Star Burned :: My Experiences with Star Physical Therapy and Fitness

		Star Burned My Experiences with Star Physical Therapy and Fitness
		Imagine going to your doctor for back pain that has been increasing in severity for the past several years. Your doctor checks you out and then recommends physical therapy. You are somewhat reserved about doing it, but you decide that if it will help make the pain stop it is worth it. You place your complete trust in the therapist and their staff and let them guide you to fixing your problems. One day you end your therapy session with a 2nd degree burn and no one really seems to care much about it. Where do you go from there? The information contained here is a result of my experiences with Star Physical Therapy and Fitness Located at 600 Park Avenue Marion Heights, PA. The above scenario is what happened to me. The story told is based on my experience. Your experience may be different. But, the information I am including here is information which I feel you should know about if you are considering trusting Star Inc. Physical Therapy and Fitness with your care. I have reflected on this for the past several months. It is February 2010 as I prepare this page and the incident that lead me to stop going to Star Inc. happened in early August 2009. During those 6 months, I have done a lot of thinking about this situation and have come to the decision to tell my story. The following is from both my memory and from notes that I made during the days and weeks following my final session. What Lead me to Star Physical Therapy and Fitness... I have been dealing with back issues for several years. After some x-rays a few years ago my Doctor told me that I have a condition called Spondylolisthesis. Spondylolisthesis is a condition in which a bone (vertebra) in the lower part of the spine slips forward and onto a bone below it. The result of this is that I find myself in pain after standing for an extended amount of time. The pain is in my very low back and extends across my hips and down my legs. When it starts, it doesn't stop until I do something to alleviate it (bend, squat, stretch, sit, etc.). Even then, it only makes it go away for a short time. Once I resume a standing position, the pain returns. Some days there is less pain than others, but it is always there. When I have to stand for more than 30 minutes at a time, I am pretty much guaranteed to be useless for at least the next day because I will be so tight and sore from it. Before June of 2009 the pain wasn't quite as severe all the time. I just dealt with the pain as I was still able to get things done. In early June my dad passed away. He had been dealing with a lot of issues that went back to 1975 when he had a stroke that took a real toll on him. After my dad's passing, I tried to do more. I did more around the house, out in the yard, etc.. I overdid it and really did a number on my back to the point where I could barely even stand up without intense pain instantly shooting through my low back. Now, I had to deal with this issue. I went back to the Doctor and he suggested therapy. It sounded like a good option as I am not really a fan of taking pills or getting needles stuck into my back. He gave me a referral to Star Inc. Physical Therapy and Fitness in Marion Heights, PA. I thought was great at the time, because it is right down the road. People skills aren't a pre-requisite for owning a business... I had my first visit sometime around mid June. I can't recall the exact date but I know I had a session or 3 in before my father's memorial service which came later in the month because my sister was out of the country at the time. On my first visit, I met with Tom Swaldi. He co-owns Star Inc. Physical Therapy and Fitness with his wife Lori Swaldi. The meeting went well. Tom assessed my movement, had me do a few stretches and gave me an overview of what they would be doing for me. I scheduled some additional appointments and went home. I started going 3 times per week. I would spend between 10 - 20 minutes on a Total Body Recumbent Bike and then do several repetitions of stretches for my thighs, hamstrings and abs. Now, let me point out here that I am not a small man and exercise isn't generally something that enters into my vocabulary. That being said, I approached this situation as being a good way to get rid of my back problems and hopefully get myself into a little better shape. I did what they told me and I tried hard to make this work because I fully believed the people at Star Inc. Physical Therapy and Fitness had their patients best interests at heart and knew what they were doing. I felt better physically and mentally with the exception of the intense back pain that I still had. But overall I looked at what was happening in a positive way and welcomed the opportunity I had to try and make myself better with the help of Tom and Lori Swaldi and their staff at Star Inc. After a few sessions I started having some pain in my lower legs. More to the front and sides than in the back of my legs. I made some mention of it and then went on with my exercise figuring the old adage of no pain, no gain was something I would have to get used to in order to make my back better and hopefully get myself a little more fit in the process. Starting with the second or third session, Lori Swaldi would call me Ira. I had no clue why that was. But, every time I went in there and she was there, she would refer to me as Ira and would have to be corrected by one of the other staff members saying that's not Ira. I figured it out a few weeks later after I had already formed my opinion about the type of person Lori was. I was on a treadmill next to Ira. He was a big guy like me. I guess us fatties all look alike. Sorry, But if you are the owner of a business and charging someone more than $1000 per month for your services, you owe them the respect of getting their name right from day 1, not having to be corrected by your staff over the course of multiple visits. ... But knowing when to keep your mouth shut should be ... Anyway. Like I said. I had already formed my opinion of Lori Swaldi by the