Physical therapists kept in touch

QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 24, 2021 Page 24

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Physical therapists had the right touch

Telehealth visits were one answer for patients who stayed home

by Mark Lord

Chronicle Contributor

As many businesses, particularly small, privately owned ones, struggled to stay open during the Covid-19 pandemic, that time-honored proverb “Necessity is the mother of invention” began taking on increasingly meaningful relevance.

Witness the cases of Dr. David Jung, owner of Lion Physical Therapy, and Dr. Teddy Neamonitis, owner of Millennium Physical Therapy. As specialists offering hands-on healthcare services, they faced certain pandemic challenges that some other business people did not.

Jung opened his office in Long Island City just two and a half years ago. He prides himself on working one-on-one with each patient, with treatments that range from deep connective tissue massage and joint mobilization to deep muscle therapy and therapeutic exercise.

Overnight, all that seemed to change, and Jung, known to his patients familiarly as Dr. David, had to come up with ways of staying connected to them, eventually relying to a large extent on the telehealth approach.

“I helped guide the assessment and self-treatment,” he said, admitting, “It was very hard to diagnose because I wasn’t physically there.” Poor lighting and camerawork in patients’ homes often added to the challenge. In addition, many patients simply didn’t have space in which to do their exercises.

So, Jung became what he described in a recent telephone interview as “super-creative.”

Dr. David Jung works with a patient at Lion Physical Therapy in Long Island City, left. At right, the equipment at Millennium Physical Therapy, owned by Dr. Teddy Neamonitis, inset. COURTESY PHOTOS

He advised his patients on how to use items found around the house to help them with their workouts: fruits, particularly heavy ones, became their makeshift dumbbells; heavy boots were used as ankle weights.

Jung said his office never fully closed during the pandemic, though for a time it was open only two days a week as opposed to the usual six.

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C M CEL page 25 Y K Physical therapy during Covid

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“I did everything I could to keep the ship afloat,” he said.

He admits it wasn’t easy. He found himself dipping into his savings to pay the rent, while also receiving some financial help from family.

Jung recognizes that, during the pandemic, “I had too much time on my hands.” So, he “studied a lot of marketing and listened to podcasts,” which he found very helpful in his line of work. “We all shared what we were going through,” he said. And he also took some online courses.

“I had to make a lot of changes,” including “getting the word out to my patients to help them feel a little more at ease” about returning to his office, he said.

“People were scared to come out of their houses,” he said. “It took awhile. Now, the business is fully open again.

Looking back on the past 15 months, Jung said, “It was a period of growth. I came up a little stronger.”

Neamonitis, like Jung, offers one-on-one care to his patients. He provides orthopedic and sports physical therapy, treatment of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, fitness and strength conditioning and other services. He faced similar obstacles during the past 15 months and has, likewise, emerged from the pandemic seemingly unscathed.

“One of the biggest challenges was being able to stay open and available to our community,” he said in an email interview. Dr. Teddy, as he is commonly referred to by his patients, has two offices, one in Astoria and the other in Brooklyn.

“We saw a decrease in clients, as many refrained from coming in for the treatment they needed” during the pandemic, he said. Naturally, that “affected our cash flow.”

The financial burden was at least partially relieved when the business was approved for a Paycheck Protection Program loan “to help maintain our staffing needs.”

In addition to the cash crunch, Millennium Physical Therapy had some trouble obtaining enough personal protective equipment early in the crisis, Neamonitis said.

Nonetheless, the business persevered.

“We knew how important it was to stay open, especially in the beginning,” he said, with patients who were dealing with postsurgical issues or injuries in need of immediate attention to prevent their conditions from worsening.

But many patients were reluctant to appear in person, he said. What to do?

“We offered teletherapy to patients who were able to be guided to perform exercises remotely,” Neamonitis said. The approach captured approximately 50 percent of his patients during the first few months of the pandemic, he said.

“In the past few weeks we have seen a significant increase in our visits,” as patients feel more comfortable being out, he said. Q

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