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The physician will make a diagnosis based on the patient’s presenting symptoms. When osteoarthritis is suspected, a physician will order x-rays to determine if there has been an uneven loss of cartilage, as well as spurring of the underlying bone.
Blood tests and joint aspiration are sometimes used to rule out other types of arthritis. In joint aspiration, a needle is used to draw a small sample of fluid from the painful joint for testing.
In testing for rheumatoid arthritis, a newer test (called the anti-CCP test) measures levels of antibodies in the blood. This test is more specific, and test results tend to be elevated only in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and even in patients who are about to develop RA. When anti-CCP antibodies are present, doctors may be able to predict which patients will experience rheumatoid arthritis more severely.
People with arthritis often have stiff joints, and frequently avoid movements that can increase pain in the affected joints. However, the pain and stiffness will worsen by not moving arthritic joints, so exercise programs can go a long way in maintaining a person’s mobility. Your physical therapist (PT) can teach you how to work out the stiffness of arthritis without causing further damage to the affected joint.
Depression and anxiety are often experienced by those who live with chronic pain and having any form of arthritis can have a negative impact on emotional health and wellbeing. Growing evidence shows that inflammation can worsen or initiate symptoms of depression.
A research study published in 2011 showed that measurements of physical and mental health were consistently two to 3 times worse in those with arthritis, as compared to those without arthritis. Interestingly, those with arthritis and who were physically active were 50% less likely to rate their health as poor, in contrast to those who reported they didn’t get much exercise.
Stress and anxiety influence pain levels, as well as poor sleep and depression. Treating arthritis, and treating anxiety and depression are critical for living life to the fullest.
The goal of your physical therapist at Physical Therapy Now in Miami is to help you return to performing everyday activities without difficulty. Physical therapists help arthritis patients in these ways:
Yes, it can. Regular physical therapy sessions will ease the pain associated with arthritis through various exercises and movements that have been proven to improve the condition.
Call us today at 1-800-481-4582 to schedule your arthritis care with our trained physical therapists. We’re here to help you live your best life!
Arthritis is a general term for inflammation that causes redness, warmth, stiffness, tenderness, and/or pain within one or more joints in the body. Arthritis is a broad reference to more than 100 forms of joint diseases, affecting about 54 million adults (1 in 4 adults) in the U.S. Nearly 300,000 infants and children in the U.S. have arthritis or a rheumatic disease.
A common cause of chronic pain, as well as the leading cause of disability among adults in the U.S., arthritis often worsens with age, and more women than men experience doctor-diagnosed arthritis.
Even though arthritis is common, physical therapy offers much help for arthritis sufferers.
The term “comorbidity” means that a person is experiencing more than one health problem at the same time. Comorbidities are also more common among those who have other chronic health problems. For example:
Arthritis is more common in women who are overweight or obese, while more men experience arthritis after sports injuries.
Among the various types of arthritis, osteoarthritis is the most common, followed by gout, fibromyalgia, and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Cartilage is the hard, slippery tissue that covers the ends of bones at the joints of the body, and in osteoarthritis, cartilage breaks down in a wear-and-tear manner over time.
In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the person’s immune system is affected by targeting the joint linings on both sides of the body, such as in both hands or both knees. RA may also impact the skin, eyes, lungs, heart, blood, or the nerves in the body.
Other less common types of arthritis include:
Physical therapy can have a tremendous impact on those suffering from arthritis pain. If you are one of those people in pain right now, there is good news: Here at Physical Therapy Now, we have the experienced staff to help you manage that pain and feel much better! We focus on movements and exercises that are utilized specifically with patients just like you with arthritis.
Call us today to schedule your first appointment to learn more about how we can help at (800) 481-4582. And don’t miss our next blog. We’re telling you more about how physical therapy can change your life as you manage your arthritis pain.
No one wants to suffer from upper back pain. It can hinder you from doing basic movements like walking and picking up objects. Upper back pain is not as common as lower back pain, but it can still easily affect anyone and be just as agonizing. Studies show that back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, causing many to stop working and participating in everyday activities.
