What to Expect At Your Appointment
Information for Employers
As an employer, you are probably familiar with processing WorkCover claims for physiotherapy costs: Musculoskeletal disorders are the most common condition for which workers’ compensation claims are lodged in Australia, and physiotherapy is the allied health service contributing the largest portion of medical costs (1).
If musculoskeletal disorders persist, not only do they lead to lost production time and increased compensation premiums, they also can result in depression, loss of self esteem and decreased quality of life for the employee (2).
At Youngify, we want to get your employees back to work and living their regular lives as soon as possible. In fact, we hope that after having treatment with us, your employees will feel even better than they did before their pain or injury. To get these optimum results, we employ the Ridgway Method, developed by our Principal Physiotherapist, Michael Ridgway.
This information sheet outlines our treatment process at Youngify. Please don’t hesitate to call us on (07) 3876 9990 if you have any questions.
Many health practitioners use appointment time to prescribe treatment—whether that be medicine to take, at home exercises to complete or specialist referrals. However, at Youngify, we complete the majority of our treatment within our appointment time with the client. Here’s a snapshot:
Longer Appointment Times:
The average Doctor’s consultation time in Australia is just under 15 minutes (3). At Youngify, our appointments are up to 2 hours in length. Longer appointment times mean we can fix a problem and help our clients recover from pain or injury as quickly as possible. Put it this way: we’d rather treat our client for 2 hours on a Friday so they can get back to work on Monday, than top up their treatment at half hour weekly appointments over a month.
THERE’S A DEFINED ENDPOINT:
We follow a procedure with an endpoint. As we take you through this procedure you see each step as it is completed. By the end of the procedure, you are pain-free. In most cases, we get through the procedure within 2 weeks. In the rare cases that we can’t complete a step, we work out we can’t fix the pain problem then we help you with the next best plan, which may involve exercises or a referral to a specialist.
Multiple Practitioners:
Our small team works together to ensure the best treatment plan for each individual client. Multiple practitioners will treat one client, often simultaneously, to ensure the best and most rapid results.
Full Body Assessment and Holistic Approach:
We work at the junction of physiotherapy and neuroscience to treat pain and injury. The latest neuroscience shows us that when we work with the nervous system we can more effectively solve pain and injury problems. At Youngify we identify where the nervous system is causing muscles, joints and nerves to contribute to pain and weakness problems. At the first appointment we will complete a full body assessment to uncover all contributing factors to our client’s pain—extending beyond where our client is feeling the pain in the body.
Intensive Treatment:
We primarily use manual treatment to release problem areas in the body, calm the nervous system and alleviate pain. Of course, we work with each of our clients to make long term lifestyle changes (such as posture corrections) that will support their recovery. However, at-home physio exercises are not our core focus. In a recent study (4), it was found that the average physiotherapy patient spends just under 6 minutes completing at-home exercises! With these sobering stats, we’d rather get results in the treatment room.
Progress Tracking:
To ensure we are getting the fastest and best results possible, we track our progress using photos and videos—in addition to tests and pain improvements—at multiple points throughout every appointment. This method allows us to monitor how our client is responding to the treatment in real time (and to adjust treatment accordingly where needed). This method gives us immediate feedback on progress, and means we don’t have to wait for the next appointment to find out if our treatment is working or not!
Berecki-Gisolf, Janneke & Collie, Alex & McClure, Roderick. (2012). Determinants of Physical Therapy Use by Compensated Workers with Musculoskeletal Disorders. Journal of occupational rehabilitation. 23. 10.1007/s10926-012-9382-0
Iles, R., Wyatt, M., & Pransky, G. (2012). Multi-faceted case management: reducing compensation costs of musculoskeletal work injuries in Australia. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 24(4), 478 - 488. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-012-9364-2
Irving G, Neves AL, Dambha-Miller H, et al International variations in primary care physician consultation time: a systematic review of 67 countries BMJ Open 2017;7:e017902. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017902
Peek, K, Carey, M, Mackenzie, L, Sanson-Fisher, R. An observational study of Australian private practice physiotherapy consultations to explore the prescription of self-management strategies. Musculoskeletal Care. 2017; 15: 356– 363. https://doi.org/10.1002/msc.1181