time I figured out who Ira was and why it was that Mrs. Swaldi had been calling me that. I might point out that apart form the two of us being big guys, Ira and I look nothing alike. I won't tell you what my opinion is of her, as that doesn't really belong here. I will however share with you the experience that helped me form my opinion. My opinion of Lori Swaldi was formed in late June. I remember it rather clearly. I am pretty certain the date was Friday June 26. The reason I remember the day is because it was the day after we had my Dad's memorial service. I had an afternoon appointment at Star Inc. and went in to do my normal routine. At this point I was still using the bike. I did whatever I did that day and was in one of the rooms up on a table doing my leg and hamstring stretches. At Star Inc., They have several rooms with tables and some equipment as well as a full gym area. One of the rooms is a balance room where they do work with patients who have balance issues including those who have had strokes. I was in the other room right across from their main desk with a few other people on this day. From what I could see, the general routine at Star was that you were shown an exercise and set on your own to do the reps. After the first day or two of exercises. No one really supervised or gave advice on whether I was doing things properly or not. In any case, I was going through my routine and Lori came into the room from another room and said rather loudly how happy she was to be in the room with the patients who know how to do their exercises and not with the ones who go to the bathroom on themselves. She then went into a conversation with one of the other therapists in the room. I was floored. Simply awestruck that the owner of this business was coming into a room with patients in it and making a comment such as this. Whether you feel this way or not, you don't ever make a comment like that in front of your clients. Who knows what issues their family members have. In my case, my father had a stroke when I was 2 years old and could have easily been one of those types of patients who went to the bathroom on themselves. Yet, here was Lori Swaldi, one of the owners making a comment like this. This is the type of comment you reprimand an employee for making. As the owner of a business, you don't ever say things like this in public. EVER! I wasn't sure what to do. I finished my session and spent the weekend reflecting on her comments. I decided since I didn't really have to deal with Lori Swaldi during my sessions I would leave it go and continue doing my sessions in the hopes that my back issues would work themselves out. I had a lot of hope and had already put in several sessions and did not want to lose the little progress I felt I was making at that point. Unfortunately, pleasant doesn't always equal professional ... I should point out that most of the other therapists and staff I dealt with at star were pleasant. MOST of them (more on this later). Unfortunately, pleasant doesn't always mean professional. It seemed that most of the staff would rather sit and talk amongst each other than actually monitor and advise the patients on whether or not they were doing their exercises properly. It was very rare that I had someone explaining to me whether or not I was doing things right or how I could better improve what I was doing. I think for the $1000+ per month they were billing my insurance they could have and should have done a hell of a lot more. I continued going to my sessions. At one point in July after complaining again that I was a bit sore from the recumbent bike, I was reprimanded by Tom Swaldi for not saying something to them. I didn't argue. But, all I could think was how a week or two earlier I had pretty much said the same thing to someone else. I don't remember who it was at this point. Another thing I noticed was the procedures at Star Inc. Physical Therapy and Fitness were not always followed as they should be. Patients were supposed to initial a chart after each session. I was rarely presented with my chart to initial it. I think I did this 4 times during my 2 months of sessions. I didn't always have the same therapist, which was fine. But it didn't seem as though there was much communication between the therapists and it certainly didn't seem like my progress was ever being reviewed. After complaining about the bike for the second time, I was switched to the treadmill and and decided to cut my sessions down to 2 times per week. I was given more stretching exercises to do which extended the length of each session to between 1.5 and 2 hours each. I spent the next few weeks starting with the treadmill and then doing my other exercises. Things were going ok, although I was still having the issues with my lower legs. I never really had those issues before I started going to Star Inc. I still have them to this day though. I'm not sure what caused it and I haven't been back to a doctor since the incident I am about to to describe. So, I am not sure what is causing the pain. Estim treatment turns into shockingly hot experience ... Starting with my first session I would relax at the end of the stretching exercises for about 20 minutes with a heat pack on my back. On my third or fourth session one of the therapists, Matt O'Brien said that he had wanted me to try out something called Estim or TENS. It was an electrical stimulation unit where they attached small pads to your back that gave tiny jolts of electricity. I said ok. After all I was trusting these guys to do what was needed to help my back pain be gone. The heat pack and T.E.N.S continued at the end of almost every session. At one of my sessions in July I had asked the therapist for a second towel to place over the heat pack. Generally the pack was placed inside a pillow case. I made the comment that it felt as though my insides were being cooked. It still seemed really warm with the extra towel. But, not as though it was cooking my insides. I skipped the TENS unit for the next two or three sessions because I wasn't sure that it was providing any added relief and I wanted to see the difference