A sports injury clinic is a place designed to help prevent, manage, rehab, treat and heal athletic injuries. The reason that you want to go to a sports injury clinic over going to a regular family physician is that an understanding of sports is optimal for healthcare providers. For example, if you are an athlete and you have a game coming up on the weekend, but you are dealing with a hamstring injury, a family doctor will tell you to rest for a few weeks. At a sports injury clinic, they will do everything they can to get you ready to compete.
What Disciplines Work Out of a Sports Injury Clinic?
There are a lot of different types of healthcare professionals that can work out of a sports injury clinic. All that t requires is for that practitioner to focus more on sports injury and want to work with athletes more than the normal population. The types of providers include but are not limited to:
- Chiropractors
- Physical Therapists
- Massage Therapists
- Acupuncturists
- Registered Dieticians
- Naturopathic Doctors
- Osteopathic Doctors
What Type of Treatments Can You Expect From a Sports Injury Clinic?
The types of treatments or what we call skill sets can vary significantly from provider to provider. There are some general favorites among athletes. Skills can be picked up by any healthcare provider. If you are a physical therapist and you want to further your education, for example, they can learn any of the skills listed below.
- Active Release Technique (ART)
- Acupuncture
- Dry Needling
- Functional Movement Screen (FMS)
- Massage
- Graston Technique
- and many more
Health Care Skills
There is a massive list of skill sets that you can expect from health care providers with a focus on working with athletes. The more skill sets that a health care provider, the more tricks they will have up their sleeve to make sure that you are healthy and well.
The reason that healthcare provider skills are valuable is that it shows that someone is always learning. Going to school 20 years ago and graduating without an effort to learn more or be more is to the advantage of no one. You want a health care provider that is continually getting better and learning new things to help you be better.
The more skills a healthcare provider has, the more unique strategies they will have for fixing an injury. The reality is that not everyone responds the same to treatment. Some people get a massage and bruise; some people need an elbow in them to feel anything with a massage. You will see athletes that can ace the functional movement screen on the first try and others who can pass in one test. Let’s say a healthcare provider relies heavily on the functional movement screen and you come in and pass it on the first try. Then what do they do next? The more tools they have, the easier it will be to find another way to see the problem.
How Do You Find a Good Sports Injury Clinic?
9INE POINT Health is the best place to start when looking for a local sports medicine clinic. The reason is that 9INE POINT Health is the only place that allows you to search for healthcare providers by type and skill. Once you have found your optimal healthcare provider, 9INE POINT Health makes it as simple as possible to compare health care providers. The way this is done with 9INE POINT Health is through the 9INE POINT Number.
9INE POINT Health breaks it all down by skill when you are searching. No one else allows you to do this when searching for healthcare providers. 9INE POINT Health will enable you to find exactly what you need. There is no point in settling for a healthcare provider when you know that you can find better. If you know your favorite treatment is Graston, and you like working with Chiropractors, that is precisely what you should get! No matter what you need, you can find it so you can get back in the game.
What is the 9INE POINT Number?
The 9INE POINT Number is a number given to every health care provider so you can compare and gauge providers with a quick glance. If you want to dig into their profiles and learn more, you can, but 9INE POINT Health allows you to know who that is even worth it for.
The 9INE POINT Number takes into account three critical metrics:
- Ratings and reviews
- Engagement
- Insurances accepted
The reason these three things matter to you when looking for a good sports injury clinic is that they can dictate the type of service you will get and if you can pay for that service. A healthcare provider may have everything you want, but if they do not accept your insurance, maybe that is an automatic no for you.
Ratings and reviews let you know what other athletes in the 9INE POINT Health community think of the healthcare provider. Lastly, the engagement shows how active that healthcare provider is in 9INE POINT Health. It lets you know if they answer questions and post useful information.
Final Key to Finding a Good Sports Injury Clinic
The best place to start the journey is by knowing what you want. The second thing to do is be willing to ask questions and learn as much as you can. Everyone has different needs and expectations when they get treatment to deal with an athletic injury. Using the 9INE POINT Number to your advantage will get you in the door. There are a lot of great options out there; you have to narrow down the best one for you.
KHO Health was acquired by was acquire by 9INE POINT in the summer of 2019 and is now referred to as 9INE POINT Health.