How Our PT Team Has Adapted to Keep Our Clinics Safe

World PT Day 2020 is Tuesday, September 8th, with the focus of this year’s World PT Day being rehabilitation and COVID-19. In light of this, we wanted to take a few moments to share with you some of the recent changes that our dedicated Physical Therapy teams in Stoughton and Foxboro have made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to help keep our staff and patients healthy and safe when receiving PT care.

While the coronavirus pandemic continues to be front and center in the news and in the thoughts of many people, other health issues have not gone away. People are still getting back and neck pain, overuse injuries, and other injuries at work or while playing sports. In addition, surgeries are returning to pre-pandemic levels, and post-surgical patients are often in need of skilled physical therapy and rehabilitation.

Many of these people would benefit from seeing a physical therapist, but some of them are reluctant because of concerns over COVID-19. That’s understandable – PT clinics are often busy places, with lots of people coming and going, right? They used to be, but things are different now. Just like every other business and public place, PT clinics have made important changes to allow them to continue to serve patients while keeping both patients and staff safe. Here are some specific changes we’ve made here at Elite Physical Therapy in Stoughton and Foxboro to reduce the risk of COVID spreading among patients and staff.

Scheduling and patient flow

• We have reduced the total number of people our clinicians see each day to allow for safe social distancing in the clinic.
• We have switched to one-on-one patient treatments to improve the quality and efficiency of our personalized patient care while also reducing the number of patients in the clinic at one time.
• We have altered our traffic flow and entrance/exit points to maintain safe social distancing. 

Treatment

• We require patients to complete a health screening questionnaire upon arriving for each appointment.
• We require all staff and patients to wear appropriate face-coverings when inside our facilities.
• We have redesigned our clinic and gym space to increase distance between treatment tables and equipment to allow for safe distance between patients and staff when not performing hands-on treatment.
• We now offer a telehealth option for treatment when appropriate for patients to reduce the number of patients physically present in the clinic.
• We continue to use hospital-grade disinfectant to clean all treatment surfaces and equipment between each use.

Physical Therapists and Physical Therapist Assistants are licensed, medical professionals who were trained to deal with infectious diseases and keep people safe long before COVID-19 existed. By making changes throughout our workflows and patient experiences, we have reduced the risk of spreading COVID-19 among our staff and patient populations, while continuing to deliver needed services to the public.

If you are in need of PT treatment, but are hesitant to go into the clinic, give us a call at 781-436-0391 for our Stoughton clinic and 774-332-1723 for our Foxboro clinic and ask about what policies and procedures we have in place. To reduce or eliminate going into the clinic, ask about using telehealth either exclusively or in combination with in-person treatment. This is a time of uncertainty, but people are reacting with flexibility and creativity, including the PT staff here at Elite. Don’t let concerns over COVID keep you in pain or from the treatment you need.