Living in pain, having reduced function, and risking lifelong impacts from not getting vital physical therapy services is not something any person deserves. We would much rather have our community members come to Momentum for help with any sort of pain they are experiencing rather than being forced to visit a doctor’s office, an urgent care center, or an emergency room.
Beyond our efforts to continually deliver on our Mission to deliver “the highest quality of physical therapy available through clinical expertise, integrity, compassion, honesty, respect and Christian morality,” doing our part to reduce traffic to places where COVID-19 patients may be seeking care is something we can do to keep our communities as safe as possible. This is why Momentum has and will continue to remain open to serve patients during the COVID-19 crisis.
Our team members are eager and excited to come to work each day to help patients with any problems they may be having. Our teams have implemented safety measures to ensure our clinics are a very safe place for patients to visit and are committed to helping patients who need physical therapy care. Many times, this has also involved our staff members keeping our patients informed with the latest, most accurate, science-based information coming from the most trusted sources.
What are we doing to keep our clinics a safe place to receive care? Below are the steps we have taken to ensure the safety of our patient and staff is preserved:
Screening Procedures
Since COVID-19 began its impact on our community in mid-March, we have instituted screening questions that have evolved to become more and more stringent and have mirrored CDC recommendations. These include questions about recent travel, exposure or potential exposure to a person with COVID-19, recent history of fever; shortness of breath; or a cough, what sort of job or social behaviors the potential patient is involved with, etc… These screening questions, only allowing patients and staff in the clinic, and ongoing conversations with our patients while they are in the clinic have helped keep things very safe by helping us to minimize the chances of any exposed people entering the clinic.
Masks
100% of our staff members are wearing masks. Patients are strongly encouraged to wear masks and most of them bring their own masks with them. Momentum will provide a mask to any patient who does not have one. Masks mainly protect others from the person wearing the mask, but the best preventative results are shown when all parties are wearing a mask. This is likely due to the saying, “my mask protects you, and your mask protects me.”
Social Distancing
A huge component to the preventative equation is keeping a distance of at least 6 feet between all people in our clinics. We have achieved this by: carefully planning out our daily schedules to reduce traffic in the clinics, spacing out the available seating in our reception areas, spacing out all equipment OR placing signage on equipment that cannot be spaced out, and implementing a social distancing policy for staff to follow and enforce at all times. We are influencing this situation through policy, environmental changes, and social cues. We occasionally have our therapists get close to a patient in order for certain examination or treatment techniques to occur, but are doing so only when necessary and are minimizing the time any close contact with patients occurs.
Sanitizing Procedures
We have always been a clean environment due to the fact that we often care for immunocompromised patients. In response to COVID-19, we have ramped up our sanitization procedures to include: handwashing between each patient and each time a therapist makes contact with a patient, keeping hand sanitizer on hand for casual use for both patients and staff during each treatment session, sanitizing each piece of equipment after each use, and deep cleaning of all equipment and surfaces during lunch and after the clinic closes for the day. All surfaces patients or staff come into contact with are sanitized on a regular basis throughout each day. Reminders are placed throughout the clinic asking patients to sanitize as soon as they enter the clinic, any time they touch a piece of equipment, etc… Our policies and signage also remind staff and patients to avoid touching their face at all times and avoid touching their masks at all times.
Temperature Checks
All of our clinics have no-touch thermometers onsite. Every staff member and every patient has their temperature checked before entering our facilities. Any person who has a forehead temperature above 100.4 degrees F is not allowed entry into our facilities. While this step currently exceeds CDC recommendations, we feel it is another layer of prevention.
When you combine all of these things together, the result is a very controlled and safe environment for you to receive your physical therapy care. Are you still unsure about coming in for an in-person visit? We now offer telehealth physical therapy services as well. You can even receive a course of therapy where you do some visits in-person and do some visits using our telehealth option.
Please contact us to schedule your in-person or telehealth physical therapy. No MD prescription is needed due to PT Direct Access in Texas. Call us at (210) 888-1278 or request an appointment online!
