HydroWorx Pool Best Practices: 4 Key Steps to Aquatic Success
Angee Neish, formerly the Director of Kansas Joint and Spine Aquatic Rehabilitation Center in Wichita, KS has no shortage of patients. In fact, their facility has gained such a strong reputation that they frequently find themselves turning away new clients.
HydroWorx visited Kansas Joint & Spine to hear how they’ve used their HydroWorx physical therapy pools to help their business thrive and expand. As Neish explained, she implements four steps to aquatic success:
1. Have a Champion for Your Pool
Having a HydroWorx pool is an instant asset for any physical therapy facility, but only if there’s someone on staff to encourage others to make use of it.
Having a champion for the KJ & S pools is one of the reasons their pools have received such positive attention from patients. They make sure that the pools are a highlight of their clinic, not an afterthought.
2. Have a Utilization Plan for Your Pool
KJ & S sees a steady monetary return because their pool is never unoccupied during working hours thanks to a detailed utilization plan. Every minute in their pool room is accounted for, and multiple patients are often treated in one pool, creating a pleasant, almost-social atmosphere.
Additionally, Neish feels that if a clinic’s team members aren’t certain how to best use their HydroWorx pool, they will tend to avoid using it in favor of traditional land-based physical therapy. At the Kansas Joint and Spine Institute, every employee understands how to incorporate aquatic therapy into their patients’ regimens.
3. Implement Aquatic Therapy Protocols
It’s important to keep any pool sanitary at all times; a HydroWorx therapy pool is no exception.
This means that consideration has to be spent on keeping open wounds out of contact with the pool water, maintaining the right chemical balance of the pool water, cleaning the pool regularly and keeping the pool’s temperature within the proper range for optimum results.
4. Have an Early Intervention Plan for Post-Operative Care
For many patients, the first few days post-op are the most important in terms of how effective their therapy will be. As Neish notes, “Movement breeds movement.” This is the main reason she recommends that individuals get into the clinic’s HydroWorx pool ASAP even if they cannot comfortably (or practically) walk or move on land.
“You don’t want to have to break faulty gait mechanics,” explains Neish. “By starting patients on the path to proper movement immediately, everyone benefits.”
Best of all, patients enjoy being in the HydroWorx pool because it doesn’t hurt, which Neish mentions as being one of the reasons that their clinic’s cancellation rate is 5%, a full 15 percentage points less than the national industry wide average.
If you have similar “best practices” you’d like to share about your PT facility, please write to mborak@HydroWorx.com.