u/Electronic-Lab-4088

Many people are investing in force plates these days. The top end ones (with the fancy international conferences) are in the thousands annually, and the lower tier ones provide the basics.

I know the concept is not a fad - there is utility in research etc, but for the day -to day amateur athlete, weekend warrior, semi-pro, does this actually change how you treat?? are you making decisions or providing exercises that you would not have otherwise provided without the force plate, or does it just help you determine return to play?
I know the metrics it spits out are cool and all, but how does it apply to real life?

Has anyone started to use these in the last 5 years. Would you say this has changed how you deliver care? has it helped you build stronger partnerships with clients - for instances getting them to engage for the long haul of their recovery? Has it changed what you do with them during the sessions?

Our clinic is offering some changes in compensation. In Canada.

It used to be everyone gets an hourly pay - which matched nicely what the average PT in my province makes. Whether you have a client or not, you get hourly. Now relative to what clients pay and the overall income of the clinic, our hourly is probably about 40ish% (35-45%) of fee for service, but it's not a bad wage and it gives some security as you are guaranteed the pay even if the clinic is dead that week e.g. march break.

Now the owner is offering a switch to fee for service at 50% so basically you get 50% of what the client pays for the sessions, but you only get paid if you have a client. So if you are busy (a couple people have been here a long time and are very busy), you will come out superior to your hourly wage, but again in a dead week or anything reduces client volume (flu season, new virus outbreak making people nervous to come in etc) you lose, but most PTs know that if you are established and help out with marketing yourself/retaining clients then you do well. From owner perspective, they also don't want to pay hourly anymore as many PTs are just not completely busy - for which I blame them right back since they hired too many staff without looking at the numbers.

We have a choice as PTs that we have 4 weeks to decide - and can revisit at each yearly manager meeting.
(1) Stay hourly, this is not going to increase, same hourly, historically clinic has not been keeping up with inflation. But pros are that you are guaranteed those hours and pay even if you have 1 client come through the door.

(2) Switch to 50% split - if busy you make much more money, for those of us who have built some caseload/reputation this is an incentive to stay with the company, stay loyal, keep working hard to make clients happy and to retain them and to establish more word of mouth referrals.

The KICKER

- i am friends with one admin person outside of work, not best friends, but we live in the same region and we've ran into each other at the gym and chat more than I do with anyone else. basically they told me that after the switch the desk is to fill up hourly staff completely first, don't book new referrals for fee for service staff (unless client specifically asks for a PT by name) until hourly is filled - the reason is hourly is costing the clinic and if they're not busy they're draining the clinic money, and fee split is going to be taking more clinic earnings as well. This is unknown to the PTs obviously not advertised by the manager, but from a business perspective makes sense, however is like a slap in the face to those who are loyal who have built up reputations and caseloads.

Would you leave?

In Canada majority of clinics will not charge for a first missed appointment or no show, subsequents are charged.
however our booking system on jane also clearly shows when someone has received and opened the appointment reminder...so if you received and opened and didn't have the courtesy to cancel, should that not be charged some fee??

This doesn't happen often but it sure is so annoying to be ready and have a no show. What policy does your clinic have?

I'm genuinely curious. This post is not to stir up debate about us vs them or who the current clowns in charge are.

I'm genuinely curious - and this question will be answered differently by those who have never lived there vs those who maybe have lived or studied there or who work for international companies that also have headquarters in the USA.

For those who have life or business experience in the USA, but live in Canada, what are you honest thoughts. Do you feel you would be better off financially, if you were relocated to the USA (you get to pick the state)?

I have experience and have family who would show 2 sides of this answer - great off financially/lower costs, but some other life things (no maternity leave) are much worse. There's all this talk of 51st state and I just also said bye to 2 friends in the last 12 months who took top medical careers in Canada and moved them to the states. Then I have a boatload of Canada only friends who would never leave - like they'd eat out of a dumpster to stay here vs others who cannot wait to get their kids into at US college with the hopes the kid will stay there / get married or start work there etc.

WOW so this post has taken off :)

SO follow-up question as many appear to be financially better off - if a referendum were to occur regarding joining the US would you vote to join? Say Canada becomes like an independent territory of the US - you get some US citizenship rights but you still live in the state of Canada?

