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Clinic Wish List
674 Plays2 years ago
Joh and Miranda talk about what they would want in their clinic beyond the traditional therapy items.
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Transcript
Introduction to Hand Therapy Academy
00:00:06
Speaker
Hi, I'm Josh McDonald. And I'm Miranda Materi, and we are Hand Therapy Academy.
Clinic Budget Purchases Discussion
00:00:10
Speaker
We're going to take a question someone asked us the other day on Instagram and use that as a great discussion topic here. Someone asked,
00:00:18
Speaker
their company gave them a bunch of money to go spend. They said, go make a wish list. You've got some money to spend. What do you want to buy for your clinic? So I had, this is a great thing to talk about. We're going to assume that you have an already functioning clinic with all the basic stuff. You have all the basic tools. You probably already have an Easton tower, maybe already have flutotherapy and some of those things. What's the next tier of stuff that would maximize your practice?
Enhancing Patient Accountability
00:00:42
Speaker
So what are some things that you would want to have if you had
00:00:45
Speaker
I won't say a blank check, but if you had a big check that you could spend some money. So Miranda, what's the first thing that comes to your mind on something you would want to buy for the clinic?
00:00:54
Speaker
All right. So the first thing that comes to mind, well, and first I like to say what a lucky therapist, right? But okay. If I have my wish list, the first thing I would ask for is folders. I would want some really nice folders that maybe had a slot in there for my business card. And what I would do with these folders is I would put in a home exercise log as well as the patient's exercises.
00:01:16
Speaker
And I would tell the patient and I actually do this in my clinic. I say, Hey, if you, if you return this home exercise, logged me at the end of the, you know, each of your visits, I'm going to enter you in a drawing and we'll have this drawing at the end of the month. So you can win a prize if you were returning it regularly.
Practical Therapy Tools
00:01:31
Speaker
Um, and I think this really holds your patient accountable. It holds you accountable as a therapist, right? Like are you updating their ex home exercise day?
00:01:39
Speaker
each time they come in, right? Because every time that patient comes into your office, you should be giving them something new to work on. Otherwise it's not really skilled, right? So you're giving them tips of what they need to be doing. And then how many times do you say, Hey, how are your home exercises program going? They're like, well, I forgot, or I left my paper here, or, um, I wasn't able. So just really trying to have that relationship where you're holding them accountable. So they're getting better faster.
00:02:04
Speaker
and you're staying up to date on what you're giving them for home. So you don't forget, oh, like last time I gave you tendon glides, this time I'm gonna take away one of those exercises and add something new in.
00:02:15
Speaker
I love that idea. So it's not necessarily about buying a thing to use.
Home Activity Simulation in Therapy
00:02:19
Speaker
It's about getting some money to spend on the folders, the materials, the gift cards you're going to give out with the drawings, that kind of stuff. That's great. Yeah, that type of stuff. Okay, what about you? That's my number one thing. My number one thing, I actually kind of went a little alternate too. I said I want gift cards. I want a couple hundred dollars, like a $200 gift card to Home Depot.
00:02:38
Speaker
Amazon, Walmart, Target, because the things we use the most in the clinic are not the big fancy tools out of the performance catalogs and North Coast. It's go Home Depot and buy nuts and bolts that patients can put together. Go to Target, walk down the toy aisle and find manipulatives, find risk mechanic things, find puzzles and games.
00:02:59
Speaker
the patients can kind of like get lost in the fun function of it.
Integrating Technology in Therapy
00:03:04
Speaker
Maybe I'm going to go to Walmart and buy some kitchen tools to put in a tub and make a kitchen kit where we can work on some functional activities. So the things we use the most are not the things that I see in catalogs. I want to have kind of a, here's a couple hundred bucks to spend at this door and a couple of bucks at this door so I can do some of those DIY things, maybe a bucket full of PVC pipe parts and fittings that they're putting together and taking apart, that kind of fun stuff.
00:03:28
Speaker
Right. That's a great idea. I think that would really emulate some of the stuff they're doing at home. And then with your queuing of how to do it correctly, that's an awesome idea. Yeah. Yeah. So what's another thing? What's next on your list? Oh, this is such a tough one. I think, um, one thing that I've really enjoyed having in the clinic is the iPad. And what I've been using this for is some of those apps like orientate the laterality training type stuff. Um,
00:03:52
Speaker
the labyrinth game. So I have it where it's already on the iPad, so I can show them and say, hey, like you can download, most of these apps are free, right? So you can download these apps on your phone, but this is something I'll show you in the clinic of what we have, and you can practice using it here, and I can give you some cues. That way they don't always feel like they have to have their phone out, right? Because sometimes people are trying to break away from that, but it just gives them a helpful tool. Oh, and this flag, this flag connects to the iPad as well, so.
