How To Choose a Good San Diego Physical Therapist

Picture this: You go to the doctor for leg pain, and the doctor gives you a referral to a physical therapy clinic. Once home, you Google the physical therapy clinic the doctor referred you to and realize the clinic is not in a convenient location. This happens often. As long as you have a doctor referral you, as a patient, have a choice where you would like to receive physical therapy treatment. As long as you have a PPO insurance plan, Tricare, Medicare or choose to pay our cash rate (in the case that you do not wish to use insurance benefits), Mizuta & Associates is always an option!

One of our patients who lived in the SDSU area went to see a specialist doctor for her knee. This doctor was located in La Jolla and referred her to the physical therapy clinic at this location. The patient traveled twice a week to La Jolla from the SDSU area, about 17 miles each way. Had this patient known that she had the option to go attend the clinic of her choice, she would have picked a clinic near SDSU. Not only was this trip an extreme inconvenience, the patient was rarely seen by the same therapist and had to pay for parking.

At Mizuta & Associates a relationship is built between each patient and his or her therapist. The physical therapists at our clinic are often referred to as coaches and the relationship between the “coach” and the patient is important, allowing the patient to feel like he or she is supported on a team. Patients have given us feedback with analogies like this. We believe the relationship between the patient and the therapist helps the patient establish trust and ultimately speed up recovery.

Physical therapy clinics similar to the clinic discussed in the above scenario often have a huge patient load and end up booking their patients weeks out and making them wait for treatment. It can be extremely inconvenient for patients who need physical therapy to be told that they may need to wait weeks for treatment. If more patients know they have the choice to go to a physical therapy clinic other than the one their doctor refers them to, this would ultimately speed up the recovery process for those patients having a hard time getting on the schedule or having to drive a distance for treatment.