How to Pick the Right Physical Therapist

As many of you probably don’t know, you can see a Physical Therapist (PT) without a physician referral in most states. Insurance coverage varies, but here in South Dakota, nearly all of the major payers will reimburse just the same without a referral. PTs are experts at helping you move. There are no professionals more highly qualified. Now that you’ve likely done some thinking about your pain and decided the time is right to seek the expertise of a PT, here’s what you need to do to find a good match for yourself:

Prioritize.

Maybe you’ve seen your physician, maybe you haven’t. If you have a referral from your physician, remember, you can go to any PT of your choosing. (Side note: having a referral for PT is exactly like having a prescription for a medication – you can go to any pharmacy, right?) Now it’s time to figure out how motivated you are to get better. If you live in a rural area, what are your choices in town? How far would you be willing to drive if you found a good PT? Being in South Dakota and working in a sports specialty clinic, patients have driven from a couple of hours away for sessions. A little bit of thinking goes a long way into figuring out what will be the right decision for you.

Talk to people.

If there’s one thing people are good at, it’s talking to other people. More specifically, talking to other people about bad experiences. The trick here is you have to find people that will share good experiences they've had with a certain clinic or PT. It takes a little convincing to coerce the good stories out of people. You want to hear some qualities of both the clinic and the PT they talk about. You are looking for empathy, honesty and efficiency from the PT. The last thing you want to hear is patients are passed around between 3-4 different therapists. The real goal here is finding a list of PTs that have a track record for treating people right – and effectively.

Research.

Now that you have an idea your choices for a PT and maybe what they’re like, it’s time to search out their professional background. A great place to start is the American Physical Therapy Association. They have a resource for the public called Find A PT. You can find out some basic information on PTs that may be close to you. You might even see if there are any board certified specialists in the area and what they most commonly treat in their practice. You will at least see a list of credentials behind their name. Mind you, great PTs don’t always have a long list of “alphabet soup” behind their name (that’s why step two exists). Credentials just tell you how many professional hoops they’ve jumped through. Doing a quick search on the world wide web can yield some beneficial information too. Employer’s web sites, personal web sites, or other useful information may pop up when you search for specific PTs. Sifting through some general information may seem a bit boring, but should be beneficial in the end.

Talk to their staff.

Give the clinic a call and feel out the general vibe. They should have a knowledgeable person answering the phone that can help with most questions you have. Ideally, they should be able to get you in for your evaluation in a few days. Keep in mind, it may not be the perfect time for you right away, but the sooner you get in and get started the better off you’ll be in the long run, so get something scheduled as soon as it can work into your schedule!

There, now you can confidently choose the right PT for whatever body part is causing you aches and pains. Good luck!

Brett