Bummer, tore my ACL 3 weeks ago playing soccer, going to have surgery at some point, need lots of rehab before and then after surgery.
I'm looking for an exceptional clinic. My doctor said I have to find a clinic that works with athletes and prepares them for sports, not just any random clinic, he didn't have suggestions. I just can't drive to the McMaster sports clinic as it will be too far with my work from home schedule.

Is there anywhere in town that is exceptional? I'm going to be calling and doing phone interviews with some clinics this week.
I'm an athlete and I know a bit about sports injuries and physio, I am NOT looking for any kind of place where the physio has me lying down and a hot pack or TENS unit going on my knee for 20 minutes (never going to a place like Lifemark ever again). I want somewhere that will have the space/gym to help me in my rehab and a physio who knows about movement.

I interviewed at a company that involves like 3 stages of interviews. First there's an intro call - you basically just talk about the position and answer burning questions (this was with the lead PT) but it was like 10-15minutes and we just chatted about the role, next you can come see your space and meet with the lead PT to discuss PT related questions. Finally the owner will call you - it's usually a yes by then but the owner also wants to speak / meet - owner is not always at that location so can't be there when the lead PT is there.

Would you go through the entire process to "get all the information" or if after the initial call you're uncertain would you just drop out then? have you ever dropped out mid way ?

I'm basically looking for an exceptional environment - i'm in no rush. After the first call it made me realize the place I'm at actually has better equipment features and I think I would have a busier caseload where I am.

It's always uncertain. But I always get myself into trouble by making decisions fast. My current place is also undergoing changes with an expansion and who knows how that truly will play out.

Buut is it a bad look if I go through the entire process and say no at the end, versus just kind of saying no now ? which bridge is better to burn?

New place = less equipment, shorter sessions = more clients = more charting; however unsure overall about the more clients as seems much less busy and less marketing focused (might be more PT focused); know nothing about pay structure yet; equipment is good but with short sessions unsure if you even have time to use it.....lots and lots of questions

Current = good marketing being done, owner no longer practices clinically and focuses on business (this comes with good / bad sides) , but owner is making a huge change with an expansion/new location to open at end of this year - we don't know how this will impact, some of us may be forced to move there, will it be busy? pay wise this place could be better? equipment is great, not top notch

I use an android which uses the exact same platform as google pixle. I noticed that every single time I take a photo or screenshot (basically any time i use the camera) AND send it via text to anyone, a 7 digit phone number is attached to the image. It's the same number every time. It has an area code local to my region BUT the number is not real -nothing comes up when I search it and when I call it it seems like a not inservice number "This number cannot be called as dialed" message.

Here is a link to another reddit question someone asked about this in the past

https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleMessages/comments/1med4aq/unknown_phone_number_appearing_on_shared_images/

This person is showing exactly what's happening to me. I have my own weird number on each photo. If I send a group text and it includes a photo or screenshot or gif, suddenly the group starts to include this weird number and every text message from anyone in the group chat also sends to that number.

What is happening??? How do I remove this???

My android uses google messaging or contacts or whatever.

I caught this issue after sending a photo to family members in a group chat. someone noticed that the group chat has a weird new number in the group that started after i texted. So suddenly the entire group was the 4 people and then the new number, and everyone responding to and continuing with the group would see that number. It was not an active number, not in service when I called.

So what happened was I realized that every single photo in my phone has this number. If I open my gallery and click on a photo, in the top left is this number.

What is this garbage? are my photos shared to some meta storage number? does someone else have access to them now?

Can anyone help me?? I've googled everything.
I'm with Telus using an android that I bought online.

I was in a group text, and when I sent a photo the group suddenly started to include this new number - it's not a contact, when I call it it's not inservice, it doesn't exist when I google it.

I realized that every single time I take a photo with my phone it adds this 7 digit number with a canadian area code. It's not a watermark because i changed and then disabled watermarks and it's still there.

