What’s your story?
I was always interested in how the body works and was a keen sportsperson when I was younger. Physio looked like a good, flexible and interesting career. And it certainly has been that.
To me, the great thing about being a physio is you can meet people from all walks of life and help them throughout their lifespan. I have some clients who I first saw 20 years ago and have stayed with me. Those relationships are golden and have really made my career rewarding.
Rehabilitation is my main area of expertise and interest. I recently completed a Master of Rehabilitation (Physiotherapy) through James Cook University. That reignited my passion and made me really excited about the rehabilitation process and keeping people as good as they can be throughout their life.
Why Remedy Healthcare?
I started part-time at Remedy Healthcare in 2011 in what’s now known as Rehab in the Home. I was then asked to be involved in the opening of the Remedy Carlton clinic in 2016, which was Remedy’s first bricks-and-mortar clinic.
I had the opportunity to start a practice from nothing and grow it to a business of several thousand clients. We built Remedy Carlton from a one-person clinic, which was me, to a team of five physios, a physio assistant and a receptionist. I was able utilise my skills not only on the clinical side but also in business development. I love that, with the work we do, we have the capacity to really develop relationships with clients and become an important part of their life.
Tell us about your work as a physio in teleheath
Remedy Healthcare was talking telehealth long before COVID-19 hit. The pandemic propelled us into action a bit sooner than expected! Now we realise how much we can do through telehealth by thinking outside the box. The only obvious limitations are with manual (hands-on) therapy, but the majority of what we do in the rehab space is not hands on – it’s about education, exercise prescription and the progression of gait aids.
My first telehealth client was isolated because she had been exposed to COVID-19. She’d just had a knee replacement and returned to regional Victoria so had no choice but to start her rehab program through telehealth. She was a compliant and motivated patient and was so excited to be able to get a service at all, as the alternative was staying at home for two weeks with nobody to assist with her rehab. Now I’ve completed some 20 programs through telehealth with outcomes just as good as face-to-face programs.
In your experience, what are the benefits of telehealth?
Telehealth outcomes can be just as good as, if not better than, face-to-face sessions. Everything can be done in the same 20-to-30-minute time slot, but clients don’t need to travel to a clinic, and we don’t need to struggle through traffic or over long distances to get to them That saves so much time. Thinking about people at work, they can have a telehealth consult at lunchtime without having to travel to and from a clinic or have a session in the early evening when they arrive home.
Telehealth provides a safe means of service delivery during health crises such as COVID-19. Clients, their families and clinicians are not exposed to the possibility of passing on or picking up coronavirus if they opt for telehealth.
Telehealth has extended the reach of our services. My clients hail from regional Victoria to the outer reaches of Western Australia and Queensland. I recently took a client through a hip replacement program when his only other option was a three-hour round-trip to Dubbo. Not the best thing for a brand-new hip!
Another unexpected benefit of telehealth is that people can see themselves moving. I have a client who is doing shoulder rehab and she could see on the screen what she was doing wrong and was able to correct it immediately. Another client invited her sons onto the call – one of them was interstate – so they could both be part of her rehab journey.
We’ve formed a core working group of Remedy Healthcare physios from around Australia who have embraced telehealth. These “telehealth buddies” invite physios new to telehealth onto calls so they can watch sessions and learn different techniques to produce high quality sessions, then shadow them on a call before they are considered to be Remedy Telehealth Ready.
Final thoughts?
Working as a physio provides many golden moments and we’ve had some really stellar ones in telehealth during COVID-19. One of our clinicians recently connected with a client who’s 104 years old. She said, “I never thought in a hundred years I’d be doing exercises off a screen”. There’s something about seeing a big smile on their face at the end of the session that makes it so rewarding.
To find out more about the range of telehealth services we offer, and to make a booking, click here.