Construction for Hydrotherapy Pools

Let’s face it – most physical therapists are not construction engineers, material experts, or maintenance managers.  Once you have made the decision to add a hydrotherapy pool to your list of modalities, how do you determine which type of pool to purchase?

There are four major type of construction for hydrotherapy pools: built in place (also known as a Gunite pool); molded fiberglass; vinyl liner; and pre-built tile.  While there is no perfect solution to construction type, it is helpful to understand the pro’s and con’s of each type prior to making a decision.  Whichever you choose, you will be living with the decision on a daily basis.

Gunite pools can be built after a building is framed in, and the surface has a reasonable life expectancy.  Workstation design is typically limited, and propulsion systems are also limited.  While basic hydrotherapy can be practiced in a Gunite pool (often at a hotel or a fitness center), the lack of propulsion and workstations limits the impact of this investment.

One might say that the development of contemporary aquatic therapy was ushered in through the development of the fiberglass pool.  Using this technology, the pool is shaped to include a range of integrated workstations, steps, and propulsion.  Aquatic treadmills have recently been added to many of these pools, giving them more capability.  Drawbacks include the need for periodic resurfacing, limited floor space and patient capacity, and a non-clinical appearance.

Vinyl liner hydrotherapy pools are built using a framework of steel sheets over which is placed sheets of vinyl.  Very popular recently, these pools can be installed in buildings where access is limited, they can be very cost-effective, and they come in a wide range of sizes.  Drawbacks include many health agencies will not approve them, the liners sage and need periodic replacement, and the design precludes both workstations and true propulsion.

Pre-built tile hydrotherapy pools are a unibody construction finished with tile that can be built in any form and shape.  Properly built with the right materials, a pre-built tile therapy pool will last more than twenty (20) years, they typically have significant flat bottom floor space, and easily incorporate various workstations, deep wells, and propulsion systems.  Drawbacks include an opening required to set the pool into place.

There is a choice in therapy pools that you will live with for many years.  Inform yourself by talking to a wide range of manufacturers.  You are invited to visit www.visionaquatics.com.  For more information and pricing, you may contact Doug Gregory either at doug@visionaquatics.com or at 616.957.4819.

Profitability in an Aquatic Therapy Program

Physical therapists have to be more concerned about how to drive profits now more than ever.  Everyone knows what is happening to operating costs, cuts in reimbursement rates, and the costs of working with insurance companies.  Just staying in business is hard enough.  Finding ways to increase physical therapy clinical profits is even harder.  Hydrotherapy offers clinics an opportunity to develop substantial profits, when done the right way.

Hydrotherapy, or aquatic therapy, remains a differentiating modality, as most clinics have decided not to invest into a pool for one reason or another.  Many clinics are land-locked, don’t have the internal training / expertise to support hydrotherapy, or don’t yet understand its benefits.  Useful for a number of treatments, patients can often enter therapy sooner in a hydrotherapy pool and require fewer visits to complete therapy.  Warm water therapy relaxes patients, making it easier for them to accept and practice their therapy.

Most clinicians practicing hydrotherapy believe they build patient and referral preference because of the satisfaction their customers feel with the mix of land and aquatic-based therapy.  Building the clinical brand and patient volume is one key area of increasing profits.

In many states, reimbursement rates for hydrotherapy can be as much as 40% higher than for land-based therapy.  While reimbursement rates continue to be cut, hydrotherapy continues to be a great option for increasing profits.

Why not invest into a hydrotherapy pool?  Most will cite the cost of the pool as a major stumbling block to adding this important modality to their practice.  Using the Vision Aquatics Free Cash Flow Analysis tool, it quickly become apparent that the investment into a therapy pool is not an issue.  At just 60 patient visits per week, the most expensive Vision Aquatics pool provides a return on all acquisition, installation and operating costs in under nine (9) months.  Three-year free cash flow is calculated at over $500,000.00.

Need to drive higher profits at your clinic?  Visit www.visionaquatics.com.  For more information and pricing, you may contact Doug Gregory either at doug@visionaquatics.com or at 616.957.4819.

Fitness Pools

The world of aquatics is taking a major step forward in moving beyond the conventional swimming pool as the preferred medium for aquatic fitness.  A brand new range of industry-defining aquatics fitness pools is ready to introduce to the worlds of aquatic fitness and aquatic therapy.  Utilizing water as fitness equipment is taking a giant leap forward.

The sports world has long valued the benefits warm water brings for athletes (human and animal) as a healing modality.  The stories of famous athletes returning to competition earlier than otherwise possible by using aquatic therapy are well-documented in a variety of publications.  Knowing that injuries can come not only through competition, but through training as well, the new range of fitness pools from Vision Aquatics acts as prehabilitation to prevent injury during the training process. 

This range of fitness pools are designed to support a wide range of users, from occasional geriatric exercising to highly-intense triathletes to bariatric group exercising.  Vision Aquatics fitness pools are designed to support specific activities, from general aquatic exercise to aquatic spinning to circuit training in a pool.  Now, aquatic therapy can be migrated into aquatic fitness in such a way that athletes and those in exercise programs can safely achieve their fitness objectives without subjecting themselves to the physical impact often associated with land-based exercise.

There are three types of fitness pools from Vision Aquatics, with each type having various models and options designed to specific applications.  Some level of aquatic therapy can be achieved in each of these pools, giving them a dual capability.

Open Water Fitness Pools feature multiple cross-pool propulsion systems against which users can walk, swim, spin, or do floor exercises.  The model shown has three different floor levels to support people of different height, and the benches have hydrotherapy jets for relaxing muscles.  This pool is for a wide range of users.