Can anyone give me any idea as to what the ffff this might be? I'm losing my mind my concern being that I took so many photos of family/kids and now I'm freaking out like if this is a hack and someone has access to my photos or wtf

Ok so a few months ago I got talked into buying a ulefone on amazon. decent price for storage capacity of an iphone.

It does well as a mini computer but it sucks as a phone IMO. In Canada. Reception on calls sucks everywhere, calls don't dial right away - like I hear no ring tone, silence and then someone saying hello hello hello after a minute as if they've been waiting to talk to me.

that's not the main issue

recently a friend started a group chat and uploaded a photo to me and 3 others (a mix of android and iphone, no ulefone users). I responded with a GIF. Then the original sender told me that suddenly there's a new number in the group chat, nobody recognized this number. It started after I uploaded a gif and photo. I called it and it was out of service. I googled it, nothing came up.

It then occurred to me that every time I'm in a group chat, if I upload a photo the same number gets associated with me and added to group chat.

I then realized that every single photo, when I click on it, has this phone number at the top. When I take a pic with my camera, it shows this number - it looks like a 7 digit phone number with a canadian area code, but again it's not an active number. I'm freaking out now because I cannot remove the number. I disabled watermarks on photos and it's still happening. And I've taken lots of photos of my kids and family and now notice they all have this number. Like WTF, are my photos going somewhere??? what is going on here???

I'm in the process of looking for a new phone. I know it costs 4x as much but I felt safer as an iphone or samsung user

The clinics do NOT have any kind of non-compete clauses or restrictions regarding radius etc. I know about 15 years ago it was extremely common especially in bigger cities to have a radius in which a clinician theoretically would not be allowed to work in for 1 year after they leave a job (it was about 5km).

I'm now in a medium sized city. I work part-time at a clinic. I have worked at worse places in the past, but I do have some reservations going forward.

There is another clinic in our town that I'm not very familiar with but they seem to have a bit more of the population I like to work with. Now I have no idea how busy they are, what the compensation is, if it's a good working environment but I'm exploring.

I need a steady income to support my family, my options are to (1) just stay doing what I'm doing part-time where I am, where my earnings are at the ceiling with no room for growth, environment is ok, patients are not really the ideal type of client I want to see. But I get an hourly pay for these days that's steady and guaranteed. (2) drop one of my days where I am, just telling them I need a day off for other life / personal things, and picking up 1 day at the new place to see how it goes. New job is offering a few to full time hours working with one of their programs.
Risk is I drop the one day and the new place comes back much worse. I am nearly certain I will never get that 1 day back because the place I'm at now is NOT BUSY at all and the manager keeps hiring new PTs (wants to fill as much available space in the clinic, and offer as much booking time as possible for business benefit)

Do you think there are any risks with

(1) interviewing other places? I know the two owners do not know each other. My manager knows quite a few people in town but based on social media they don't even follow each other's clinics, whereas my manager follows a couple others in town.
(2) Would there be any issue if I chose to work at 2 clinics in the same city? I know it's technically like a competition but the contract does not prevent me from doing this.

I'll preface by saying I'm in Canada. We don't submit any codes or anything to insurance here. Clients pay out of pocket or use their personal health benefits (often through their employment), each benefit plan has a yearly limit for PT - this can be $300-$1200 depending on the employer / plan. Beyond that limit the insurance does not check or care. Client pays for a visit and submits and gets reimbursed.

My clinic has a cost for the full hour assessment and the 30min follow-ups. Beyond that we have extra costs if the client asks for Dry Needling $30 extra or Shockwave $15 extra. The rationale from the clinic is that there is added cost of equipment (buying the needles), cost of maintenance of shockwave + paying for the PTs extra training for DN etc.

However, the cost for in-person vs virtual is the same.

I'm asking because I'm launching my own side gig. What are people's thoughts?
Should in-person vs virtual cost the same? Since it's the "PT's time you're paying for" or should it be different since obviously you use no manual/modality skills during virtual calls?

I'm looking to improve my communication in the workplace.

If a manager follows-up with you regarding an issue, do you typically explain yourself? As an example, where I work we have a list of follow-up notes that we send as a courtesy to new customers. These people are customers, relationships are built, contracts are made, but our company has this process of sending a specific note/letter after the relationship is established to just solidify it further. Does anyone read these? I don't know. We don't really get responses. IMO it's like sending company christmas calendars to all customers. We're supposed to do this within 48 hours of signing a deal - in addition to the contract etc.

