In-home rehab: A win-win solution
By Joseph Mannella, DC

How do you provide rehabilitation therapy to your patients when you don’t have the space or time for it? Try in-home rehab.

Not only does home-based rehabilitation get around time and space constraints, it also engages the patient. Asking your patient to “join the effort” in making themselves healthier sends a powerful message. When you ask patients to be an active part of rehabbing, a light goes on in their head.

They think: “Wait a minute. I am part of the end result of the shape I am in. I can be a positive, active aspect of my condition. It’s not just the actions of my doctor. I can make a difference as well.”

In mainstream medicine, although medical doctors sometimes suggest that a patient lose weight and exercise to solve a health problem, the suggestion is as far as they go.

In-home rehab also reinforces responsibility. Asking a patient to help in the cause and to do rehab work at home really sends the right message. Active care helps patients realize they are responsible for their health. It’s not just up to someone else.

REHAB AND ECONOMICS

In-home rehab allows you to provide a service you might not be able to do in your office. That service has value increasingly recognized by insurance companies.

Insurers are recognizing that results improve when patients participate with home rehab. Some companies ask for records indicating that a patient has been given some in-home exercises or rehab work.

In-home rehab and patient involvement can also impact the patient’s pocket book. When your patients make larger corrections from in-home rehab, they form a brighter future by working toward preventing some conditions from becoming chronic. Ultimately, rehab could save them healthcare costs. It is cost effective.

Patients often ask, “What can I do?” regarding restoring their cervical curve. In the past, we didn’t really have anything for them to do on their own.

What we didn’t realize is that when patients really understand their problem, they usually do want to know what they can do on their own to improve. In-home rehab solves that problem.

I have found that the most effective time to bring up in-home rehab work is in the report of findings, when you are outlining the patient’s treatment plan.

In many cases, you will see that patients taking an active role in their condition and health actually build enthusiasm for being part of the solution. And an enthused, active patient is a patient that stays an active patient and makes progress.

SIDEBARS:
Postitive reinforcement
In-home rehab options

Joseph Mannella, DC, is president of Neck Orthotic, Inc., manufacturer of a neck orthotic that corrects problems of forward-head posture. He can be reached at 586-727-7557 or e-mailed at info@neckorthotic.com. Visit the Web site at www.neckorthotic.com.