04/02/2020
I am Dr Brian Mabrey DPT, and this message is an emergency. Throughout NYS outpatient physical therapy, often considered tertiary care and elective, remain open and treating patients. At this time responsible physicians have switched to telemedicine and my dentist declined to see me for a broken cap to comply with quarantine, stay home regulations and avoid the probability of unnecessary exposure. The outpatient physical therapy clinics are of an elective nature with ankle sprains, shoulder sprains and lower back pain. From my experience most physical therapy clinics in the NYS area schedule 4-6 patients an hour, per therapist in addition to physical therapy assistants and physical therapy aides. COV-19 can survive on physical therapy gym equipment and I have witnessed first hand,the lack of any PPE, including poor disinfection procedures. The disinfectant applied to the equipment lacks the appropriate amount of stay time to be effective to kill the virus. The outpatient physical therapy clinics are the next hot zones for COV-19 transmissions. Often they are overcrowded, using communal gym equipment and lack social distancing. I have been calling hotline numbers on government agency websites only to be continuously redirected or told this is a county or city matter not a state matter. Please hear my message, as the large part of the patient population in physical therapy are those at risk. If no action is taken, my worst fear of case scenarios will probably be our outcomes.
