The first time I came here I had just had shoulder surgery and the young therapist who was working with me had no clue about anything except basic anatomy. He had never seen my injury which was a class 5 AC joint separation. The post-op therapy for this injury is not brain surgery. You basically treat it similar to a rotary cuff tear but apparently he had no experience with either. After I had to correct him and explain why doing front or lateral shoulder raises with palms down or pinky's up is the fast track to tendonitis at the AC joint or worse, I knew this kid was not well trained. I cut him some slack and told him to study up before our next session. It didn't get any better... he obviously did not do his homework. Session two he attempted to ask for help taping my shoulder; this is another very basic skill that he did not understand. He asked for help from the senior PT. This guy continued to do the worst taping job that I have ever seen in my life. So bad in fact that I made him take his idiotic tape job off, and then I proceeded to teach him and the newbie two different taping techniques... 1st the US standard and then the Australian standard... way basic skills. The worst part was the senior guy was giving me attitude and acting like he knew everything when he obviously didn't know shit. Hey idiot, when you have an AC separation the scapula pulls down and away from the clavicle. You don't tape the clavicle down to the scapula, you tape low to high... scapula goes up to the clavicle to support the weight of the chest and back, and the humerus. And if you don't do proper anchor points your tape job will fail before your patient gets out of the parking lot... that comment was because he tried to tell that anchors were optional. The end result was that I quit coming, found a better therapist group, cash paid, and got my shoulder working again from a PT that new his stuff.
My second experience with this company was no better, if not worse. Back issues: Ruptured disc, spondylosis, spondylolisthesis, most likely torn or possibly severely spasmed mid and low back muscles that were and are still palpably balled up...
A rude front desk staff that didn't understand why I would want the same therapist each visit instead of tossing me around between multiple PTs. No, all of your PTs are not equal, and it takes awhile to establish trust, especially when a patient is dealing with pain. New hands means new trust needs to be established, and if the patient is not relaxed, their therapy won't be as successful. Also, "notes" can not and do not explain everything that a therapist figures out and remembers from session to session. Tossing people around is very wasteful in regards to the limited time one has with their PT and it is unprofessional.
So that was that but, here's the worst part... MY PT FLAT GAVE UP AND QUIT ON ME AFTER ONLY FIVE SESSIONS!!!
Day one.... Initial assessment. They stuck me with a pre-grad student who was working on getting his clinical time. Good hands, a good feel for things, and very observant. After his eval, he performed cupping, and Graston techniques along with manually stretching me. He was very aggressive while constantly checking in with me on my pain levels. The results from his one session was an instant increase in mobility and decrease in pain level- down by 60%. Good job!
Day two... (new therapist) Received a second initial eval, wasteful as I mentioned before, needed because this was our first meeting and she needed to know what was not in the notes from the previous therapist. Got through that, she seemed like a good listener and empathetic... both good traits for a therapist. She went straight to cupping, then Graston after I asked for it, then a small amount of manual massage, talked about some stretches and very basic strengthening exercises to support the spine that I was already doing on my own. Still, it was an appropriate starting point.
Day three... added one new exercise. Asked her to get into my muscles and break up the scar tissue more aggressively, she complied but, not by much. Still I felt like it was helpful and better than nothing. Passed me off to another therapist who had self esteem issues and needed to be told what was going on. She was useless!
Day 4... Another student therapist worked on me. I tried to help her with her technique.
Day 5... My lazy ass PT said she felt like she couldn't do anything to help me. Well, sorry if you didn't get instant results but my back has been screwed up for a long time. I think that your expectations and your techniques are off and that you have a lot to learn about helping people heal.
Conclusion... This place and its staff are a joke. Never trust your recovery to people who expect instant results without working for it! Over half of this staff is fat and out of shape. If they can't take care of their own bodies, how will they take care of you? read more