99.9% of us don't get to it within 48 hours since it's so busy and this is low hanging fruit

My manager sent an email as like a gentle reminder that I had 3 outstanding notes. I did them, I responded they were done and that the delay was due to working with a specific customer on refining some contracts which took significant time this week. And that in the future I'm making a calendar notification for Friday mornings to make sure it's done by end of week.
My manager basically said "thanks for doing it, keep the sheet updated, I don't need further details".

Can you help me understand this?

Should I not be explaining myself? Is this a bad look. I basically thought ok task is done, I took ownership, this is why it was delayed and this is how I'm preventing the problem from re-occurring.

Should I have just responded with "done"??

I am trying to find a place for my parent, we like the sound of aqua therapy.
I just was looking for feedback on the clinic - I don't see many google reviews.
I go to swim meets and swim lessons in the gretzky a ton with my kids, we walk by the place 2x/week usually in season and I've never seen anyone go in or out the clinic door, doesn't mean it's bad but for perspective I went to a different clinic in Ancaster a few years ago and there were always lots of people in the waiting room and going in / out, seemed busy and popular.

Not sure if my lack of ever seeing any customers just means it's not good??

I'm an employee at a clinic. The clinic is not well versed in some higher level athlete testing and there are a couple of dinosaur PTs here resistant to change. I'm wanting some dynamometers for objective testing of post-ops and athletes. I'm also asking for an ipad to do some filming for the treadmill gait analysis with athletes.

The issue is that my colleagues don't do this stuff (They're dinosaurs doing 99% passive treatment on the table) and the owner won't spend a dime since the longer standing dinosaur employee seems to "do fine without it".

Is it a bad look if I bought my own dynamometer and brought it to work? Are there things I need to consider here? Like if I bring a piece of equipment into work like a dynamometer and a client some odd way gets hurt with it (can't see that happening but whatever) could I be in legal trouble?
If I brought an ipad from home and started to film people and got an app for gait analysis out of my pocket is that a bad look?
If I do get these items I've already decided it will be a firm NO to any colleague to use it - I'll explain nicely that I tried to advocate for this, I decided to go out on my own to acquire it and if others want they can get their own or we all advocate the owner to get one for the clinic.

thoughts?

Re filming I know about consent and would have a consent letter and I would only upload to their medical file or using a training software for this specific purpose and delete videos from the ipad after the appointment etc

Owner of my clinic suddenly doubled the staff. We're in a decentish clinic that's not a mill, making a fair hourly rate comparable to the hourly that hospital staff make. We get no other perks or benefits.

So owner decided to double the staff, and now we are told we are all switching to split % which means we will all lose income because caseload is thinning with the addition of the new staff. from owner perspective they think they more open hours on schedule, the more opportunity for clients to book, but no PT wants to sit around and see 3 clients a day (and only get paid for that) and waste their time.

I have a meeting at the end of the week to discuss the past year and the future, since we are making some changes, more staff, we're expanding to fill a bit more space from a next door business that's closing, we're changing salary structure.

EDIT: Clarification: I'm in Canada. This would be pay-out-of-pocket (Or via their private health benefits) for in-home private sports/ortho care. I know the major population here would be the wealthier seniors who just prefer to be in home or those post-ops who cannot wait for the gov-funded services or don't get enough services (sadly wait times can be like 4-6 weeks and then it's maybe 2-4 visits that are gov funded). I'm curious if anyone has found success catering in-home services to private paying higher level people (maybe they just prefer in home, or they have an inhome gym etc). And if so, how did you find them? and do you get to use higher level testing?

For those who do in-home visits.

Does anyone utilize any higher level testing like tindeq or other dynamometry or things like plyomat.

I'm really thinking now about getting in some home care visits. I think the biggest population at first will be the post-ops and geriatrics but I was thinking in terms of some of the more athletic people I serve, I do a fair amount of in-clinic objective testing and wondering how I move that to the home.

Do any of you do anything like that??