At Concentric Rehabilitation Centre, we have a variety of different types of individuals present to us looking for help with a number of different conditions.
These include:
- Neurological conditions such as stroke and Parkinson’s disease
- Musculoskeletal conditions such as lower back pain, knee pain, and shoulder pain
- Other issues such as balance problems and poor fitness.
During consultations with these individuals, quite often when asked why did they choose us for their rehabilitation, our clients will say that they looked at our website, or had a referral from a friend or saw one of our videos online.
In today’s article, we wanted to provide you with a list of what we consider, the most important things to look for in a stroke rehabilitation centre so that you can make a well-informed decision and maximise the likelihood of achieving a positive outcome following your stroke. Instead of just simply relying on a ‘gut-feel’ or a referral from a friend, this list can be used to help you thoroughly analyse whether or not a rehabilitation clinic is the right place for you.
Number 1 – Highly Qualified and Experienced Practitioners
By far the most important point to consider is the experience of the practitioners involved with the facility. More experienced practitioners have a particularly important advantage over their less experienced colleagues – pattern recognition. When a client presents, these more experienced clinicians are able to quite quickly identify impairments and begin to develop a treatment plan which will yield the best possible results.
At Concentric Rehabilitation Centre we have Dr. Kate Scrivener heading up our neurological rehabilitation division and myself, Nicholas Young in charge of the musculoskeletal division. We review all of our clinician’s clients and ensure the best treatment pathway is being implemented. This is a unique model, most stroke rehabilitation centres will only have a neurological physiotherapy team, with general knowledge of musculoskeletal physiotherapy. By having two experts under the one roof, the patient outcomes improve significantly.
Number 2 – Research-Based Rehabilitation Protocols
Next up, the clinic should be implementing researched based physiotherapy. This ensures that the quality of the treatment will be evidenced based and more likely to achieve an outcome for you.
Physiotherapy research has really ‘stepped-up’ over the last 5 years, and now nearly every common condition has a large database of ‘effective’ treatment guidelines that can be implemented to help you improve.
Number 3 – State of The Art Equipment Specific To Your Condition
When looking for a facility to complete your rehabilitation in, it is important that they have access to the latest, high tech devices which have come onto the market in recent years. Example of this include the hoist-assisted walking machines (lite-gait) and Fit-Mi interactive rehab tool. These types of equipment give you the ‘edge’ when it comes to your rehabilitation.
Also, as these are large investments by the clinic, it indicates a real commitment to client outcomes and an increased likelihood that you will improve.
Number 4 – Current Therapist Caseload
This is a very important point. Too often we hear of stories where one therapist may be seeing 2 – 3 individuals at once!
The best, most effective type of rehabilitation, across both neurological and musculoskeletal domains, is when the therapist is working one-to-one with the patient. Anything else and it will result in reduced outcomes.
Number 5 – Regular Case Reviews
To ensure that the client receives the best type of care, and has the best possible chance at achieving a positive outcome, the team of therapist should have regular reviews of the case notes/video analysis of all of the clients and each of them contribute to the treatment pathway. Remember, if they are taking the time to review each and every client, then they are putting you first, focussing on your goals and working as a team to achieve success with you.
As the old saying goes, ‘two heads are better than one’, well we think that 5 heads are even better! So each week we have a weekly case conference to discuss every single client and how we can ensure they improve from coming to see us.
Finding the right rehab facilities and therapists is imperative to your recovery. The reason why these questions are important is that you want to make sure the facility and therapists are experienced in working with all types of conditions, the therapist to patient ratio is 1:1, the facility has the latest rehabilitation equipment, and other stroke survivors have been satisfied with the stroke rehab.
You have a right to choose your rehabilitation facility, and doing some homework ahead of time can ensure that you maximise your chances of returning to a healthy, independent life following your stroke.
If you have any questions about the services we offer at Concentric Rehabilitation Centre then feel free to reach out to us either via email at:
[email protected] or 8799 6932
Yours in health
Nicholas Young
Director