When it comes to musculoskeletal injuries, PT seems to be something people see as a last resort. However, there are so many reasons and benefits for trying PT first when you experience a musculoskeletal injury. Some of the benefits include cost effectiveness, personalized care, education and prevention, and improve mobility and function.
When it comes to the musculoskeletal system, a skilled performance physical therapist outperform medical students, physician interns/residents and all physician specialists besides orthopedic surgeons. This harbors the question, why is PT the last resort? If you are wanting to avoid surgery, a skilled PT will be able to provide you with the highest level of care for your injury according to this study (Childs, Whitman, Sizer, Pugia, Flynn, Delitto – 2005). Now let’s talk about how and why this is beneficial.
First, is cost effectiveness. Assuming you haven’t met your deductible in the insurance realm, why would you go from your primary care provider to an orthopedic consult to explain you don’t want surgery, and THEN you end up with a PT. Granted, some insurances dictate that you MUST do those appointments to be allowed to do PT, which is why cash-based is a fantastic option in this scenario. There are 2 appointments there that could be avoided initially to save money, and a skilled PT can screen you to tell you to go see the surgeon day 1 if that is what is best for your condition. Which leads us to our next point.
When working with a skilled PT, your care is going to be personalized to you. No 2 people present the same, even if they are struggling with the same injury. We can take a holistic approach and make sure no stone is left unturned. Each person’s goals are unique, and that dictates their plan of care. We get an hour with you each session at Empower U which allows us to not only dig deeper into your injury, but also understand you as a person to modify your plan to fit you and your schedule.
Because of the increased time we have together, there is more time for a PT to provide education on why you’re experiencing symptoms and how each intervention is going to help alleviate those symptoms. Knowing exactly what is going on allows you as the client to then progress towards preventing the symptoms from returning.
The last part is more unique to what we do at Empower U under the cash-based system. Once we clear up your symptoms, we can now optimize your function in order to reach your goals. As PTs we have vast knowledge on body movements, and we can utilize this beyond decreasing your symptoms and use it to maximize your physical performance.
All these reasons paint a good picture for why PT shouldn’t be a last resort, but instead a starting point. A skilled PT can treat you in a personalized manner due to our high level of understanding of the musculoskeletal system in order to be more cost effective and provide a high level of treatment focused on symptom relief and then prevention and performance going forward. If you’re experiencing an injury or pain, request an appointment here to work with our skilled performance physical therapists.
Childs JD, Whitman JM, Sizer PS, Pugia ML, Flynn TW, Delitto A. A description of physical therapists’ knowledge in managing musculoskeletal conditions. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2005;6:32. Published 2005 Jun 17. doi:10.1186/1471-2474-6-32