If you are experiencing upper back pain, it is important to seek treatment as soon as possible – treatment that could involve physical therapy.
It is common for our muscles in our upper back to lock up when we are stressed or sleep in uncomfortable positions. But how do you know if that minor discomfort is serious back pain?
Symptoms of upper back pain include:
There are many reasons why you may be experiencing upper back pain. Some of the causes include:
When trying to prevent upper back pain, practicing good posture is a good place to start. Many of us spend hours hunched over our laptops and notebooks. Try to keep your shoulders pushed back and your head up straight when sitting, standing and walking.
Other ways to prevent back pain include:
If your upper back pain persists, your doctor may suggest medication, surgery, or physical therapy.
Physical therapy for upper back pain is the safest and most natural form of treatment. If you or someone you know is suffering from excruciating back pain, come to us at Physical Therapy Now. Experienced therapists will work with you on perfecting your posture and go through various treatments to lessen and get rid of your pain.
Give us a call at (800) 481-4582 to schedule an appointment today.
Patient satisfaction is one of the key components to maintaining a successful healthcare business. In the healthcare industry, it’s vital that patients are satisfied with the services they receive so that they don’t take their business elsewhere. Patient satisfaction is even more vital when running a franchise.
Why is patient satisfaction so important in a franchise? It’s like a snowball effect: a franchise has multiple locations. One bad patient experience can be associated with each one of those locations because those locations are all associated with the business (which, as a franchise, is also its brand). This is why it’s necessary to make sure that patients have a positive experience, and they leave your business feeling satisfied with the services provided.
Having as many happy patients possible is the key to success. Where do you start?
One component is offering flexible hours. Flexible hours allow more customers to have options when scheduling appointments that are best fit for them. Offering shorter appointments is also important for flexibility. In addition to flexible hours and shorter appointments, keeping appointments on schedule is crucial to patient satisfaction. Staying on time is an easy way to keep patients happy and reduces long wait times, and that can lead to a frustrated patient.
Some other patient satisfaction techniques include offering products for the patients to purchase at the PT office. Buying things often leads to ‘material satisfaction’ for patients, which in turn can contribute to overall satisfaction. A side-benefit of offering items for sale is that the business is also generating more revenue. Lastly, offering a variety of PT options for patients allows for a unique physical therapy experience. Different PT options include:
Taking steps to keep your patients satisfied does nothing if you don’t know if it is actually working. Some ways to keep tabs on patient satisfaction:
If you believe you have what it takes to provide excellent physical therapy patient satisfaction, consider becoming part of the Physical Therapy Now franchise. To learn more, visit us at our website or call us at (800) 481- 4582.
There are so many ways to ensure that your business has a positive work environment. So many in fact, we had to share some more with you! A positive work environment is made up of many components, and each one is equally important. Continue reading to learn how to implement more techniques for a positive work environment!
If you think you can successfully and creatively create a positive work environment, consider becoming a franchisee with Physical Therapy Now. We pride ourselves in making sure our employees feel respected and valued in all of our locations across the country. If you are interested in investing with Physical Therapy Now, visit our website or call us at (800) 481-4582.
There are over 150 bursae (bur-SEE) located throughout the human body, and each bursa contains a small amount of a jelly-like, lubricating substance. Bursae are located between bones, tendons, joints, and muscles, including at the shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and heels. In each location, bursae and serve as cushions to help lessen friction.
Bursitis (bur-SY-tis) is a fairly common condition that occurs when one or more of the bursae become irritated or inflamed, resulting in painful pressure or painful movement at the site. The affected joint may feel stiff and achy and may look red and swollen. The area may hurt more when you move or press on it.
The most common locations for bursitis are in the shoulder, hip, and elbow, although bursitis can also occur in the knee, ankle, buttocks, heel, and at the base of the big toe. The inflammation of the bursae is often near a joint that is involved in frequent, repetitive motions, or at a position that applies pressure on the bursae at a particular joint.
