What To Expect At Your Concussion Appointment

SPARCC appointments are thorough and detailed. This could lead to appointments taking up to 2-3 hours. Please allow for this time in your schedule.

At the beginning of each appointment, we ask you to fill out a symptom score sheet. This will help our providers know what to focus on in the appointment.

The check in process consists of taking vitals, checking your balance, and vision and takes about 10 minutes before you are roomed.

 

We are a teaching clinic with many medical, physician assistant, and nurse practitioner students who rotate with us. These students come into the room with you to do an initial evaluation before the provider comes in.

Due to all of the testing that we do, sometimes we run some of these tests before the providers see the patients. This way the providers can review the results with you at your appointment. We do our best to optimize everyone’s time so there is as little waiting time as possible.

Our tests include

Active Rehab: Exercise tolerance testing while monitoring heart rates. Please dress accordingly to exercise during your appointment, wear tennis shoes and appropriate clothing. This could include bike, treadmill, elliptical and multi directional exercises such as speed ladders. After exercise, we also take a series of orthostatic blood pressures. AR takes between 20-30 minutes.

 

Cognitive Testing: Impact and CBS are cognitive tests that we use to write iCAP, Individualized Cognitive Action Plan. These tests take between 20-30 minutes.

 

Ocular Motor Tracking: OMT is a vision test using virtual reality goggles to track eye movement and pairing. OMT takes about 10 minutes to run.

 

Qualitative Electroencephalogram: qEEG can test your brain voltage as well as reaction time. This tests takes about 20 minutes.

 

Rehab Therapy: Our athletic trainers can review vision, balance, and tension exercises with patients. He normally takes about 10-20 minutes with each patient that he works with.

Not all patients do every test during their recovery. You may repeat some of these tests over the course of your concussion. We are constantly looking for improvement and how we can adjust your care.

At the end of your appointment, please remember to check out with the front desk. They will be able to collect payment, schedule your next appointment, and set you up on our patient portal.

On our patient portal, you will be able to communicate with our providers and receive letters such as exercise tolerance and iCAPs. Please allow 24-48 hours when expecting a letter.

If you have any questions about your upcoming appointment, please call our office.