COVID-19 slowly started shutting down the world in February 2020 and for the majority of businesses to stay open during the pandemic, they have had to adapt, pivot and innovate – FPES included. Almost 18 months on and these adaptations have helped put the business in a position where we can operate either in-person or remotely at any given moment.
So how did FPES survive COVID? As a whole, we were able to adapt extremely quickly throughout the lockdown periods thanks to our team of agile professionals moving to the now common “working from home” arrangements, ensuring we could continue to serve our clients’ needs, albeit remotely.
Our pre-employment assessments are performed by a national network of approved and fully qualified physiotherapists, and by introducing screenings via tele-conferencing our clients were able to continue to receive these assessments without disruption. This ensured the applicants and physios were able to operate in a safe environment, and as appointments and reports were generally made available during the same day, our clients continued to receive results on time.
With physiotherapy deemed an essential service, our post-injury business model, which is built on adopting and adapting sports injury management philosophies and applying these philosophies to workplace injuries, remained largely unchanged. Much like our pre-employment assessments, we were able to introduce a prompt tele-health appointment with our physio’s in the event of a delayed face-to-face appointment. These were designed to provide patients with self-management advice until such time as a hands-on appointment was available.
As COVID continues to lockdown parts of the country intermittently, the agile and innovative measures FPES Australia has put in place means we can continue to service our clients and operate efficiently no matter the current climate.