without it. During these sessions, the heat from the pack was barely noticeable through the extra towel. On my next visit, which would be my last. I decided to have the TENS treatment and to try the pack without the towel again figuring that based on my previous observation they had adjusted the time they were microwaving the pack. After a few minutes I had felt some discomfort, but not a burning feeling, from the pack and adjusted it figuring it was in a bad spot because it was a little higher than where I normally placed it. I also had a good deal of pain in my very low back and right hip because of the exercises I did during that day. I pulled the heat pack lower while raising my hips so I could have the heat closer to the problem spot. I commented to Matt that while I was making the adjustments it felt as if the Estim had become loose on the right side because I was no longer feeling it. I Was asked to sit up by Matt and he adjusted the 2 stim pads that were attached to my right side while the stim was still running. While sitting I had noticed that the stim felt much different than it had when I was laying down. It hurt and felt as though it was doing something different. I commented on that and was asked to lay back down after some adjustments. There was still some issue with the stim not being on properly because I wasn't feeling the same intensity in the right side as the left. After some further adjustment of the wires, it seemed to kick on. Matt suggested to one of the girls working there that the pads needed to be discarded. I guess he meant after I was done as they were still on my back and no one made any moves to get them off. Now, the heat pack was lower and under the place in my back (right above my butt) that I had been trying to get it to so I finished out my session. I didn't feel any real discomfort from the pack any further but did notice a slight pain and general tightness slightly higher in my back where the pack had been and one of the TENS unit patches was attached. I just figured that was because of how it was previously placed and also from my exercise during the session as I pushed myself a little harder to do more that day. After finishing, I made an appointment for the next week and went home. After getting home I had some lunch and then went to talk with my wife. After talking to her for awhile, I made a comment that my back was bothering me and it was a weird pain that was different from the normal pain I usually feel in my back. She had a look and said that it looked as though I had been burned by something in multiple locations. Because of the location on my back it was next to impossible for me to see the burns, even while looking into a mirror, so I had her take some pictures with the digital camera so that I could see the burns better. I was very surprised at how bad they looked and not being sure whether it was the heat pack or the Estim and not wanting the same to happen to anyone else, I went back up to Star Physical Therapy and Fitness and asked for Alicia as she was the person who had been helping me get setup with my exercises and also set me up with the Estim and heat pack. A picture is worth a thousand words ... If a picture is worth a thousand words.. here are two of them. The picture on the left is from the day it happened. It was the first picture my wife took of the burn so I could see what it looked like. The picture on the right is from the Sunday right after the burn had occured. "I guess you did get burned" ... "sorry about that" ... The girl who was at Star Physical Therapy and Fitness when I got there, her name was Sammy, informed me that Alicia had left for the day. I proceeded to tell her that I had been burned during my session and that I wasn't sure whether it was the heat pack or the Estim that did it. She seemed irritated at the fact that I was even there and bothered by the fact that I was talking to her about this. She mumbled something about the Estim, not sure what exactly she had said, I proceeded to show her the burns on my back to which she said "I guess you did get burned" and I told her I was concerned that this had happened and didn't want to see it happen to anyone else and she told me "sorry about that". Hoping to have some suggestions as to how to take care of the now painful burn on my back and seeing her indifferent attitude toward the whole situation I left and went home to call my doctor to see if I could have the burns looked at. After calling, I realized they had already closed for the day and after some consideration as to how severe the burn appeared and persuading by my wife, I decided I should go to the emergency room to have it looked at. The doctor told me I had a second degree burn, treated me and gave me some pills and some care instructions. I went home and later that night I sent an email to the address listed on Star's web site figuring that these people needed to know about this. That was Friday evening. The web site for Star Inc. lists hours on Saturday until 4:30 and Sunday until 6PM. After talking with some family members, I was told that I should have been made fill out a form at Star when I informed the girl about my burn on Friday. When I hadn't received a response from my email by Sunday afternoon, I went back to Star and Sammy was again the only person there. I took my wife with me this time so she could be a second set of ears and eyes for me. I informed Sammy that I had been told I should have filed a report. Her response to me, "for what?". I told her the report should have been filed for the burn I had received Friday. She mumbled some things, rolled her eyes, held her hands palms up as if to inform me that she had absolutely no clue what I was referring to and then asked me to come back the next day. Frustrated beyond belief at the complete lack of professionalism by the worker in charge of running this place, I told her no, she should call whoever she needs to call in order to figure out what needs to be done because I wanted this dealt with. She got a list with phone numbers from in a desk drawer and started dialing. She dialed what seemed to be 3 or 4 