VIDEO CONSULTS OR TELEHEALTH
Hi everyone.
You will have received emails and possibly phone calls from us talking about Telehealth or video consults.
We acknowledge that some of you may not know what this is, so we’d like to take you through what it means.
Telehealth
We arrange an appointment with you as we would if you were coming into the clinic. If arranged in advance you will receive a text reminder regarding the time of your appointment. Please be near your device at the scheduled time.
At the time of your appointment, we send you a link to the programme/format we are using. This will most likely be something called Gensolve or Zoom (These are secure platforms). The link will go to your email which you open, follow the instructions, and, voilà, your physio will be waiting for you.
We recognise that the technology side of things might be new or difficult for you. It’s been a steep learning curve for us as well! Don’t worry. If we don’t see you online in a reasonable time, we will phone you to talk you through it. Please be patient with the process. There can be glitches with the internet or the servers.
One recommendation is to try and have your device near your router if connectivity is not good. Occasionally we will have to cancel one format and try to open on another. If all else fails, we can achieve a lot in a phone consultation so don’t worry.
A laptop, tablet or phone with video and audio capacity are ideal. Otherwise a simple telephone for a phone consultation.
The cost is $20 for ACC appointments and $35 for private ones.
Telehealth is a physio consultation by video link or telephone where video is not available. They are ACC and Physio Board approved.
These are very uncertain times and we do not know when the government will reduce the restrictions to allow face-to-face contact. Even then we are not sure how much contact will be allowed/recommended.
At You First Physio we place great importance on asking the right questions. We will spend time asking about your injury, movement history, and about what is important to you so we can figure out not only WHAT is wrong but WHY. There is often a good reason why an injury recurs or simply doesn’t recover fully. Telehealth gives us a great opportunity to investigate this in more depth.
After the discussion, we will then want to watch how you are moving and at the region of your body that is injured where appropriate. This is where we both must be quite flexible in allowing for you to position your device so we can see you. We can get a lot of information from observing your movement. Physio is NOT all about ‘hands on’. While that can be useful in the initial stages of an injury it is how you move and targeted exercise that is the key to full recovery. We will then discuss our findings and thoughts with you.
Appropriate exercises can be demonstrated by us and sent to you. You First Physio therapists have access to specialists and imaging such as x-ray and ultrasound and can arrange referrals as appropriate. The referral to a specialist will be at no charge if your injury is ACC-related while imaging will usually incur a surcharge. NOW is a great time to get on top of your injury. Lock-down doesn’t mean Lock-out. Let’s stay connected and use this time to maximise your recovery
03 348 7965