When the elbow is affected by bursitis, it is commonly called , although it is not necessarily related to tennis. In the U.S., between 1 and 3 percent of Americans will be affected, and half of all tennis players will experience tennis elbow, typically between 30 and 50 years of age. Tennis elbow can also result from daily activities, such as sports activities with a high frequency of throwing.
Follow these tips for time-honored approaches to lessen and prevent bursitis flare-ups:
Most patients respond well to nonsurgical management of bursitis using these approaches:
However, the number of injections should be limited, since prolonged corticosteroid injections can damage surrounding tissues. Steroids may also raise the patient’s blood pressure when used too long, and the risk of infection is increased with steroid use.
Surgical treatments: In rare cases, when bursitis has not resolved within 6 to 12 months with nonsurgical treatment, surgery may be needed to remove the damaged part of a tendon in order to relieve the pain. On a positive note, 80 to 95% of bursitis patients recover without surgery
Has the pain of bursitis interrupted your daily routine? Our highly skilled physical therapists are here to help! Call us at 1 (800) 481-4582 today.
One of the most important components to having a successful businesses is maintaining a positive work environment. It’s important that employees feel valued, respected, and safe because this affects their mental attitude and their willingness to work for your company. According to Bplans, “Creating a positive work environment will yield far better results for employees and your company.”
A positive work environment is crucial to ensure the success of a franchise. Think about it: word or mouth travels quickly from location to location. The way employees are treated is almost always on the forefront of those traveling conversations, so make sure your employees feel appreciated and respected.
Creating a positive work atmosphere may sound great, but it requires a little work for the managers and/or owners of the business. It must be done in a way that benefits and satisfies everyone. Implementing the following tips can be tough at first, but once in place, become easy to maintain.
Here at Physical Therapy Now, we work tenaciously to ensure the happiness of our employees at each one our franchise locations. If you believe you have what it takes to create a great positive work environment, consider becoming a franchisee with Physical Therapy Now. We are always looking for innovative and new ways to make our business better for everyone involved. Call us at (800)-481-4582 or visit us at our website for more information.
A torn meniscus is a painful knee injury that commonly occurs in athletes; however, athletes aren’t the only people who can suffer from a torn meniscus. Each knee has two c-shaped menisci cartilage pads that serve as shock absorbers for our body weight. According to John Hopkins Medicine, “Meniscus tears usually take place when an athlete twists or turns their upper leg while their foot is planted and their knee is bent.”
Anyone participating in these types of movements can be in danger of tearing their meniscus. In fact, a torn meniscus is one of the most common knee injuries, so anyone can suffer from them regardless of age or activity.
When the meniscus is torn, the person typically describes feeling a “pop” in the knee, followed by significant pain. After the initial tear, there can also be:
No meniscus tear will heal fully on its own, but sometimes surgical intervention is not necessary, and other treatment options are available. There are two types of meniscus tears to increase the likelihood of a full recovery, both require different courses of treatment. The first meniscus tear type is a tear that occurs in the inner two-thirds of the meniscus. This type of tear cannot heal on its own and requires surgical intervention due to the lack of blood flow in that area of the meniscus. The second type is a tear that occurs on the outer one-third of the meniscus. This area has a good blood supply, resulting in blood cells regenerating the meniscus tissue. This type of tear can heal on its own but still may require non-surgical treatment to help guide the injury to heal, such as physical therapy.
Physical therapy is an excellent treatment option for meniscus tears that don’t require surgery but still need to heal properly. Additionally, even if you have surgery to heal a torn meniscus, physical therapy is a must-do following surgery to help your knee rehabilitate. Physical therapy helps regain your range of motion, strength, and control in your knee.
A torn meniscus is a serious and painful knee injury that can be debilitating and will undoubtedly make every-day tasks painful and/or challenging. However, our skilled teams at Physical Therapy Now can help you on your recovery journey. If you have torn your meniscus and want to learn more about non-surgical healing options, call us to schedule your first appointment at (800) 481-4582. Let’s get started!
