Physical therapy is a wonderful thing. It aides us in recovering from many types of injuries and surgeries. Perhaps you have been injured while playing sports. Maybe you have a common sports injury such as torn ligaments in your elbow, like Kurt Warner, NFL quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals. Maybe you were in a car accident, and got a broken leg. Or, perhaps you had to have back surgery, like MLB Arizona Diamondback pitcher Randy Johnson.
Chances are, you won’t be able to get the level of physical therapy afforded to Kurt Warner, Randy Johnson or any other professional sports player for your injury and recovery. Your physical therapist won’t be the best in the business, coming to your doorstep with the best physical therapy facilities and physical therapy equipment. You won’t have a team of physical therapists devoted to you day and night to speed your recovery and get you back playing for your sports team.
So, you’ll have to find the next best thing. The physical therapists available in your local area may not have the extensive knowledge and training that the physical therapist to the NFL players have. They might not have the dedication and commitment to excellent of a physical therapist treating a Major League Baseball player.
I am writing this article because I was involved in a car accident about six months ago, where I was hit by a drunk driver. I had some bad experiences with physical therapy that I hope can help others not have to go through what I did, and get the best treatment and care from the physical therapy from the start!
The first place I went for physical therapy turned out to perhaps not be the best place for me. The physical therapy office was huge- there were many people being treated at once, and many different physical therapists and physical therapist aides. This meant you were always surrounded by lots of others during your treatment, and that sometimes you had to wait to use equipment. It also meant that if your therapist was out for the day, you might be farmed off to someone who didn’t really know the background of your situation.
With this being the case, how do you choose a physical therapist?
1. The first step is to find out what is wrong with you that may require physical therapy. If you’ve been in an automobile accident, you will be treating with a local doctor. The doctor will be finding out what’s wrong with you and if you need physical therapy.
When you’re injured, you can’t always rely on your doctor to find out what the best course of treatment is for you. If you start to feel like your doctor isn’t correctly diagnosing your problem, or you feel that you aren’t getting the treatment you need, you may have to take your own action. You may have to do some research of your own into your injury, or you could get a second opinion. In my case, it took my treating doctor for my car accident three months to put me into physical therapy after the accident.
2. You will then get a referral to physical therapy from your doctor. You can’t go to physical therapy without this, because you have to be under a doctor’s care. Physical therapists aren’t doctors, and can’t thus diagnose your situation. The referral to physical therapy may be general, or it might direct specific types of treatment.
3. What treatment do you need? The doctor’s referral might say that you need aquatic exercise, for instance. If this is the case, you have to find a physical therapy place that has a pool. Your referral might say that you need iontophoresis, a technique using a topical steroid solution and electrical stimulation to release the steroids into the injured area. If you have a specific treatment directed in your referral, this limits your options as to who in your local area offers this type of service. Your referral might just be a general referral to physical therapy. In this case, the physical therapist will assess your situation and decide on a course of treatment.
4. Who offers the type of treatment you need? This could involve looking through the yellow page directory of the phone book and making some phone calls. You can ask your doctor if they recommend a particular physical therapy office. Or, some doctor offices have a referral specialist who will do this research for you and even set you up with your first appointment. You could ask others with similar past injuries where they went for their physical therapy in your local area.
5. Who offers the kind of help you need? What I mean by kind of therapy is more than just treatment. This is about the facilities and the people. If you really want individualized attention, you may want to find a smaller physical therapy office that serves less clients. If you choose a large physical therapy office, you may have to exercise in front of many people. I found this personally hard to deal with, as I tend to be more private when trying to heal from an injury. The large physical therapy facility may offer you the option of a personal room to do your physical therapy, but they may not. (I found the first place I went less than cooperative about my wanting to work privately.)
You also want to find the type of people you need. In a bigger physical therapy facility, there will be so much going on, and so many people, that you may not find a physical therapist who is emotionally supportive and understanding. I also found this a problem where I went to physical therapy first. It was more about just getting it done than trying to understand what you must be going through emotionally. I didn’t find much empathy, which was necessary for me. Although there was one physical therapist aide that I was able to see about once every four visits (due to limited availability), I found that the other aides and the physical therapist assigned to me didn’t understand the empathetic side of treatment.
6. Who has the hours and days you need? Your work schedule might interfere with the hours of the physical therapy. If you have a problem getting off work, you may need to find somewhere that can accommodate your schedule. It is hard to find physical therapists with evening and weekend hours, at least where I live!
7. Who accepts your insurance? If you have been involved in an automobile accident, chances are the PIP portion of your automobile insurance (or the car you were in during the accident’s auto insurance) will cover your initial doctor and physical therapy care. You need to make sure the physical therapy office accepts PIP claims. (I have never come across one that didn’t, but you need to check to make sure.) Or, if you had an operation or a sports injury and will be using your health insurance, you must make sure the physical therapy business accepts your type of health insurance.
8. Once you find a place that seems to offer the treatment you need, you will set up your first appointment. This appointment is basically an evaluation. You will meet with an actual physical therapist, not a physical therapist aide, for this session. The therapist will use different techniques and measures to assess the scope of your injury and what course of action to take to treat it. If your doctor has already made a treatment plan, the therapist will determine how to go about it.
This is your chance to interview the physical therapist! Remember, and don’t ever forget, that you have the right to choose your own care, and the responsibility to make sure you get the best care. This means you have the right to ask the physical therapist questions as well. Come right out and say, “Can you be emotionally supportive during my care? I need this.” Or, you can ask the physical therapist if they can allow you to work privately during your sessions. Perhaps you work best in the morning. You can inquire as to whether they can offer your care in the mornings.
Overall
Don’t ever get swept up into believing that whatever a doctor or physical therapist says is what should go 100%. If your gut instinct tells you that you aren’t getting the proper care you deserve, question it! Ask for a second opinion, or to see a specialist to diagnose your injury. If your physical therapist doesn’t seem to be giving you the treatment that works for you, tell them and see if it can change. You may even have to decide to go somewhere else.
What is important here is that you understand that you are part of your own healing process. You have to take steps to get better and sometimes disagree with the authority of the doctor or physical therapist. You have to know what’s best for you!
