WAYNE – A new piece of equipment is allowing the therapy department at Providence Medical Center to utilize another tool during their therapy sessions.
Physical Therapist (PT) at PMC, Michele Albers, DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy) and a northeast Nebraska patient, Harlan Thompson have been working together for the past month with this new equipment. From Solo-Step, Inc., the overhead track and harness system is another tool that PMC has assisting patients in their rehabilitation process.
Albers said they talk to the patient and if both parties agree that they’ll benefit from the equipment, it’ll be used.
“So, it’s very patient specific,” said Albers. “Just basically to get them moving and get to walking sooner. Anybody for any weakness, anybody with poor balance. A lot of people can really benefit from it.”
Other patients also use the overhead track and harness system.
Thompson is on his second stroke and was at the therapy department when PMC had the track installed before he was in the harness the following week. He’s in the harness and goes through therapy three times a week and has been in the harness for about 10 sessions.
Thompson added he’s felt improvement in his day-to-day activities with his ability to walk.
“Balance seems to be the difficulty for me,” Thompson added. “Some days are better than others that comes from the stroke. I also had hip surgery, replaced a ball and socket. So, we have two things going on here and this has helped.”
Thompson has also been to another facility that has the Solo-Step harness.
Albers feels they’re able to do some of the more challenging obstacles sooner because they have the harness system for support.
“His sessions probably would have been more of us using the gate belt, in the parallel bars,” Albers mentioned. “We would not have been doing the kicking, we would not have been doing some of the stuff that’s more challenging we wouldn’t get to quite yet.”
The Solo-Step is 30 feet in length and was installed on October 14.
More information will be provided in another release about the new Solo-Step overhead track and harness system in the therapy department at PMC.
For questions, contact the therapy department at 402-375-7937 or visit providencemedical.com.