PHYSICAL THERAPY
Contact us at 641-332-3810
Are you a new patient? Please print and fill-out the Initial Patient Survey form below and bring
to your first visit.
Initial Patient Survey
Guthrie County Hospital utilizes physical therapists and physical therapist assistants to treat people
of all ages, including newborns, children, adults and elderly individuals. They may consult and
practice with other health professionals to help you improve or restore the mobility you need to move
forward with your life.
What makes our team unique is our ability to treat patients in acute care, skilled care, in home, and
in the outpatient setting. We can see a patient for a medical condition through complete recovery.
Our facility is a new and continually changing place. Our building, which is located on the East side of
the hospital, is easily accessible and provides a friendly and community-oriented atmosphere.
Physical Therapy can help you with your:
• Arthritis and Osteoporosis
• Back, Knee, and Shoulder Pain
• Athletic Injuries
• Overuse Injuries
• Incontinence
• Orthopedic Issues (repairs and replacements)
• Stroke and other Neurological Problems (nerve damage, spinal cord injuries)
• Sprains, Strains, and Fractures
• Dizziness
• And much more
Evaluate and Assess
A physical therapist works together with your primary care physician to understand your medical
history and makes observations through routine tests, including muscle strength, sensation, and
range of motion. This helps develop personalized treatment and therapy goals.
Pain Reduction
Physical Therapists may use modalities such as heat, ice, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, light,
massage and soft tissue mobilization, traction, and stretching to reduce your painful areas.
Strengthening and Stretching Physical therapy can improve mobility, decrease pain in joints or soft
tissue, enhance circulation, and help you function better. With specific exercises that you can do at
home, Physical Therapy can help alleviate current conditions and prevent future injuries or declines in
quality of life. With specialized training in biokinematics and pathophysiology, physical therapists can
design individualized exercise programs for people with multiple medical problems, as well as for the
elite athlete.
Wound and Burn Care
Physical therapists can help treat pressure sores, open wounds, post surgical incisions, and burns by
promoting re-growth of normal tissue. They may utilize the use of whirlpools to help debride or
remove necrotic tissue.
Assessment for Walking Aids
Physical therapists can evaluate your situation and help you adjust to the use of braces, crutches,
walkers, wheelchairs, or other support devices to make you more independent and safe.
Education on Prevention Physical Therapists provide a key role in wellness
education such as:
• Teaching you how to prevent back pain and injury.
• Providing sports medicine education to help heal and prevent athletic injuries.
• Explaining job specific body mechanics in order to avoid work-related injuries.
• Advising new and expecting mothers with safe exercise techniques.
• Demonstrate ways to prevent re-injury.
Vestibular Rehabilitation
Physical Therapists can evaluate you for dizziness and positional vertigo and give you either
positioning techniques or exercises to help eliminate your symptoms.
Urinary Incontinence
Physical Therapists can assess and treat your issues of incontinence. Treatment for this may include
strengthening exercises for the pelvic floor, dietary changes (such as reducing foods and beverages
that may be contributing to the problem), bladder training, keeping a bladder diary, and use of surface
EMG to assess muscle control.
Gait and Balance Training
Physical Therapists can assess your stability and balance while upright. They may work with you on
strengthening exercises, coordination exercises, balance training activities and suggest assistive
devices if indicated.
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
Guthrie County Hospital utilizes an Occupational therapist to treat people of all ages, including
newborns, children, adults and elderly individuals. Our therapist enables people to live life to its fullest
by helping them promote health and prevent—or live better with—illness, injury or disability. An
occupational therapist works closely with other health care providers, such as nurses, physical
therapists and speech therapists.
Our occupational therapist works with patients in acute care, skilled care and in the outpatient
setting. We have the equipment needed to provide therapy for a variety of medical conditions,
such as:
• Post-surgeries
• Arm and hand injuries
• Deconditioned
• Autism spectrum disorders
• Developmental disabilities
• Neurological problems
An occupational therapist’s treatments include:
• Training for ADLs (Activities of Daily Living) such as eating, dressing, homemaking,
community activities
• Fine motor planning and functional skills
• Hand skills (improving motion, strength, coordination, and in-hand manipulation)
• Sensory integration (activities to help integrate the senses such as over-sensitivity to
sound or touch)
• Accommodation with adaptive equipment
• Ergonomic education and modification in home, work, school and leisure
• Splinting and Bracing
• Strengthening
• Problem solving
Speech Therapy
Guthrie County Hospital utilizes a Speech-Language Pathologist to treat people of all ages, including
children, adults and elderly individuals. A speech therapist evaluates and treats individuals with
speech, language, and swallowing disorders.
Common candidates for speech therapy:
Children with:
• Developmental delays
• Language disorders
• Learning disabilities
• Speech and hearing impairments
• Cleft palate
• Autism Spectrum Disorders
• Voice disorders
Adults who have or have had:
• Stroke
• Head injury
• Degenerative disease
• Dementia or cognitive impairments
• Cancer of head, neck and throat
• Voice disorders
• Difficulty swallowing
Language disorders
A SLP aids in the rehabilitation of language skills when an individual has difficulty understanding and
expressing language. Language disorders can affect the form, use, and content of language that
allow individuals to communicate in effective and socially appropriate ways.
Language disorders include:
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Aphasia
Language-based learning disabilities
Expressive and receptive language delays and disorders
Selective Mutism
Speech disorders
Speech disorders occur when an individual has difficulty with production of accurate speech sounds,
fluency, or voice and/or resonance. Therapy for speech disorders enhances the use of functional
communication and improves quality and intelligibility of speech.
Speech disorders include:
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Apraxia of speech
Dysarthria
Speech sound disorders
Voice disorders
Stuttering
Cognitive-communication disorders
Cognitive-communication disorders include difficulty with organizing thoughts, sustaining
attention,memory, planning, and/or problem-solving. The SLP works to rehabilitate these skills and
introduces and guides practice of compensatory strategies for success.
Common causes of cognitive-communication disorders include:
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Stroke
Traumatic brain injury
Degenerative diseases (Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis etc.)
Dementia
Social communication disorders
Individuals with social communication disorders have trouble with the use of social communication
such as greetings and commenting, following the rules of conversation, and adjusting communication
styles for different listeners and situations. Speech therapy enhances and promotes the use of
appropriate social skills.
People with social communication disorders may have or have had:
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Autism
Stroke
Traumatic brain injury
Swallowing disorders
The act of swallowing involves three stages: oral phase, pharyngeal phase, and esophageal phase.
Swallowing disorders can occur at any stage. SLPs work with individuals who experience problems
during the oral and pharyngeal stage(s). Difficulty swallowing can result in entrance of material into
the lungs, which can increase the potential for pneumonia. Rehabilitation of the swallow aims to lower
this risk and to create a more efficient swallow.
Common causes of swallowing disorders:
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Stroke
Traumatic brain injury
Degenerative diseases
Spinal cord injury
Cerebral palsy
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
AAC is the use of communication in a form other than oral speech. Those that experience severe
speech or language difficulties may benefit from the use of AAC to aid in communication. The use for
AAC ranges from low-tech to high-tech options that best fit the individual’s wants and needs. The use
of AAC does not discourage the use of speech and language development; rather it enhances the
use of functional and meaningful communication.
Examples of AAC:
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Picture, symbol, and alphabet communication boards
Electronic devices dedicated to communication
Speech output apps
For further information call 641-332-3810