Patient evaluation is vital to chiropractors and physical therapists. The assessment gets conducted using various evaluation tools and software, which provide an accurate diagnosis. Accurate diagnoses enable proper treatment and therapy. This post presents a few of the standard evaluation equipment and tools and factors that you should consider when buying such tools for your practice.
Examples of Chiropractic and Physical Therapy Tools Used in Patient Evaluation
Inclinometers– These are evaluation tools used to measure the ROM (range of motion) of a patient’s movements. These tools also measure extension and flexion without repositioning or stopping. The common inclinometers include digital dual inclinometers with a physical assessment software known as the range of motion software and single bubble inclinometers.
Muscle Strength Testing Equipment – These equipment get used to diagnose muscle strength improvement or functional losses with treatment. They have an excellent resolution in tracking the progress of your patient. Algometers – An algometer is a tool used to quantify muscle tissue tenderness.
Activator Adjusting Instruments – These are tools used in the activator chiropractic technique to diagnose and treat headaches, neck pain, and different kinds of back pain. The device delivers gentle impulses of force to the spine to restore motion in targeted joints and spinal vertebra.
Chiropractic Tables – These are different kinds of adjustable tables used during physical evaluation or diagnosis and therapy sessions. The tables allow your patients to lie in different positions and to make a varying range of motions during physical evaluations.
Considerations to Make When Choosing Ideal Evaluation Equipment
Here is what you should know
Need
Using digital dual inclinometers with physical assessment software for your patients’ ROM may be quick and easy. But a digital dual inclinometer costs more than the simple single bubble inclinometer. Yet, the single bubble inclinometer can take the same measurements.
But do you need a digital dual inclinometer with a physical assessment software? The dual digital inclinometer is ideal when you have many patients to handle, and you need a tool that will assist in facilitating high-speed data handling and assessment. But if you have less to spend for a startup clinic with a few patients, then a single bubble inclinometer may be ideal for your present needs. So, when making decisions, ask yourself whether you ‘want’ a specific tool, or do you ‘need’ it.
Credibility
When advanced state-of-the-art medical equipment hits the market, most practitioners may get drawn to it. For instance, chiropractic or physical therapy equipment with physical assessment software is more hi-tech than traditional chiropractic tools used before the integration of computerized systems. But this doesn’t imply that they are the best equipment. You should be sure that such devices have undergone thorough testing to ensure that they’re accurate, value-adding, and safe.
Usability
It beats logic to buy equipment that will not get used often. For instance, there is no need to buy a specialized chiropractic table for pregnant women, if you’re less likely to get pregnant women as part of your clientele. If you may get a few pregnant women, then it’s advisable to send them somewhere for their care or evaluations only on the rare occasions that you get such patients. Skip buying any evaluation equipment that will have no regular use.
Customer Support
Some of the evaluation tools are complex to use, and some will need to get serviced at some point in their lifetime. You may also need help with the sophisticated physical assessment software integrated into most equipment if you lack IT expertise. You should thus buy tools from suppliers who provide customer support and service, which you may need when the machine fails to work well.
Approximately 4% of Americans will consult a chiropractor before seeing a medical doctor when having lower back pain. As a chiropractor, you’ll need essential evaluation tools to conduct thorough evaluations and diagnoses. Proper diagnosis and evaluation ease the initiation of appropriate treatment. As such, always go for the best tools to determine your patients’ conditions with high accuracy. By considering the cited factors in this post, you can make prudent decisions in your equipment buying bid.
