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Telehealth

We offer telehealth appointments!

We are pleased to offer telehealth appointments to our clients who reside in Michigan and Illinois!

  • Prefer the convenience of having an appointment online, from your home or office in Michigan or Illinois?
  • Are you an existing patient who may benefit from touchpoints with Dr. O’Keefe in between your in-person appointments?
  • Do you live too far away to come in-person for an appointment, but would like the expert care, treatment and insights Dr. O’Keefe offers for your condition?
  • Would you like a combination of in-person visits and telehealth?
  • Feeling under the weather and would like to switch your appointment to telehealth instead of in-person?
  • Concerned about the coronavirus or other contagion and prefer visits via telehealth?

Our telehealth feature is easy to use, HIPAA compliant and offered through our secure patient portal. Each online appointment is encrypted and never recorded or stored.

Interested in scheduling a telehealth visit? Either click here to request an appointment or call our office at (616) 516-4334!

Many of our specialized pelvic health services can be implemented via telehealth. What can we cover and accomplish in a telehealth appointment? The following information gives you an idea:

  • Learning about what is going on! If this is your first appointment, we can complete history taking, learning about your goals, symptoms, aggravating and easing factors and medical history. These provide us a tremendous amount of information that informs our treatment plan, recommendations to you and understanding of what is happening with your pelvic floor, bladder and bowel and pelvic health. Are you experiencing overactive bladder, urge incontinence, stress incontinence, pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain, postpartum coccydynia, prostatitis-related pain, constipation, difficulty urinating, urinary frequency, endometriosis, pelvic organ prolapse, Pudendal neuralgia, low back pain, hip pain, groin pain or other condition? These are some examples of conditions we can help where your history taking, signs and symptoms and other things inform our plan of care and help us treat you.
  • Exercises, movements and methods to improve urinary incontinence, pelvic pain, pelvic floor dysfunction and other pelvic problems.
  • Neuromotor control exercises to teach you to coordinate your deep core, breathing, abdominal and back muscles to optimize bladder or bowel function and to help back, groin or hip pain. This can be especially beneficial for our pregnant and postpartum women or for anyone who has pelvic floor dysfunction (just about all of our patients!)
  • Exercises, strategies and neuromuscular reeducation interventions to calm down your overactive bladder, pelvic pain, prostatitis, constipation, fecal incontinence, urinary incontinence or other condition.
  • Postural and movement assessments and recommendations, including related to bowel and bladder habits, hip pain, back pain and urge urinary incontinence. We are able to see how you move and determine where you may have impairments and what and how to treat.
  • Functional strength assessments. Especially important for low back pain, hip labral tears, hip pain, pelvic floor dysfunction, postpartum care and more.
  • Exercise, movements, positional release and other methods specific to pelvic health to foster a reduction in high tone pelvic floor or to work towards enhanced pelvic floor function and strength. These are key to helping individuals with Pudendal neuralgia, persistent genital arousal disorder, pelvic pain, prostatitis, sexual intimacy pain (dyspareunia), vulvodynia, urinary urgency and frequency or other pelvic condition.
  • Pregnancy and Postpartum services such as safe and effective exercises to protect and recover your pelvic floor, abdominal wall integrity and postural alignment; C-section scar care recommendations; strategies and interventions to improve tailbone (coccydynia), back, hip or other pains; postural recommendations for feeding and lifting your baby and other functional activities.
  • Visual assessment for diastasis rectus abdominus (DRA) and, with our instructions to you, more detailed information can be gathered to inform the exercises and treatment recommendations we can provide you to address this.
  • Exercises to improve your DRA (separated abdominal muscles).
  • Teaching you to perform self-administered myofascial work to address your pain, trigger points, muscle tension or connective tissue restrictions. This provides you very useful techniques to help, among other things, ease your pelvic pain, abdominal pain, constipation, prostatitis pain, C-section or episiotomy scar tissue, urinary urgency and frequency and high tone pelvic floor.
  • Home exercise program instruction and completion. These are customized exercises based on your specific condition.
  • Might you benefit from using products? Which ones? dilators or vaginal trainers, abdominal binders, vaginal weights, specific lubricants, topical vulvar products, trigger point release tools, Kegel biofeedback or training tools, vibrational tools, a pessary, certain exercise equipment or cushions for sitting? We work with individuals with a variety of conditions who may benefit from using products such as these and our patients tell us they have no idea how to use them, what to buy, where to buy them or whether these will help or harm. Do you have pelvic organ prolapse, menopause related pelvic symptoms, pelvic pain, vulvodynia, Pudendal neuralgia, diastasis rectus abdominus (DRA), stress urinary incontinence, pelvic floor dysfunction, vulvar itching not related to an infection, chronic prostatitis pelvic pain? For these conditions and others the question about products comes up. Dr. O’Keefe can provide you personalized recommendations and instructions for how to properly use these that cut out your need to research and figure this out all by yourself.
  • Self-care and behavioral interventions: These are a hallmark of our in-person visits and easily translate to telehealth.
  • Heartrate variability coherence training, which can be beneficial for individuals with constipation, chronic pelvic pain, prostatitis, overactive bladder, vagal tone deficits and other conditions.
  • Dr. O’Keefe’s widespread knowledge, insights and recommendations for management of your condition and next best steps to take going forward. For example, if you have a pelvic organ prolapse, endometriosis, stress urinary incontinence, Pudendal neuralgia, persistent genital arousal disorder, prostatitis, overactive bladder, chronic abdominal or pelvic pain, what would she recommend for you? If surgery might be an option you are considering, what are her insights regarding this? What other options exist that she would recommend?
  • Former patients of Dr. O’Keefe who may have changes to their pelvic condition, need a review of their home interventions, or have questions may opt for telehealth. Together we can determine whether you also may benefit from an in-person visit.

