Background / History
I tore my left meniscus a few years…read moreback - and tried (unsuccessfully) to do PT with Wellstar. Lol. After getting more and more frustrated with the 'life limitations' imposed by my knee issue, I decided to try PT again this year. I went to PT Solutions first, but the co-pay was higher and therapist / patient ratio seemed a bit 'bloated,' so I decided to try Benchmark.
Exterior
They're in a small strip mall just past Home Depot. In fact, I typically turn like I'm going to the contractor side of HD, to get to them. There's a skate shop, nail salon and Dominican hair salon in the plaza, but I never had any issues with parking.
Interior
The space is small but not cluttered. My favorite thing is the fact that they have the 'Total Gym' style machine that allows you to do assisted squats. In fact, I liked it so much that after moving on to another facility that didn't have that particular machine, I bought one for home use.
Customer Service
I had a heck of a time trying to get in touch with Benchmark (tried the EW Connector location too). Here's some tips for anyone that has my same experiences:
- If you are a new patient and can't get anyone to answer when you choose option 2, just try option 1.
- If you can't get anyone to answer the phone when you try option 1, use the web form to contact them.
- If you need any questions answered, try to call before 3:45pm
- if you're having trouble accessing the Medbridge Home Exercise portal, you might have to go settings and add it as an accepted site. Before this, every browser I attempted seem to think it was an unsafe site.
- Despite the hours posted online, they are only open late one day a week (Thursday).
Trying to get my first appointment scheduled took WEEKS. When I called, I couldn't get a live person. And if I left a message, they'd call me back while I was asleep (despite my vmail asking them to call after 1pm). And even once I had my first appt, when I called back to schedule future visits, TWICE I got someone who told me they didn't know how to schedule and that I should call back the next day to schedule.
It took several attempts for my first appointment, but Elizabeth (Libby) finally reached out to me and helped get me scheduled. I saw Nick first. He was great. Then Libby worked with me. She was amazing. And when Libby went out for surgery, Kayla worked with me. She was phenomenal as well.
The only thing I found a bit strange, and I've noticed that this seems to be the case with all PT clinics - is that the support staff is almost mute. Even pre-pandemic, I've never loved it when strangers walk or stand close to me. Add to that, I'm from a small town, so I'm used to people making eye contact and saying hello. At the direction of the therapists, every now and then the support staff, I think they're called technicians, will come over to adjust a machine, set a timer and just help, in general. I found it a bit jarring / disconcerting to have someone come over to me, stand 2 or 3 inches from me and not say, "Hi, I'm so & so. I'll just be doing xyz right now."
And when entering the facility, if I walked in and said hello, they would just stare mutely. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting 'welcome to Moe's' when I walk in, but for me - please don't make eye contact with me and not smile, nod or say hello. It makes me feel awkward and self-conscious. Please, instead, just don't make eye contact. I do think it may be a generational thing - because they are all very young.
The other thing I wish is that they'd offer an option to pay before treatment. On a couple of occasions, once I was done, I had rubber legs & all I wanted to was exit & flop in my car, but instead I had to stand there & check out. Lol.
Price / Value
I had a $20 co-pay for each visit, but prices vary dependent on insurance plans of course. They do have pretty affordable self-pay prices as well.
Overall
Overall, I liked the therapists a lot. I think the scheduling process could use major some work and I wish communicating with them was easier, but I think this facility will work well for anyone who works a traditional 9 - 5 and doesn't sleep like a vampire.
Speaking of scheduling - I stopped going here because after 8 visits, the person upfront (never got her name) was supposed to be getting insurance approvals for additional visits. She was supposed to call me the Fri after Thanksgiving to schedule me for the rest of my 2023 visits. Of course, she didn't. I called Monday, but she'd left already. They finally called me Tuesday while I was asleep ... so then we played phone tag for 3 more days. When I FINALLY got ahold of someone, my Mon & Wed 3pm time slots were basically all booked up and they weren't able to accommodate me.
I wound up reaching back out to PT Solutions and discovered that there had been a billing error and that my co-pay with them was, in fact, $20 - so I went back to PT Solutions, but to a less-busy facility.