We all have our pluses and minuses from this pandemic. My pluses include finding how much I enjoy working side by side my husband (we are sharing my office now) and when meetings are done via Zoom, the meeting seems to go much faster. The negatives are how much I miss traveling and seeing friends and family. And somewhere in between is the time I am spending with Beau my dog who has become my time keeper, reminding me when I have been sitting too long and need to get up and walk him.

The other plus has been what Pacific Rehabilitation Centers has discovered – we can take our injured worker programs anywhere in the state of Washington through the use of Virtual Conferencing. A few of our VTS (very talented staff) have been working endlessly and developed this ability and two weeks ago, Pacific began providing our Return-to-Work Pain Management program to injured workers in the safety of their own homes.

The Return-to-Work Pain Management program includes our interdisciplinary staff (medical, physical and occupational therapists, psychologists and vocational counselors) using Zoom Medical to teach classes, provide physical, and occupational therapy, group and individual therapy and individual appointments with our doctors. Patients participate in this program 5-6 hours per day, 5 days per week for 20 days (M-F). If patients need equipment, we loan it to them. If they have difficulty with the internet, we can help.

Injured workers pick up al needed supplies from one of our two clinics or we mail it to them. Surprisingly, many of the “weights” needed are found right in a patient’s kitchen! 5 pound bags of sugar or flour suddenly become 10 pound weights to lift in a crate. Tennis balls in a sock between the patient and a wall, are great at rubbing out sore muscles. A sock filled with rice and microwaved for a minute is now a heat pack.

Pacific’s Return –to-Work Pain Management program gets injured workers back in shape and reduce barriers that prevent them from returning to work. Injured workers living in under-served or rural areas now do not need to travel great distances for an evaluation or to participate in the pain management program. Accessibility is now available right in their own home. All it takes is a referral from your attending physician.

If you would like to learn more about Pacific Rehabilitation Centers, please read more about us or contact us.