Are you looking to continue your rehabilitative treatment while practicing physical distancing and self-isolating?
Good news! pt Health now offers virtual physiotherapy, giving you the opportunity to receive treatment from the comfort of your own home through video conference technology.
Wondering how virtual physiotherapy works? In this Spotlight, we’ll share some first hand information from one of our physiotherapists with you.
Kyle Dertinger, Physiotherapist and Clinic Team Manager at Hagersville Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation – pt Health, has been offering virtual physiotherapy for the past few weeks.
Today, we’re talking to Kyle about his experience with this new service so far.
Q: Tell us about the type of treatments you can provide through virtual physiotherapy.
A: Virtual care treatments are very similar to in-clinic sessions with more focus on education and exercise.
Virtual care lends itself to better one to one interaction where we have ample time to review the entire home exercise program, add exercises when needed and problem-solve through difficult aggravating factors that have a direct impact on a patient’s day to day experience.
Q: What has the patient experience been like with virtual care?
A: Patient feedback has been positive to date. I think they appreciate the time we spend together and find each session helpful. It’s nice to hear and see improvement in patients week to week despite the fact that we are all social distancing.
Specific home exercises/movements are a powerful tool that help heal physical injuries as well as help mentally during this difficult time.
Q: Can you share your favourite story of how you helped a patient with virtual physiotherapy?
A: One of my best stories so far was a new assessment I had 2 weeks ago. This was my second virtual care visit so I was still learning and changing my techniques, but I soon realized how similar the virtual assessment was to an in-person assessment. The patient had ongoing back pain from a fall in 2019, they didn’t have time to wait for the clinic to open back up.
I was able to take a detailed subjective history of the symptoms and aggravating/easing factors and followed that up with watching them perform active ROM of the neck, mid back, low back and shoulders. I could then identify directions that were limited the most and I created an exercise plan to address it. She has been completing her exercise program daily and during our follow-up last week she was both happy and surprised at how well she was doing.
This experience has stuck with me because it went from a complex, multi-joint injury to a simple case of identifying what doesn’t move well and focus exercises to improve it. Good things happen when we get back to the basics of moving well.
Learn More Or Book Today
If you’d like more information about virtual care or would like to book a virtual care appointment, please visit our Virtual Care page or call us at 1-888-314-2726.
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