Fairbury

Occupational therapy (OT) is an allied health profession that uses assessment and intervention to develop, recover or maintain the meaningful activities or occupations of individuals. At our Fairbury and Beatrice clinics, our occupational therapist’s main focus is on elbow, hand, wrist and finger conditions. This includes several different conditions that range from carpal tunnel and tennis elbow to more complex diagnoses such as rehabilitation following a flexor tendon repair.

Other possible candidates for OT treatment are post-CVA, SCI, and other movement disorders. Individual treatment strategies are developed for patients that wish to decrease pain, increase function, prepare for a possible surgery or for rehabilitation following surgery.

Preoperative physical therapy is becoming more of a normal course of treatment in the orthopedic world. In a world of skyrocketing insurance premiums, deductible and copays pre-surgical PT has been shown to decrease the cost of postoperative PT care by 29% for patients that have a total knee or hip replacement. A study conducted within the last 7 years revealed that 1-2 sessions of PT prior to hip or knee replacement surgery decreased the need for postacute care services such as skilled nursing or home health. Preoperative PT is important to instruct and educate the patient on what to expect with postoperative rehabilitation. Preoperative PT sessions tend to focus on functional activities such as transfers, walking, use of correct gait devices, use of adaptive equipment, bathing and other functional activities that will be affected by surgery.

Specific programs are developed in coordination with referring physicians to address the needs of the patient that will allow them to return home with as much independence as possible. This speeds the ability of the patient to return home with less assistance. Patients are educated on specific exercises to increase strength, motion and flexibility to speed recovery following surgery and in some instances to increase function prior to surgery. The goal of prehab or pre surgical physical therapy is to prepare the patient physically and mentally for the upcoming surgery.

Following surgery outpatient physical therapy will begin once ordered by the physician. Treatment may begin as soon as the next day but will depend upon each individual physician’s protocol. An individual and personalized treatment plan will be developed in coordination with your physician. At each appointment your progress will be evaluated to determine your next step in the recovery process. Our therapists believe strongly in providing patients with the resources to take control of their own rehabilitation process. Each patient will be instructed on a home exercise program that will be advanced as improvements in physical condition allow. The goal of post surgical rehabilitation is to restore each patient to their previous level of function.

Preoperative physical therapy is becoming more of a normal course of treatment in the orthopedic world. In a world of skyrocketing insurance premiums, deductible and copays pre-surgical PT has been shown to decrease the cost of postoperative PT care by 29% for patients that have a total knee or hip replacement. A study conducted within the last 7 years revealed that 1-2 sessions of PT prior to hip or knee replacement surgery decreased the need for postacute care services such as skilled nursing or home health. Preoperative PT is important to instruct and educate the patient on what to expect with postoperative rehabilitation. Preoperative PT sessions tend to focus on functional activities such as transfers, walking, use of correct gait devices, use of adaptive equipment, bathing and other functional activities that will be affected by surgery.

Specific programs are developed in coordination with referring physicians to address the needs of the patient that will allow them to return home with as much independence as possible. This speeds the ability of the patient to return home with less assistance. Patients are educated on specific exercises to increase strength, motion and flexibility to speed recovery following surgery and in some instances to increase function prior to surgery. The goal of prehab or pre surgical physical therapy is to prepare the patient physically and mentally for the upcoming surgery.

Following surgery outpatient physical therapy will begin once ordered by the physician. Treatment may begin as soon as the next day but will depend upon each individual physician’s protocol. An individual and personalized treatment plan will be developed in coordination with your physician. At each appointment your progress will be evaluated to determine your next step in the recovery process. Our therapists believe strongly in providing patients with the resources to take control of their own rehabilitation process. Each patient will be instructed on a home exercise program that will be advanced as improvements in physical condition allow. The goal of post surgical rehabilitation is to restore each patient to their previous level of function.

Graston Technique® (GT) is a unique, evidence-based form of instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization that enables clinicians to effectively and efficiently address soft tissue lesions and fascial restrictions resulting in improved patient outcomes.GT uses specially designed stainless steel instruments with unique treatment edges and angles to deliver an effective means of manual therapy. The use of GT instruments, when combined with appropriate therapeutic exercise, leads to the restoration of pain-free movement and function. The instruments also are used diagnostically to assess the kinetic chain, in an efficient manner using the principles of regional interdependence.

Physical therapists use dry needling with the goal of releasing or deactivating trigger points to relieve pain or improve range of motion. Preliminary research supports that dry needling improves pain control, reduces muscle tension, and normalizes dysfunctions of the motor end plates, the sites at which nerve impulses are transmitted to muscles. This can help speed up the patient’s return to active rehabilitation. Some states in the US are now utilizing dry needling in the emergency room to help decrease pain and the use of opioids. Dry needling has been used by therapists for years and is now being more widely accepted as a drug free alternative to relieving pain and restrictions.

The LSVT BIG program was developed to help people with certain neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease to improve their quality of life. People that are affected by these disease processes tend to move differently with decreased pace and amplitude of movements which negatively affect balance, gait and other activities of daily living. LSVT BIG is an intensive, one on one treatment strategy that effectively addresses these functional changes. The program focuses on specialized and movement specific exercises during 1 hour sessions 4 days per week. The entire treatment program lasts for 4 consecutive weeks with emphasis on daily home work and carry-over exercises. LSVT BIG is an evidence based treatment approach that has resulted in improvements in the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale.

Using our owners’ and senior therapists’ years of experience, we designed large, comfortable, private physical therapy and rehabilitation rooms at our Husker Rehab Locations to provide exceptional support for patients’ needs. We use treatment rooms for acute treatment and manual therapy.

In addition to therapeutic exercises, we tackle pain and function challenges with services such as hot packs to promote healing and muscular relaxation, electrical stimulation for pain relief and prevention of muscle loss, and ultrasound for treatment of inflamed or damaged tissue.

We encourage our therapist to attend postural restorative therapy courses so as to develop the appreciation of postural patterns and how it affects our everyday life. Understanding of the normal postural motion allows us to evaluate and find postural patterns that exist in all of us. When a pain or injury develops, these patterns will create the lack of ability of the body to heal properly and thus contribute to the ongoing pain and compensations. The knowledge and skill in understanding the importance of respiration, myokinetics, neuromuscular and postural imbalances are the key to getting clients back to their functional activity. Without postural neutrality, typical rehabilitation techniques may make patterns worse and contribute to more pain. Once neutrality is managed, progress to the home program and wellness centers will be guided and instruction in each program with postural emphasis will be discussed. Each exercise will need to keep the corrected postural alignment and position, and thus continued stability and core awareness going forward without the need of formal therapy. Once a client has achieved this goal, they can be discontinued from our care and continue independently.

Velocity dependent resistance exercise that can be performed with any major joint in the body providing accommodating resistance throughout the entire range of motion of a joint. We utilize our Kin-Com machine to work muscles with isometric, isotonic and isokinetic exercise while focusing on both eccentric and concentric (muscle lengthening or shortening) muscle contractions. Use of the Kin-Com also allows computerized feedback on patient performance.

Isokinetic testing is performed to a specific muscle to determine the amount of force that it can produce to determine if it has returned to it’s safe and functional state following injury. Testing protocol is established in cooperation with referring physicians and can be patient specific.

Husker Rehab Fairbury offers special machines that use isokinetic resistance exercise to quickly improve muscle power. These machines also are valuable in measuring muscle power to determine when a patient is ready to return to sports, work or other functional activity. The faster a patient pushes, the more resistance he or she will experience. Computer feedback helps the patient monitor progress. Unlike free weights, isokinetic machines are not affected by the force of gravity, which makes them easier to control.