Whether you’re recovering from illness or an injury, our physical therapists (PTs) at Physical Therapy Now are here to help you rebuild your strength, coordination, and mobility after sports injuries, injuries sustained in motor vehicle collisions, chronic conditions, surgical recovery procedures and more.
Functional mobility is our ability to move in and around our immediate environment. Getting out of bed, walking, sitting down, and getting up from the kitchen table are all examples of functional mobility.
During certain illnesses and injuries, there can be limitations in a person’s ability to move in the usual way. Muscle strength can weaken from lack of use, and this can impair balance and coordination, resulting in decreased speed and accuracy of movement. Pain or muscle spasms can also limit a person’s ability to move in a typical way.
In recovering from illness or injury, you may need assistance from another person to get in and out of bed or a chair, or to walk. An assistive device, such as a cane or a walker, can help a person maintain balance in support of the ability to walk. How much assistance is needed depends on the severity of the illness or injury.
Goals of physical therapy include rebuilding strength and coordination, reducing pain, and improving quality of life.
Hospital-based physical therapists assess the patient’s level of functional mobility each day. These daily assessments by the PT help to determine a patient’s readiness to return home.
Physical therapists also help by assessing a patient in office settings, as well as the patient’s functional mobility at home. The PT often performs a gait evaluation in analyzing how the person walks and provides ideas and suggestions on how to create a safe home environment for mobility. Strategies are also shared to improve walking ability.
The severity of your illness or injury will guide your physical therapist in how much assistance to provide during your recovery. The levels of assistance are:
If you are currently experiencing limited functional mobility, your physical therapist is educated and trained to help you improve your mobility. Keep in mind that the repetition of practice gradually helps to build strength and coordination toward increasingly greater motor control over time.
Our PTs provide therapies that are designed with each patient’s specific needs in mind, including:
Do you need assistance in regaining your strength and mobility so you can walk again? Call Physical Therapy NOW at 1-800-481-4582 to schedule your appointment today!
You’re now in a position where investing in a franchise is not a far reach. You have your finances in order, you know a getting a great loan is promising, and you’ve been researching aggressively to find a franchise that is a good fit. So how do you narrow down the options and make sure you pick the right one?
There are may unique stories from franchisees about how their franchise journey came to be. Here at Physical Therapy Now, our franchisees come from all walks of life; we have Physical Therapy Assistants that decided to take their careers to another level, we have people who are purely in it from an investor role, we have people who have never worked in the physical therapy field, and so many others with unique stories.
Once you become a franchisee, you’ll have your own story too, but first, you have to get there.
So how do you make that happen? Fiona Simpson, a Senior Contributor at Forbes.com has an interesting suggestion: She recommends treating the search for a franchise in the same manner that one might treat the search for a lifelong companion.
“Before launching enthusiastically into the quest for their perfect match, a prospective franchisee should take time to carefully consider their own wants and needs,” Simpson writes. “Carrying out an analytical assessment at each stage of the developing relationship will hopefully ensure that a franchisee doesn’t leap into a commitment blinded by lust and that the ensuing franchise partnership is a long and happy one.”
Might there be merit in this thought process? Perhaps. Consider these five points that oddly correlate with a person-person relationship:
Simpson might be on to something. So, to make sure you choose the RIGHT business, take her advice to go on a “date.”
She writes, “A proper “date” between franchisor and prospective franchisee could be arranged by either the would-be investor attending a Franchise Discovery Event or a one-to-one meeting, depending on factors such as timing, location, and the brand’s own recruitment procedures.”
Are you ready for a “date” with Physical Therapy Now? It’s our treat! Give us a call to explore our investment options and take a look at our 7-Step application process to learn more. We’ve recently been listed Forbes’ Top 100 New Franchises, so you can’t go wrong. Contact us today at (800) 481-4582.
