Many Americans take a reactive approach to their healthcare needs: They only seek care once they have an injury or fall ill. This approach, says physical therapist Kathy Blair, often involves a costly progression of doctor visits, tests, medications, and procedures, in order to diagnose and treat conditions that might have been prevented. In addition, she points out, this type of care accounts for more than 75% of healthcare spending in the U.S.
Preventive or proactive care, on the other hand, means taking responsibility for your healthcare and well being before something happens. This includes taking simple actions, like exercising more and eating better, which can help you avoid unnecessary procedures and costly ER visits. Preventive healthcare, says Kathy, “stresses personal responsibility for staying well, and keeps healthcare spending in check as a result.”
Raj Thangamuthu, a physical therapist, opened Empower Physical Therapy and Fitness (a Physiquality member in Michigan) with the express purpose of integrating physical therapy and fitness in one facility. His goal was to encourage clients to improve their overall health and actually spend less time in his clinic as healthcare patients. Raj gives several reasons why it is better to have a preventive approach to healthcare:
- In preventive care, pain is often not a limiting factor in making progress.
- Muscle imbalances identified in preventive care often respond to treatment more quickly than when an injury is present.
- Preventive care can help identify imbalances within your body and ultimately make you function much more efficiently when addressed. Read More
Tags: Fitness, Preventative Care
Physiquality – pq blog
| Summer is coming, along with plenty of outdoor sports and activities. But athletes need to be aware of their bodies; many summer sports can cause shoulder injuries, particularly if played several times a week.While different “overhand” or “overhead” sports – think any sport that requires arm rotation, like swimming, tennis, volleyball and baseball, especially baseball pitching – use different muscle mechanics, all such sports can lead to shoulder instability. Repetitive rotating motion can cause the shoulder ligaments to loosen, and possibly even dislocate the shoulder.“Pay close attention to how your shoulder feels when playing your sport,” says Cristina Martinez Faucheux, a physical therapist and co-owner of Moreau Physical Therapy, a Physiquality clinic in Louisiana. If the shoulder feels loose, or if a quick pain is felt when raising your arm overhead, like something is slipping or pinching in the shoulder, this could be subluxation of the shoulder, and something that would require treatment with a physical therapist.
 Frequent use (or overuse) of the shoulder can cause several problems in the rotator cuff, which are the four muscles that surround the shoulder along with the tendons that connect these muscles to the scapula, collarbone and upper arm. Read More
|
|
|
|
|
Tags: Impingement, rotator cuff, Shoulder
If you don’t work in the healthcare industry, you may have heard the term “outcomes” but not understood what it meant. Why is measuring outcomes beneficial for both patients and healthcare providers?
First of all, what are outcomes? Simply put, measuring outcomes means measuring how successful a particular treatment is, whether in physical therapy or another field in healthcare. Kristina Holland, a physical therapist assistant at Clinton Physical Therapy Center (a Physiquality member in Tennessee), says, “When physical therapists measure their patients’ ‘outcomes,’ they are answering the question, ‘Has therapy helped my patient to function better?’” By collecting data on a variety of treatments over a period of time, physical therapists (and other healthcare providers) will have data that tells them what the most successful treatments are.
PTPN (the parent company of Physiquality) began measuring therapy outcomes system-wide in 2007. One goal of launching the program, says Mitch Kaye, a physical therapist and the Director of Quality Assurance for PTPN, was to “demonstrate that PTPN’s providers give treatment that is both effective and efficient.” Read More
Tags: FOTO, Outcomes, Quality
Many people think of physical therapy clinics as a place to recover from injury, or a place to do rehabilitation after an operation. But many physical therapy clinics are now offering a broader range of services, shifting their attention to both prevention of and recovery from injury and illness.
Clinton Physical Therapy Center, a Physiquality member in Clinton, Tennessee, launched their wellness program, now known as the Take Charge Fitness Program, 20 years ago in 1995. It was originally intended as a bridge program for clients who had reached the end of physical therapy, but weren’t quite ready to exercise on their own. “Many of the people who come here need supervision that they can’t get at a health club,” says co-owner Joyce Klee. “We can cater their exercise programs to specific health issues, whether they are orthopedic or neurological problems, or other issues, like obesity.”
Now they often have clients who have never been through physical therapy, which is why anyone who joins the Take Charge Fitness Program gets a thorough evaluation. “During this screening,” explains Anna Dark, the Fitness Director at TCFP, “we look for any potential musculoskeletal dysfunctions or imbalances that can lead to injury if not addressed.” The staff at TCFP then incorporates specific exercises to improve and correct such problems, as a part of the member’s exercise regimen. Read more
There is and has been a long-term debate about the merits of using heat or ice as a treatment after injury. Despite years of research, education, and even anecdotal evidence from healthcare professionals and trainers, much confusion has surrounded the issue.
To this day, the conventional thinking has been that ice should be used in the first 24-48 hours after injury to decrease inflammation (swelling) and pain. In 1978, Dr. Gabe Mirkin coined the term “R.I.C.E.” (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation), and this concept became the standard in treatment of acute injuries and post-surgical patients.
Recently, however, many studies have been performed to investigate what exactly the role of ice is in decreasing inflammation and pain, and whether or not it does in fact aid in recovery of tissues. Like so many other previously held beliefs, very good contemporary research over the last decade has been progressively disproving this conventional wisdom. Unfortunately, new information is slow to spread, and it is always challenging to change long-held paradigms and to shift to the more current thinking. Read More
You’ve been dealing with chronic pain for months, and have talked to your doctor about surgery. It’s been scheduled and now you’re anxious about getting through the day. But what do you do the day — or the week — after the operation?
Many patients focus so much on the hours spent at the hospital that they don’t consider the importance of rehabilitation after the operation. If your doctor has prescribed physical therapy after your surgery, it’s because he believes it will be a key part of your recuperation. Here are some of the reasons you may need to do PT after your operation:
- Reason 1: To promote healing.
This is the most common reason doctors prescribe physical therapy after surgery, to make sure that your body heals properly from your operation. This could be to minimize scar tissue after arthroscopy on your knee or shoulder, or to retrain your muscles after a major surgery, like repairing an ACL tear. The variety of factors is a key reason to see a physical therapist, says Mitchel Kaye, PT, Director of Quality Assurance forPTPN, Physiquality’s parent company. “Because the options and variables are so numerous,” he says, “it’s important to consult with your PT for a plan designed specifically for your situation.” Read More