What don’t I get with a telehealth visit? The nature of telehealth means we cannot provide you hands-on manual therapy and assessment. If we discover through our telehealth visits that you would benefit from hands-on care you can opt to schedule an in-person session, as well. If you live out of town and would like to travel to see us, we offer intensive experiences, including multiple appointments during one week, to provide you comprehensive care and treatment.

Interested in scheduling a telehealth visit? Either click here to request an appointment or call 616.516.4334. You may schedule either a one-hour evaluation, for first-time patients, or a 30 minute follow up appointment after you have been evaluated.

FAQs, what to expect and how to prepare for your telehealth appointment:

Technology FAQs:

  • We’ve made it easy for you to have a telehealth visit. There’s nothing to download and it’s easy to join your session. Before your telehealth appointment please be certain to do the following:
    • Set up your secure patient portal account at www.purplemountainpt.com. You will use this portal to have your telehealth appointment
    • If this is your first appointment with us, complete your intake paperwork online. You can find it through our patient portal.
    • We require your consent form, in particular, to be completed prior to the appointment.
    • Chrome or Firefox work best. You may use a computer, tablet or phone.
  • How to join your telehealth appointment:
    1. You have two options to join your appointment:
      1. Go to purplemountainpt.com
      2. Join through your email appointment reminder. 30 minutes before the appointment you can click on “Begin your online appointment” in the email you receive. Jump to Step 4, below, for the next step if you join via email.
    2. Login to our secure patient portal. Chrome or Firefox work best to do this.
    3. Click Begin: Once logged in you land on an “Upcoming appointments” page. Here, you will see your telehealth appointment with a colored button that says “Begin” with a video camera icon. Simply click this button. This button will appear 30 minutes before your appointment.
    4. Click: I consent, begin online appointment: Once you do this, you are nearly ready to go!
    5. Click Allow and Continue: A separate browser window opens and a pop-up to allow your audio and video emerges. Click allow and continue so I can see and hear you! Now we’re ready to get started!
  • Either person (you or your therapist) can join the appointment first. So, if you arrive early to your telehealth visit don’t worry if you don’t see anyone. Our therapists run on time and will be fully focused on you during your telehealth visit.
  • Troubleshooting video quality from within our telehealth platform: How to lower the video quality of your telehealth session to improve choppy video: If your video quality is choppy, we recommend you change your video quality to a lower resolution. This is easily done by clicking the 3 dots on the bottom right of your screen. You have an option to “manage video quality” and from here you can select a lower quality.
  • Troubleshooting video quality by addressing your internet speed from within your location: Be certain to turn off other streaming devices in your home or office. Turn off the TV before starting our appointment, for example! Tell your family members and roommates that, if possible, you need them off of the internet for the duration of your appointment. Close out other tabs in your Chrome or Firefox browser. Conduct your telehealth visit in an area of your location that receives good connectivity.

    • Tips to make your telehealth appointment go smoothly:

    1. Be fully clothed, as you may be asked to stand, bend, walk or move. You don’t want to be like the broadcaster who was on camera with a suit on top and underwear on bottom, which he unexpectedly revealed!
    2. Use a secure & stable internet connection. Prior to your appointment check your connectivity in the exact spot you plan to have your appointment.
    3. To optimize connectivity, during your appointment please turn off other uses of your internet, especially streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, etc.), game playing and other video platforms such as Zoom.
    4. If dogs, animals, lawn mowing or other noise generators might interrupt our communication, secure the animals and employ noise reduction efforts prior to your telehealth visit. You may prefer to wear earbuds to hear best.
    5. Have good lighting so I can see you. A lamp or window with sunlight in front of you helps! A lamp behind you can cause it difficult for me to see you.
    6. Have space to move and possibly lie down. You may be asked to lie down, squat, move or walk.
    7. Have a place to position your camera so we can see you! Some examples: if using a computer and you need to raise it up you might place it on top of a stack of stable books or riser. If using a phone or tablet you may benefit from a stand to hold it up. Being hands-free is optimal so you can move effectively.
    8. Choose a private location to have your telehealth visit because we will be discussing personal information.
    9. Equipment: We make do with the bare minimum and nothing is truly necessary. However, if you have a yoga mat, tennis ball, lacrosse ball, strap to stretch, light weights, yoga blocks, foam roll, minitramp or other equipment you think may be helpful, have it nearby.
    10. Payment: Payment is due at or before the time of service. We may require you to keep a card on file. Insurance coverage for telehealth services varies and, in some cases, has been expanded due to the coronavirus pandemic. We will provide you a receipt you may choose to submit to your insurance to work directly with them for reimbursement. Because each insurance policy is different, we make no assurances that your insurance will cover your telehealth visits and, therefore, it is your responsibility to contact your provider to understand your benefits.
    11. Illinois & Michigan requirements: Dr. O’Keefe is licensed to practice physical therapy in the states of Michigan and Illinois. During your telehealth appointment, you must be located within these states. At the start of the appointment we will verify your location’s address, please have it on hand.
    12. Is a prescription required? No! You can come directly to us to receive your care! Both Michigan and Illinois regulations allow for coming directly to your physical therapist without a prescription or referral. After a certain timeframe or under certain circumstances, a referral or prescription are required.

      13. Any other questions? Not sure if telehealth is right for your condition?
      We’re here to help you. Give us a call at (616) 516-4334!

      We look forward to meeting you, either via telehealth or in-person! We are your pelvic health solution center and by choosing Purple Mountain Physical Therapy, LLC you are partnering with a premier provider of pelvic health that offers you top-level patient-centered service and patient care. We promise to offer you our best!