Are physical therapists in your area considered “essential” during Coronavirus pandemic?

[Doc-PT]

I work at subacute rehab SNF in Vermont. No orders to stay home *yet* but anticipate one soon. Are you all still working or have you been ordered to stay home? How do you feel about it?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[AP191]

I work in a private physician owned clinic, and when the "stay at home" order was placed, our company shut down for 1 week pending more information on what is considered an essential business.

I don't really have an opinion on it, yet. My primary patient population is worker's comp, so my patients will come in regardless (if they aren't showing symptoms).

One big PT chain near my home remains open. An email was sent out from the CEO stating they are an essential business.

 

[kayhoho]

Working as a rehab aide at an outpatient hospital clinic. Basically, our clinic cancelled anyone who's coming in for chronic issues, as well as anyone who are older and are classified in the 'at risk' group (whether it's older age or those who have a medical condition that makes them immuno compromised). However, the patients who are acute stroke, post op, as well as those coming in for wound care and lymphedema are considered "high priority" and they are being seen.

Sent from my SM-N975U using SDN mobile

 

[nd_dpt]

Dallas county just issued a shelter in place order. Physical therapy has been labeled an essential service.

 

[theheartyroots]

I work at subacute rehab SNF in Vermont. No orders to stay home *yet* but anticipate one soon. Are you all still working or have you been ordered to stay home? How do you feel about it?

Hello!
I work in acute care and inpatient rehab. No news on changes of employment other than we definitely need to be at work. PT's and all therapists are considered essential staff. Essential staff include anyone that contributes to making sure a hospital runs smoothly (includes janitors, billing, electricians, the whole span). I am located in Florida. Stay safe!

 

[ya1]

I am in SNF too, in CA. Of course we will keep working! Unless our facility does something stupid and spreads coronavirus throughout many patients. People will always need rehab after hospital stay. Plus we have permanent residents we are working with on daily basis. I am assuming outpatient facilities may be short of work since some people are avoiding "public" places.
Our facility gave each employee a piece of paper that states that we are an essential worker. I carry it with me just in case, but it does not seem like anyone is checking in my area

 

[Doc-PT]

We have been issued a stay-at-home order in Vermont as well. We are considered essential though it feels very silly sometimes. I think we are enormously important overall; just not as much so during a pandemic. I guess I tend to feel that the elderly residents should see as few staff as possible since we circulate throughout the building seeing many different patients. And we’re still having staff meetings with all of us sitting in the rehab office without masks. So if one of us got sick ALL the therapists would get sick and then of course all the patients/residents.

It’s hard to justify strengthening and balance exercises and walking programs when we could be spreading Coronavirus to them? I mean we have to wear surgical masks and/or gowns if someone is suspected of having it but surgical masks don’t do much to protect us (which means we can get it and give it to our other patients).

Contact with other people should be limited as much as possible, especially for elderly residents/patients in SNFs. So, while I do think physical therapists are necessary on a case by case basis (I.e. traumatic falls, unavoidable surgeries etc...) therapists should be called in to work very specifically with those patients rather than being scheduled like a normal day. This isn’t normal and it shouldn’t be treated like it is.

I shouldn’t be seeing patients just because they are harder to transfer than usual or they are walking less easily- I would rather they have some decline in function than possibly exposing them unnecessarily to a virus that is killing people their age left and right.

So on one hand I’m very grateful for the financial security and job stability. On the other hand, I feel like it is a precarious situation and all treatments for patients that age should be of vital importance or not at all.

 

[Laurajane]

I work in outpatient ortho that is affiliated with a huge hospital system. We are deemed essential workers, but I feel like there is often a misconception with that term. Most people assume that essential means that you will continue to be needed/employed, but this is not always the case. Even though we are considered essential, all of our 20+ outpatient clinics affiliated with the hospital system have gone from being open 6 days a week and booked out 4+ weeks to only 2-3 days a week currently. Also, all 20+ clinics have gone from 8+ therapists to only 2-4 therapists working in the clinic because there are not enough patients. My hospital system, as well as most around the country are no longer doing any elective surgeries so that has drastically cut down on the number of surgical patients coming into the clinic for treatment. Some of the surgical patients are just opting out of PT altogether post surgery due to fear of contracting covid in the clinic. Some of the therapists are being sent to work in other areas of the hospital system, but their hours working in the other areas are also now being cut. The hospital system overall has lost millions in revenue alone in just the last 3 weeks. I feel grateful to still be getting a partial paycheck, but I no longer know how much longer that will last. I live now as if each paycheck might be the last paycheck I get until this is all over. I know several PRNs working in inpatient that are considered essential and are not getting any hours since this all began. I know several other full-time PTs that work for smaller businesses that are also not getting any hours due to those smaller businesses closing down completely.

 

[Jn7771992]

I work as a rehab tech in Houston, and we have a stay at home order too. My clinic is considered essential, but we dealt with a lot of cancellations and only take care of patients who aren't "at risk". Some surgeries are delayed and some of my coworkers are now laid off unfortunately. I only work 1-2 days/week 4 hour shifts.

 

[Ry19]

Similar situation here. Just not enough patient's to be seen right now. Employees were furloughed for about a month initially but extended another 2 weeks - I have a feeling it will be extended further. As of last week there were only 2 open travel positions in the country.