On Monday, Logan Regional Hospital announced the addition of several physical therapy pools to the medical center’s occupational therapy wing.
Many older patients use the pools in order to take pressure off of joints. Rich Hall, Director of Sports Medicine and Rehab with Logan Regional Hospital, said that patients of all ages have benefited from physical therapy pools.
“We will see athletes in our pools, but we will also see up to 85- and 90-year-old persons. Our pools will have some parallel bars in there that you can take out so you don’t have them,” he said. “For those patients that need them, they have them in there so they can stay stable as they’re starting to initially put weight back on a joint, an injured muscle, tendons, things like that. We have a pediatric physical therapy clinic that also uses pools.”
Each pool is equipped with a screen that shows the view from underwater cameras. This helps the patient ensure that they are doing the therapy activities correctly. Hall said that the technology in the pools allows therapists to monitor each patient according to their individual needs.
“The other monitor there is an extension of the computer monitor. On there, it’ll tell you how fast the jets are going, how fast the treadmill is going, how long they’ve been going, how deep [patients] are in the water,” he said. “Some of that is for the patient, some of that’s for the clinician that’s working with them. There’s a clock in there for how long they’ve been going so it gives them the feedback for how much longer they’re going to try to push themselves.”
Patients enter the water with the help of a lift.
