Delaney Brummond

I decided to do my observation at Synapse Physical Therapy. Yes, I was there because I had to be, but I have been there before, many times, and have been observing over time. This most recent visit I focused even more on the movement and interactions between the employees and patients. I also was concentrating on how people interact differently with different employees.

People enter through the front door, as shown in the picture of the exterior of the building below. They pass the front desk (or go to the front desk if they need to talk to Sage). Then they do a U-turn and go back toward where the larger windows, unless they are getting evaluated for the first time. This is the main room. There are tables for people to be worked on, empty space, rolling chairs/laptop holders, and equipment.

Upon entry into the main room, the patient is typically greeted while the employee finishes up on their current patient. Unless it’s their first time, for the most part people know what to do during this time, and often there is one employee for every patient. If this is not the case this leads to some standing around of the patients, waiting for instructions from the employee.

There are limited social interaction barriers. The main room is shaped in a way that you can see most of the room from any point. This leads to a very social environment. Often times the entire room will be having one conversation, even if there are several patients and employees. All spaces are used, but some spaces are used less often than others. I have never seen the stair master been used. There are two tables in the middle that serve as personal items or smaller equipment holders. The junk drawer of the room.

As far as play or connectivity, there is already a LOT of connectivity. At first I was almost overwhelmed by the back and forth of the employees and the level of sass and often vulgarity of subjects. There is not a ton of room for play. There is a patient who often brings his dog in. This does lead to playing with the dog, which occurs in the largest space in the room, which is not very large.

Overall, there is a lot more that could be said about a variety of things about Synapse Physical Therapy, but this is what I have observed about the space, not getting too far into the social interactions/hierarchy.