00:04:18
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That technology base, it certainly engages some of our like younger patients and things that they're going to be a little bit more interested in doing. Um, but honestly, some of my older patients love doing that stuff just as much. So it's, it's kind of a fun, and it seems, it seems silly at the time and they're doing something goofy, but it's, it sometimes just gets them out of the mindset of this is therapy and has to be hard and has to hurt like, no, it can be fun and functional and interactive.
Functional Grip and Strength Training
00:04:42
Speaker
Right. Yeah, definitely. I like the iPad in the clinic.
00:04:45
Speaker
Yeah. Um, my next one, I think I'm going to go a little bit more like traditional. And if we, if we're using putty and it's kind of a standard that we use putty, I get a ton of value out of the putty size tools. And I've seen some people in different, like,
00:05:01
Speaker
commenting on posts and stuff. They say, oh, where'd you get those? They're on Amazon. They're on Performance Health. The Putty Size tools, they usually come with a little book. Actually, a friend of ours over at Mayo Clinic invented them and sold them for a long time before I think she released them to Performance. But there's these fantastic little plastic tools that give you a ton of different ways to do functional grass patterns in the putty. Everything from FPL pull-throughs to
00:05:26
Speaker
whole hand jar opening simulation and tool use and that kind of stuff. So I think those are fantastic, like extra thing to add to not just squeezing and kneading and putty, but object manipulation. Yeah, the putty size tools are amazing. And I think even with those, you get like little cue cards of all the different exercises you can do with that specific tool. So shout out to Carolyn Barnes for creating those because they're really awesome.
00:05:50
Speaker
The other thing I've had clinicians do with those is kind of make their own too out of scrap thermoplastic. So they're not as standardized from clinic to clinic, but you can definitely make your own as well.
00:06:03
Speaker
I also like having a variety of what I'll call strength stuff, dumbbells, kettlebells, odd objects, maybe like some lifting bumper plates, and not like we're doing CrossFit or power lifting by any means, but so many of our patients have to get back to lifting restrictions at work and grip strength, and I feel like if I can pull out
Simulating Real-life Scenarios in Therapy
00:06:23
Speaker
an appropriate size kettlebell up the line or dumbbells and they like walk around the room in a farmer's carry or like a bottoms up kettlebell carry to work on wrist stability at like five pounds. Some of those kinds of just getting up out of the chair. Let's get a milk crate and I put a bunch of heavy stuff inside it and lifting it and moving it under chair, putting it on a table because that may help work on blocked PIP flexion.
00:06:49
Speaker
because they're moving something. They have to get ready to go back and work at, you know, moving luggage at the airport or whatever. Yeah, I do think so, especially with those like adhesions, like if they do have like say a zone two injury and they're 12 weeks out and they're really stuck in scars. Sometimes it's when they go to do those heavy lifts. Like you said, the milk crate. I love that in our clinic because just having to carry that sometimes that tendon will really start to pull through some of the scar. So I think having heavier items and then, you know, making sure that you're teaching correct biomechanics, of course. But I think that's a great plug for the milk carton.
Underutilized Therapy Tools
00:07:20
Speaker
all high dollar items, right? Most expensive thing in our list is an iPad, maybe an Apple pencil to go with it, but these aren't high dollar items. Let's turn this and flip it a little bit. What is something that is standard to hand therapy practice that you have or have had and never pulled off the shelf and you just don't use? Oh gosh, what I
00:07:41
Speaker
I will, I feel like this was just lately we started using it, but it's the flu therapy. Okay. I don't know. For some reason that sometimes gets pushed in a back room and it'll go, you know, six, nine months before we use it. And then someone will get him. We're like, why didn't we pull this out sooner? You know, cause they love it. Yes. What about for you? What is. I think for me, what I've seen in every hand clinic I've gone into is the DigiFlex. And I feel like it doesn't capture on their side of the hand angle. Well, even the, the,
00:08:09
Speaker
The next generation of them, I just don't feel like it functions great. And I feel like I've got 17 other ways to work on grip strength and even individual digit flexion that aren't having them sit with this tool stationary and just kind of mindlessly squeezing away. I've got a bunch of other ways to use it. I've got no problem with it. I just don't really ever pull it off the shelf. And we have both started new clinics and bought stuff for clinics.
00:08:34
Speaker
I didn't put that on the list of things to buy because I just don't pull it off my shelf all that much. Well, you can hardly find them. I went to look for them for any clinic and you can. They're really, really hard to find right now. So I think maybe that's why I don't know. That could be. That could be. I know that you like I've had patients say, oh, I have that for my guitar playing or rock climbing or so maybe in some alternate places. But interesting. Yeah, maybe.
00:08:54
Speaker
So interesting thoughts here, maybe post something that you may find that you'd love to have for your clinic or something you have at your clinic that's maybe a little alternate and
Engagement and Feedback from Listeners
00:09:03
Speaker
not typical and put that down in the comments below if you want. Or if you have any questions for us, you can certainly reach out to us at info at handtherapyacademy.com or you can reach us on our Instagram at handtherapyacademy.com.