Your initial visit is comprised of the "initial evaluation" that must be completed by your licensed therapist to accurately assess your complaints and design the best treatment plan for your recovery. The Evaluation is a written report that is sent to your physician and is used to communicate with your medical team and is used as an initial starting point to assess future progress. The therapist who performs the initial evaluation is known as the "lead" therapist for the rest of your care with AllCare Orthopaedic Center. Most of your first "Therapy " hour will be questions, answers, and movement tests. Along with this your therapist will begin to educate you as to the findings and factors that are contributing to your condition.

Once your therapist has a complete understanding of your condition, the remaining time will be spent initiating treatment. This may be anything from further education regarding activities that are aggravating your condition, to the initiation of some exercises and stretches, and possibly the introduction of some hands-on therapy to relieve some of your acute symptoms.

Both the therapist and the patient appreciate the time we spend during every therapy visit, but during the initial visit, even the full hour can pass quickly with so much information to gather. Rest assured, however, that this upfront time is well spent for the quality and accuracy of your future visits and interventions.

Before you leave the office, your therapist will discuss your individualized plan with you and begin to determine which of our therapists will provide the best set of skills to assist and direct your recovery. Often, you will be given a "team" of therapists who will work together with you toward your goals of better health.

If at any point during your therapy, you feel your needs are better met by one therapist over the other, we encourage that you communicate this with your "lead" therapist (the one who evaluated you on your first visit).

We schedule every appointment for one-hour. For this reason we often schedule our patients up to 4 weeks in advance. This allows you to identify the times that work best in your busy schedule, and allows us to keep that hour available for you. Also our office is usually very busy and the therapist's schedules can be quite full, so this communication is imperative so that we can meet your scheduling and healing needs.

Don't worry! If you have scheduled appointments out several weeks, but your recovery happens faster than expected (which is what we aim for!), it is much easier to cancel unneeded appointments than to try to squeeze yourself back in.

Follow up visits will be treatment-oriented. Treatment is initially determined at your first visit but continually assessed and revised depending on your feedback and recovery. After 30 days, your therapist will complete a Progress Report to send to your physician. This allows on-going communication between the therapist and the MD. Progress reports are completed periodically to ensure that your treatments are effective, with documented progress of changes in your symptoms and level of functioning.