lanes at once. The desk's position is the conservative one: no return to contact or hard training until a clinician has examined the neck and asked the concussion question. That is an exam-room decision, not a sideline one.

For the friend

You are the one who will hear "I'm fine" the most, because people say it to friends. The answer is that fine at the scene is the adrenaline talking, that day two is when the neck stops turning, and that a short, clean exam this week is the cheapest closure there is. Offer to drive. If their neck is stiff enough that checking a blind spot hurts, they should not be on 141 anyway.

What the sender does not do

You do not diagnose, and neither does this desk. You do not hold their paperwork, talk to their insurer, or describe what the clinic will do or charge; ask the clinic those questions directly, or let the injured person ask. Joseph L. Hollingsworth, DC, is a chiropractor, and the clinic is a chiropractic injury clinic, not a law office. If the injured person already has an attorney, the only useful thing you can say is to bring that contact to the visit so records can be sent where they need to go.

Then let them go to the exam. A documented exam this week protects their health and their options, and you got them there. That was the job.