This was my first experience with physical therapy of any kind. My intake was performed at ATI's…read moreNiles location, and all subsequent sessions were in Skokie.
The good:
- Professional, competent and thoughtful physical therapists;
- Friendly and responsive management, both at this facility, and at Niles and their Bolingbrook corporate office;
- Clean, well-appointed facilities.
The not-so-good:
- During my time at this facility I was treated by four different PTs. It wasn't until several weeks into my therapy that one PT identified themselves as my "primary," and from then on was consistently available to me. Prior to that the communication between my PTs was limited, even dysfunctional, with each PT assigning me their own at-home exercises seemingly unaware of, or misinformed regarding the exercises I was already performing. This was dispiriting, especially when I'd accrued over a dozen exercises I thought I was obliged to work through daily.
- A personalized web portal called MedBridge was presented to me as a resource for my at-home exercises and progress. I liked MedBridge, I liked having my exercises available online, but I soon realized that not all of my PTs used it, and those that did appeared not know how to use it properly. In the end, MedBridge became frustratingly unreliable and I stayed with my paper printouts instead.
- It wasn't unusual for my PTs to be attending to another client at the same time as me. Given what ATI was billing my insurance provider, consistent one-on-one would have been appreciated--and expected. (One PT confided that ATI was having trouble hiring PTs and that most of the PTs currently at the facility were independents.)
- During my intake, the facility manager wanted to charge me a $10 fee payable immediately. I advised him that my insurance card says, "Please do not collect $ at time of service," but I was told the $10 fee was not a co-pay, rather it was "co-insurance." I subsequently learned that the fee was really a pre-pay that applied against the total bill. At their request I gave them my credit card so they could auto-debit $10 for each session. Problem was that after several weeks the debits mysteriously stopped, and ATI Skokie told me they had no record of my credit card despite my having provided it several weeks earlier. I gave them my credit card again, and several weeks later they "lost" it again. Thereafter I refused to provide my card, telling them to instead call ATI corporate and work it out with them. To ATI's credit, they never bothered me about the pre-pays again.
- This last thing was explained to me by ATI corporate as a marketing error: after about six sessions I received an email from ATI congratulating me on my "great progress" and proclaiming that I was, "close to reaching my goal!" Neither was true. Again, ATI owned it as a mistake, but dispiriting nonetheless.
