What Physical Therapy Is Meant to Do
Physical therapy is intended to rehabilitate and restore normal physical function after an injury or when a medical condition affects movement. It should help a patient feel and return “back to normal”, the way they felt prior to experiencing pain and other issues. Physical therapy techniques help optimize the affected muscles, tendons, and joints, and bring about progressive recovery and healing through prescribed exercises and modalities that the patient diligently follows. By a certain point in the program, the patient should already notice improvements in their condition. So how can one tell if the program is actually working? There are three ways.
Feedback and Surveys
Having a patient answer a feedback or survey questionnaire provides a subjective review of the therapy program's effectiveness. Patients can be asked to rate how much better they feel or how “more normal” they feel during or after therapy, their own interpretation of the improvements they're experiencing. The questions in these surveys are carefully curated and based on medical and clinical research.
Testing With Machines
Machines that measure strength, such as an isokinetic dynamometer, provide an objective assessment of the therapy program's success. These machines determine the level of improvement in strength, flexibility, range of motion, and function, and the results are compared against the patient's baseline data from when therapy began, or against medical standards for a specific body function.
Actual Movement or Function Tests
Another way to measure improvement is through direct demonstration of the desired outcomes. A patient may be asked to perform key movements and functions such as walking, squatting, jumping, running, or pivoting. Being able to complete these tasks without pain, swelling, or limitation in movement helps the therapist determine progress and readiness to return to normal work or activity.
Combining All Three for a Full Picture
Using all three methods together provides the most conclusive view of a program's effectiveness, combining a patient's personal review with objective measurements and actual physical demonstration gives a holistic assessment. It's worth conducting these assessments throughout a therapy program to track progress over time. Any physical therapy program should move a patient toward their ideal level of function; if these assessments reveal poor progress despite diligence with the routines, the program may need to be revisited, or it may be time to consider a different provider.
Patients should also account for the typical time it takes tissues and bones to heal, and for muscles to rebuild flexibility and strength, improvement can take time, and gains may not be obvious every day. As long as exercises are done correctly and consistently, progress should follow.