Why You Should Find a Veteran’s Choice Physical Therapy Provider in San Diego

As a former Marine Corps Officer and now a Physical Therapist, I’ve seen how people are being taken care of in the military and the veteran administration system. And I must admit, I don’t like it. I’ve been through both the VA and through military medicine, and it’s a tough pill to swallow. Here’s why you should find a Veteran’s Choice physical therapy provider or a Tricare physical therapy provider.

[This is the 2nd in a series of 5 articles.  Read the first article HERE.]

Download your free ebook on using TriCare and Veteran’s Choice for Physical Therapy.

I dealt with a couple of injuries after I left the Marine Corps, and the wait time to get into a physical therapist was 3 months!  While the VA system has improved since then, there are fundamental issues with physical therapy care in the VA and military medicine systems.

In 2013 I started Movement Rx Physical Therapy because I wanted to treat people the way they deserved to be treated. We spent the money and time to get set up as a Veteran’s Choice physical therapy provider as well as a TriCare physical therapy provider to make sure our model of care would be available to the local military and veteran communities. We wanted to give people what they deserve – a premiere experience where they’ll feel taken care of.

Take a look at the video below to learn more about my story and approach.

Here are the Top 3 problems in Military Medicine and VA Medicine

The first problem: TIME

In Naval medicine or at the VA, you see a physical therapist for musculoskeletal conditions like back pain, shoulder pain, knee pain, tendonitis, bursitis, etc. Unfortunately the military and VA model is built on efficiency. While that’s great for patient throughput, it sucks for the actual patient. When booked for 25 appointments a day, the physical therapist is seeing you for only 20 minutes. THERE’S NO WAY YOU GET QUALITY CARE IN 20 MINUTES. 20 minutes means the place of pain gets treated, but rarely the CAUSE of the problem. There’s just not enough time to accurately do what we call ‘differential diagnosis’, watch your movement patterns to see where the dysfunctions are, perform standard PT tests, and learn about how your other lifestyle choices are contributing to your pain. Then there’s re-testing you after each movement drill. Then there’s creating a customized set of exercises for you to do. Anything less than 60 minutes with the physical therapist is just prolonging your issue and turns out to be a waste of time.

The second problem: Attention to Detail

As a physical therapist, if I can only see you for 15-20 minutes, there’s no way I can solve the actual problem. Typically the pain area isn’t always the problem area. Our health and movement patterns are interconnected, meaning that pain is the expression of a set of biomechanical problems in your body. For example, I just started working with a 41 year old male with shoulder and low back pain. The cause? Weak glutes and a resulting immobile mid-back. His knees and ankles were also involved. Think I could have gotten to that level of detail in 15 minutes? And make treatment relevant to him and his desired activities? Not a chance.

The third problem: Fixing the Cause

You see where this is going, right? If I get more time, I can pay attention to the nuances of the individual rather than make an assumption based on what I’ve seen in others. (Making those assumptions can be dangerous, and happens all the time in a 15 minute appointment.) If I can pay more attention I can get to the cause of the issue. Take my 41 year old patient. In the first visit I was able to provide him exercises to actually FIX THE ROOT CAUSE, as opposed to temporarily relieving pain and making him chase his painful symptoms from visit to visit. We will have fixed the root cause of the issue by the 4th visit. In the military/VA model it would have taken 12-20 visits. Who wants to come back 20 times? And what military superior is going to OK you leaving your work 20 times?

Solve your pain using a Veteran’s Choice physical therapy provider or TriCare physical therapy provider

At Movement Rx, we have designed our approach to work with people for a full hour and solve their problems quickly.

We know that low back pain, is not really the problem. The problem is elsewhere.

We know that with shoulder pain we always have to look at the neck, we always have to look at the ankle.

We put the tools in your hands. Rather than seeing you 2-3 times a week (unless you’re immediately post-operation), we see you once a week and hold you accountable for doing the work required to get better. Our job is to give you tools for life versus having you be dependent on us. We want to empower you.

We are a Veteran’s Choice physical therapy provider as well as a TriCare physical therapy provider.

To learn more, contact us or call us at 619-210-0945.

Download your free ebook on using TriCare and Veteran’s Choice for Physical Therapy.