 

Open Water Fitness Pool – Multi-Level – 14’ x 30’ (below)

 

The Circuit Training Pools feature a range of exercise stations to support a wide range of activities and motions that train the entire body.  Deep water running, stair work, plyometric stations, swimming against current, spinning, running against cants and lateral skating are among the activities supported by this aquatic equipment.  This pool is for athletes in cross-training or for those seeking general fitness.

Circuit Training Pool – 10’ x 20’ (below)

The Sports Endurance Pool is for endurance athletes training in a safe environment with taking the physical pounding often associated with their sports of choice.  This aquatic equipment supports deep water running, spinning against propulsion, and swimming against propulsion while also offering plyometric exercises. 

Sports Endurance Pool – 10’ x 20’ (below)

What better way to supplement your investment into aquatic therapy than through providing aquatic fitness through Vision Aquatics Fitness Pools.  Of course, there is a long list of compelling reasons to invest in a Vision Aquatics aquatic fitness pool that you may want to check out.  These state of the art aquatic fitness pools are not yet ready to be viewed at www.visionaquatics.com.  But for more information and pricing, you may contact Doug Gregory either at doug@visionaquatics.com or at 616.957.4819.

Productivity in an Aquatic Therapy Enviroment

Vision Aquatics Therapy Pool

Aquatic therapy as a preferred modality for physical therapy is not new. Paths to build a profitable segment of your therapy business are undergoing significant changes, though, and understanding the productivity of an aquatic therapy pool as investment is taking new shape.

Productivity is defined as the measure of outcomes relative to the investment required to produce those outcomes. In the world of aquatic therapy, these can be measured both by clinical outcomes and financial outcomes. Both are important in measuring effectiveness and to providing an investment foundation.

Most aquatic therapy reimbursement requirements are based on a ratio of one therapist to one patient, while aquatic fitness and exercise can support one leader to many customers. So, the productivity of the therapist to patient is similar from one aquatic therapy pool type to another (although the efficiency of the therapist in one pool design may vary from that of another). Most clinical productivity, then, will depend on the breadth or degree of aquatic therapy that is supported by each pool design. The greater the number of differentiated clinical workstations in a pool, the better the propulsion system, and the more user-friendly the pool is, the greater will be its clinical productivity.

Business productivity in an aquatic therapy pool stems more from dividing the total investment required to purchase, install and operate a pool into the number of patient visits the pool will support over a period of time. Factors impacting this equation include the overall size of the pool (always measure as water surface area), the size of the pool bottom that is flat (where patients can be comfortable when not using a workstation), the number of available workstations, the number of patients that can receive individualized therapy (important for reimbursement acceptance), and other factors. Figure a minimum of 25 square feet per patient. When determining the number of patients that can simultaneously use a pool, we suggest using your own calculations instead of relying on manufacturer data.

Our experience indicates that properly managed programs using a Vision Aquatics therapy pool most often will repay the sum of the cost of the pool, the cost of installation, and the costs of staffing and maintaining the pool in less than one year. This is true due to the high productivity designed into each Vision Aquatics therapy and fitness pool.

The productivity of your investment into aquatic therapy is important. We know of no other pool on the market that comes close to the productivity achieved in Vision Aquatics pools. Of course, there is a long list of other compelling reasons to invest in a Vision Aquatics aquatic therapy pool that you may want to check out. These state of the art aquatic therapy pools can be viewed at www.visionaquatics.com. Or for more information, you may contact Doug Gregory either at doug@visionaquatics.com or at 616.957.4819.

Propulsion in Aquatic Therapy

Basic aquatic therapy can occur in a wide variety of aquatic environments, from the local Y to a swimming pool to a custom therapy pool with built-in workstations. The benefits of aquatic therapy in these environments are well-documented and widely-supported. What is not so well understood by the physical therapy community and referring physicians are the benefits of propulsion in aquatic therapy pools.

Propulsion adds to the range of benefits that can be offered in this important modality. Two key benefits for the clinician are progression and challenge. Controlled water propulsion normally offers the clinician the ability to predetermine and set the level of resistance created by the propulsion system to the abilities of the patient, gradually increasing the resistance as the patient gains in their treatment. Like adding weights to a progressing patient on land, adding resistance through propulsion in water is an important tool in progressing patients in water.

Propulsion in aquatic therapy pools can also be designed to challenge patients through addressing the various planes and attitudes through which a patient can improve their balance, their strength, and their endurance.

Additionally, propulsion in aquatic therapy pools replaces the need for aquatic treadmills by supporting the physical therapist in gait work and exercise. While a recent study at a major university has been trumpeted to validate the use of aquatic treadmills, the study did not test treadmills against propulsion systems, and there was no control group. Other industry experts believe that aquatic treadmills do not support natural motion, and that supporting patient needs utilizing propulsion and at times deep water gait training is more effective. Treadmills also take up significant floor space in aquatic therapy pools, space that cannot then be used for other protocols.

Propulsion takes many forms in aquatic therapy pools currently being marketed into the physical therapy industry. Badu jets are commonly used in some popular aquatic therapy pools, but the basically blow aerated water in a general direction, are difficult to target to the area of need, and their range of effective application is limited.

Forms of paddlewheel propulsion are also commonly used. These systems normally provide propulsion over the broad width of the pool, subjecting everyone in the aquatic therapy pool to its forces, whether they need it or not. While often described as providing laminar flow, the uneven nature of this delivery system combined with agitated wave action and aeration do not equate with use of the term “laminar flow” from an engineering perspective.

The TheraStream™ range of propulsion systems applied exclusively in Vision Aquatics pools provide truly laminar flow propulsion that is easily controlled, cleanly targeted, and instantly reaching targeted propulsion levels. These state of the art aquatic therapy pools can be viewed at www.visionaquatics.com. Or for more information, you may contact Doug Gregory either at doug@visionaquatics.com or at 616.957.4819.