Starting therapy shouldn’t be a scary thing. Therapy is meant to decrease a patient’s symptoms and pain. It increases strength, improves mobility and functional tolerances. Therapy will allow you to return to what you want to do in your life. Physical Therapy (PT) is when health problems or impairments make it hard to move and function due to injury, surgeries, or pain. Physical therapist are trained to treat any body part, but there are also specialist (pediatric, neurological, TMJ, etc). This article will focus on the outpatient orthopedic setting. Occupational therapy (OT), in an outpatient setting, focuses on the upper extremity (specifically wrist, hand, and elbow). ProActive’s OTs are all certified hand therapist (CHT). A CHT is an OT or PT by profession with at least five years of experience, plus 4,000 hours of hand therapy practice (upper extremity rehabilitation), and passes a certification examination that demonstrates knowledge of all areas of hand therapy. The therapist are here to help you return to your ideal lifestyle.
The first treatment in therapy is an initial evaluation. The initial evaluation will be performed by a physical or occupations therapist. They will ask you how your injury occurred or how symptoms started. Try to answer questions as accurate as possible. This will help them understand what happened and the mechanisms of injury. They will ask you what your prior functional level was, what your current level of function is, and what your goals. The therapist will take measurements of your motion and strength. Depending on what your diagnosis is, the therapist may perform other special tests looking at balance or functional test. ProActive therapist will discuss the biomechanics of the involved body part or joint, and explain what is currently going on with your injury. A plan of care is developed from the MD, patient’s goals, & the initial evaluation. This plan of care can be altered at any time, and will be reassessed at least monthly.
A key philosophy of ProActive is to create a cohesive environment in which the patients are active participants in their rehab process. In addition to this, we encourage patients to share their experiences thus providing motivation, inspiration, & support. That being said, we have several therapist at each clinic that are able to cater to each patient’s individual needs. We are able to provide a one-on-one therapist/patient experience, however, some patients enjoy having the option to see more than one therapist. This may provide an optimal experience for patients should they prefe this method.
Treatments are based on the plan of care developed in your evaluation. You may work with a physical therapist (PT), a physical therapist assistance (PTA), occupational therapist (OT), and/or certified occupational therapist assistant (COTA) for your hands on treatment. PT, PTA, OT, & COTA all have passed a state board and are trained to perform the manual interventions of your therapy. Therapy usually includes manual interventions such as: active/passive range of motion, manual stretching, soft tissue/joint mobilizations, stretching, injury specific strengthening and stabilization, and modalities (ice, heat, electrical stimulation, and/or ultrasound). If you are a worker compensation patient, then your therapy should also include job specific strengthening and training. The exercise portion of your treatment & modalities may be performed by a PT aide (aka exercise specialist or rehab tech or aide). The PT aide has been trained specifically by the clinic. It is important to inform the therapist of your reaction to your previous treatment. Improvement in symptoms and function or increased symptoms will be noted.
Your therapist will give you a home exercise program (HEP) with stretches and exercises that you should be doing at home to maximize the work that you and your therapist are doing in the office. .If any of the exercises that you are given aggravate your symptoms tell your therapist, so they can confirm that you are doing the exercises correctly. They are able to adjust the exercise to something less symptomatic. After your therapy is complete it is important that you to continue your HEP so that you can maintain all the benefits and functional improvements. Upon completing your treatment, if you have any increased or return of symptoms inform your MD &/or call your therapist to get back in so that these symptoms can be worked with.
ProActive Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine’s therapists work in collaboration with patients to ensure they are able to get back to work, play, and their life safely.