Pre-treatment Intake & Assessment

[Trixzter]

How long are your pre-treatment intakes and assessments. I suppose it entirely depends on the client and what type of clinic setting your in.

I have always found this to be a delicate balance to strike among the therapists that work for me. is simply a matter of knowing the clients expectations???

I remember while in school most instructors continually reminded us if patient books for a 1hr session they expect 1hr of massage.

Personally if someone comes in with issues and concerns I'll often spend 7-10 minutes chatting with the patient and the remainder of the session doing assessment and a bit of soft tissue work. I just think its so important to get the correct diagnosis or else you can waste even more time with the incorrect treatment. I don't think I have had issues with misinterpreting a patients expectations in part because most of my clients are referrals from other practitioners and I will a lot of time with the initial intake.

 

[syahir sephiroth]

Pre-treatment Intake & Assessment

The school I went to would ask new clients to come in early to fill out intake forms, so that we would get a chance to look over the forms before we saw the client. We would take the client back to the room about 5min before the appointment, and use that time to discuss anything further on the intake and make our plan for the session. If everything went right, the client was on the table and ready to go at the appointment time and they got a full hour of hands on. If a client needed more time to discuss issues beforehand, that would come out of the appointment time. Considering this was for a student clinic, we weren't working with extremely complex cases so it was expected that we could manage our time and get the clients on the table for the full hour.

Where I work now, clients don't fill out intake forms and we don't keep SOAP notes (unless if a client has a serious medical condition or allergy that the therapists need to be aware of, then a note is jotted down on the back of the session tracking form.) We ask that clients arrive 5min before their appointment time (in the real world, about 1/2 might) so we can do a verbal intake and find out what they want out of the session. Again, if they do this then we can get them on the table and they get their full hands on time. If they have more complex issues, then I encourage them to be sure to get to the appointment a little early so we can go over those things and get them more table time, but ultimately, if you book a 1hr appointment you're getting 1hr of our time reserved on the schedule. If a client has a LOT going on and needs more time than that, I'd encourage them to book a longer appointment.

Our scheduling gives us 15min between appointments, so while not having intake forms and SOAP notes took some getting used to, you learn to use your time efficiently to get as much pertinent information out of the clients as possible to design the most effective session for that day. That doesn't mean there's no chit-chat to help build the client-therapist relationship, but I usually keep that to a minimum until I'm sure we've got the important stuff out of the way.

 

[jkzimm04]

Pre-treatment Intake & Assessment

You entire last paragraph sums it all up for me:

"Personally if someone comes in with issues and concerns I'll often spend 7-10 minutes chatting with the patient and the remainder of the session doing assessment and a bit of soft tissue work. I just think its so important to get the correct diagnosis or else you can waste even more time with the incorrect treatment. I don't think I have had issues with misinterpreting a patients expectations in part because most of my clients are referrals from other practitioners and I will a lot of time with the initial intake."

I see patients in exactly the same fashion. I am a PT, not an MT, but who cares? I don't play by too many of the typical PT rules and my practice resembles an MT one rather than the typical PT practice. The expectation which the patient come in with are very important. They come to me because I am very good with lasting pain relief. They know a session lasts 50 minutes and, if they ask beforehand, I will tell them that we will get some actual treatment time in that session. If they are there because of YOU, then YOU set the rules. Expectations of 60 minutes of hands on work are set by others; accept them or reject them. Make your policy clear on your website and no one will every quibble, especially if you are good at whatever it is that you do.

 

[dragnei]

Pre-treatment Intake & Assessment

Thank you both for the feedback.

It is interesting how one's prior learning and workplace regulations can shape a therapists practice. At the school I went to we had a good mix of instructors - DC's, AT's, PT's and MT's. Despite this influence we were thrown into a student clinic in which assessment and treatment were not a focused. Most client just want to get rubbed down anyway.

It makes a lot of sense to make the policies clear on the website! Something so simple, yet no where to be found on our site!!!