Telehealth lends helping hand to local physical therapists

Physical therapy dates its origins to ancient Greece and Hippocrates, widely recognized as the Father of Medicine.

Much about physical therapy has changed in the ensuing 2,500 years – especially in the past few weeks due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Specialists at Balance Point Physical Therapy in La Conner have joined local medical clinics in embracing telehealth methods to treat patients during the statewide “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” emergency.

Conditions resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak have led physical therapists to tap technology more and take innovative approaches on behalf of their patients, whose needs can range from the treatment of chronic pain, soft tissue injuries and cartilage damage to arthritis, gait disorders and rehab strategies.

“By its nature, physical therapy is a hands-on job,” says Lynette Cram of Balance Point, “but our physical therapists have found great ways of utilizing technology and are working differently in terms of instructing and coaching patients.”

Take Ryan Coonc, for example.

A 2006 La Conner High grad who played football at Western Washington University before earning his doctorate in Physical Therapy from Southwest Baptist University in Missouri, Coonc is now employing telehealth, which allows remote video contact between patients and clinicians for a wide array of services.

“Ryan is using it a lot,” Cram says.

Coonc consulted a series of on-line tutorials on how best to implement telehealth. Having grown up with technology, he didn’t miss a beat.

“It was a quick transition,” says Coonc.

While it doesn’t completely replace in-person appointments, using telehealth does give physical therapists and patients another treatment avenue on the road to recovery, Cram and Coonc told the Weekly News.

“It’s another way to connect with patients,” Coonc says. “The approach has to be different, but the goal is still to help people realize progress and be able to maintain it at home.”

“Telehealth is a pretty efficient use of time,” says Cram, who envisions a role for it even after the coronavirus threat has passed.

“Let’s say someone can’t make an appointment because they have to stay home with the kids,” she adds. “Or maybe they live out of the immediate area, like in Concrete or out on the islands. They can utilize the (video) platform instead.”

There are other benefits as well.

Cram said the telehealth format helps physical therapists become more familiar with their patients’ surroundings.

“They love bringing us into their homes,” she says. “And they’ll say, ‘remember I told you how hard it is to go up the stairs or how tough it is to get around that table,’ and we can see it. That’s good knowledge to have.”

With more people now either exercising at or working from home, using technology to contact and consult with a physical therapist makes sense, says Cram.

“I can see there being more overuse injuries from people working in their gardens,” she says.

Cram says “patterns are changing” during the ‘Stay Home, Stay Healthy’ phase of the COVID-19 battle.

And physical therapy, a couple millennia after Hippocrates, is part of the change.