Question for people who have had physical therapy

[Anonymous]

I recently started physical therapy and I was surprised that my physical therapist had two, three, and sometimes up to FOUR patients at one time. (She has a student who helps when it gets up to four but the student doesn't do much.). Is this typical? I pictured more of a one on one type experience.

[Anonymous]

I am a physical therapist, and I only see 1 patient per hour, at most 2 patients per hour. I do not know the specifics of your situation, but she should be seeing LESS patients if she has a student, not MORE. Was this one of your first or second visits? Perhaps she had to take on a few extras because another therapist was out sick? As a PT myself and hearing this, I would like to see what she is billing for. Billing and reimbursement gets tricky in scenarios like this.

[Anonymous]

I had months of physical therapy to recover from a dislocated pelvis and broken femur and ankle. My experience was intensive and always one on one. Maybe it has to due with the nature/severity of your condition?

[Anonymous]

I just finished four weeks of PT for a sprained ankle and my therapist seemed to be working with a few people at once. After the initial few sessions I was mostly working on my own but maybe because the type of injury I had and the work I was doing did not require a lot of one on one attention?

[Anonymous]

I needed full time attention and my PT was taking care of another person at the same time. I pretty much did half of what I could have done in 1 hour session (and later on learned that if it was 1 on 1 the session would last instead 45 min - I had just given birth so those 15 minutes of pain would be so valuable to me) I left the place and next time I'm going somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

I only saw one.

[Anonymous]

My PT often books another patient at the same time as my appointment but only because I am an established patient. If she is meeting someone new or has a particularly complex case, she will not double book. There is always an assistant there to help with form, get equipment, ice etc. I have over nine months logged in PT over the last two years and I would find a new PT if she/he's regularly seeing four patients at once. My PT is great, msg back if you need a recommendation.

[Anonymous]

I did two bouts of PT, both for dislocated shoulder, and my PT always had at least one other and usually 2-3 other patients going at the same time. It's a very busy place, with about 4 PTs working at once, and they all share two assistants who do a lot of the explaining of exercises, icing down, etc. The PT herself always did my stretching/massaging/evaluations of progress after a few days away, but the assistant did much of the other work.

[Anonymous]

"I was surprised that my physical therapist had two, three, and sometimes up to FOUR patients at one time."

This happened to me at one large practice downtown, and I left after two visits. I've seen at least 5 other PTs and all of them worked with me one-on-one. I would not go anyplace that uses assistance or where you're not the only patient - there are too many good PTs out there.

[Anonymous]

Find another place. That's unacceptable. If you're in NoVA, go to Back in Motion. It's one on one for an hour and they are all really good.

[Anonymous]

I went for PT for a pretty mild condition (recurrent annoying neck and upper back pain and tightness caused from living life vs. an injury) and saw a different person each time. I preferred that because they were all great, but they all taught me some different things and I was able to pick and choose what I liked (exercises, stretches, advice).

I'm sure if I had a more acute condition they would have treated me differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"I was surprised that my physical therapist had two, three, and sometimes up to FOUR patients at one time."

This happened to me at one large practice downtown, and I left after two visits. I've seen at least 5 other PTs and all of them worked with me one-on-one. I would not go anyplace that uses assistance or where you're not the only patient - there are too many good PTs out there.

I went to a PT at a large hospital affiliated site. It was at the hospital. My PT worked with me one on one for many visits but did leave me to deal with others during ice rest etc. As I progressed others were booked simultaneously so when I had to ride something like the bike I was OK. We were there alot at the same times-there were graduates but it was nice to have the camaraderie of others. I haven't found anyplace as good in the DC area....

[Anonymous]

i've seen a few, has always been just me for 1/2 hour.

[Anonymous]

DD recently finished a few months during which she was doubled with another patient for an hour twice/week. There were lots of assistants on hand to supervise whatever exercises the principle therapist set her to do-- they'd be pulled over with each specific exercise assignment. Some patients were "tripled", but the therapist said this wasn't appropriate for DD.

OP, if you feel like the additional patients are making the therapy time less valuable for your healing, you may wish to find another facility.

[Anonymous]

I think it will also depend on what the goals are for your treatment sessions. If your condition requires one-on-one manual therapy by the therapist, then they should not be booking other patients. If you require a combination of manual therapy by the PT, as well as general exercise (supervised for the condition) - then they likely have the few that require only exercise together.