First Visit Expectations

During your initial evaluation, you will meet with one of our highly educated, licensed physical therapists, who help our patients’ improve their quality of life by improving safety inside and outside of their home and assist with reducing pain.

The physical therapist will begin the evaluation by asking you questions about your health, the specific condition or injury that we will be treating you for, your current and desired level of activity, your home or work environment & any leisure or hobby activities that you have, that may be limited. The more information that you can provide will help the physical therapist determine what physical therapy treatments will best benefit you.

In addition to asking questions, the physical therapists may evaluate your strength, balance, flexibility, coordination, posture, blood pressure, as well as your heart and breathing rates. The physical therapist may also need to use his or her hands to examine your joints, muscles and other tissues to gather more information. Depending on the injury or condition that is affecting you, your walk, your ability to get in and out of a chair, to get up from a lying down position, and how you use your body for certain activities may be assessed. If you are being seen for dizziness you can expect to receive an Oculomotor exam that includes wearing goggles so that a therapist can examine your eyes with changes of position, different movements and visual stimulation.

After the assessment period, the physical therapist will discuss with you your goals for physical therapy and develop a plan of care that is best for you. In many cases, the physical therapist can assess, diagnosis and begin treatment on the very first visit.

The physical therapists’ goals are to improve quality of life, maintain or improve your overall physical health, reduce your fall risk and reduce any associated pain.

As part of the plan of care, you will be given a home exercise program that will work in conjunction with the exercises and treatments done in the clinic.