numbers. She didn't leave a message on any one of them. I found it quite surprising that none of these people had voice mail. Frustrated and sore, I stood to leave and told her to cancel all of my future appointments and to have someone call me the next day. At this point I had spent two days with little sleep and was unable to work. The burn was towards the middle of my back and hurt like mad. I was unable to relax because it had caused my back to tense up and anytime I tried to sit back in my chair or lay down, it hurt more. Here, I was going to Star Inc. Physical Therapy and Fitness to get the issues with my back fixed and I ended up with a whole new set of problems on top of the original problems that still existed. ... There was a call from Matt the next day. I was not at home and he left a message. I got back to him later that day. He told me he had first heard about the incident that morning and then checked the email and noticed my email to them. He was apologetic and surprisingly professional. Too bad it had to get to this point for someone to be professional. He asked that I come in to talk with him about the issue, which I did later that day. When I got there, I was taken to a room by Lori Swaldi and Matt. When I first went into the room, It was my wife and I with Lori. She expressed concern as to how I was treated by one of her employees but not so much as to the fact that I was burned. She told me that Sammy had been terminated. I made it clear that I wasn't only disappointed in how it was handled, I was also upset that it had even happened and it was something that should have never happened. I was told in the 6 years they have been in business, they have never had anyone get burned like I was. When I inquired as to whether or not a report should be filled out. I was told that had they observed the injury at the end of my treatment, that a report would have been filled out. But because they hadn't observed it. No report was filed. Kind of hard to observe an injury when you aren't there to check on the patient. I had ended many sessions when no therapist was available to assist me. I ended up removing the pads from my own back and leaving as was the case with this session. By this point, Matt had entered the room I should make note here that during the previous 2 days I had done some research to try and figure out what might have caused the burns. Whether it was the TENS unit or the heat pack. I was surprised to learn that TENS units were known to cause burns on people if the pads were not changed regularly. (flash back to the point where Matt made mention to another employee that the pads needed to be replaced when I made a comment about how it didn't feel right.) I was never informed that these things had issues like this or I would have never agreed to use it. During the meeting with Lori and Matt, I made a comment that I had read about TENS units burning people because of overused or bad pads, Matt argued with me. He also tried to argue that the pads weren't bad which is when I questioned him as to why he told another employee they needed to be changed. He claimed they needed to be replaced after my session. If you knew they were bad... and needed to be changed after the session, why not do it right then and there? Compassion isn't just a word you can throw around ... Several times during this meeting with Lori Swaldi and Matt O'Brien at Star Physical Therapy and Fitness I was told by Lori how sorry she was for the way I was treated and it was uncalled for. Still not saying much about the fact that I was burned while at her facility. She said that they were compassionate people and they cared about their customers. com - pas - sion --noun 1. a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. Compassion wasn't one of the emotions I was feeling during my sessions. It certainly was not something that was displayed during my experiences with the person who was now throwing it around. The meeting ended and I went home with a sick feeling in my stomach. I had spent more than 2 months working 2 and 3 times a week. I was feeling some improvement from the intense pain that drove me to PT in June and was looking forward to getting more in shape and hopefully fixing the issues with my back. I trusted these people implicitly to be professional and to use their expertise to help me resolve those issues. Instead they betrayed my trust and ended up causing me more issues. It took two weeks after getting burned before I was able to sleep well at night or sit back in my chair. I am self employed. As a result of the burn and lack of sleep and not being able to sit in my chair for two weeks, I missed work opportunities and lost a client. This resulted in many other issues that I don't care to get into on this page. I still have a scar from the burn and I still have more issues with my back that I believe are a result of the burn or the stress caused by the burn. So, in the end. I spent countless hours over the course of two months, my insurance spent thousands of dollars and I'm not really any better off than before I started going to Star Inc. Physical Therapy and Fitness. Yes, the intense pain that was in my back when I first started going stopped. However, the pain that still exists is worse than it used to be. I don't really have good days anymore. Just days where the pain isn't terrible. I missed work opportunities to go to my sessions because I felt the long term gain would outweigh the short term loss. In the end, there was no long term gain. Only loss. So, that's MY experience with Star Physical Therapy and Fitness. As I said in the beginning of my rambling, I have spent the past several months thinking about this experience. It caused me a lot of mental and physical pain. It is something that, in the end, I think needs to be shared with people so they can make an informed decision about the care they receive. I hope with this information you are able to make an informed decision and do not end up with the same results as I did. If after reading this, you do choose Star Inc. Physical Therapy and Fitness. Please, be careful that you don't get burned.