BenchMark Physical Therapy

Before and after my knee replacement the crew at BenchMark guided my recovery in the most professional manner. Had a lot of work and laughs with a great crew. A special thank you to Eliza for your guidance and friendly smile while you put me thru the paces these last few months. Couldn’t have done it without you! Jim F

11/6 I recommend going elsewhere. I was in a car accident and needed PT. This office was the only one with availability within a 30 mile radius, all other offices were booked 2 months in advance including the VA. Now I know why. I have severe pain in my shoulder blade and was committing two visits a week for a month with benchmark. I thought utilizing a company outside of base would be better. Sadly, I was wrong. I never met with Dan/ PT. My consultation was performed by Dillon who is a PTA. Nothing wrong with that but from what I’ve heard, the PT should confirm what the aid concluded if they didn’t perform the consultation. The VA informed me PTAs aren’t allowed to consult without the PT present so who knows? Also, appointments are shared with another patient. I sat around waiting for the next activity often. One of my appointments was extended 30 minutes after I noted the PTA was with me for 15/60 minutes. This office booked consecutive appointments without my knowledge. I would be informed at the end of my appointment when my next visit was. When I asked if it was usual for staff to schedule appointments for the patient, they told me yes (Eliza and Jen). They even laughed about it. I’ve never been to PT so I took their word for it. Unfortunately, my schedule isn’t consistent as I’m a full time student in graduate school. I have clinicals that need to be completed biweekly. I attempted to cancel one appointment that I feared I would not be able make. After 3 calls, leaving a VM; no one returned my call. So I show up to the appointment that I intended to cancel. They never mentioned the missed calls or VM so I brought it up at the end. No apology, instead they told me I called them after the office was closed. No, I called at 10am, 12pm, and because I never received a call back; I left a VM before 4pm Friday. Their office closes 7pm so they had all day to review the call log and 3 hours for VM machine. When I stated that, that’s when Amy finally apologized for the inconvenience. Evidently, when I had to reschedule another 2 appointments they booked that’s when they began asking me my availability. I mentioned what had been discussed before. They said they had no idea what I was talking about, that their office didn’t make appointments without patient consent. I called BS and Jen elaborated that they book by previous appointment. So if you saw them on a Tuesday at 10 am, they will attempt to continue to schedule you for Tuesdays at 10 am. In a perfect world, that may work but for most of us; we’re taking time off of school or work. I don’t have the availability to dictate my schedule. Due to the back and forth with the staff, I requested to speak to the owner. Upon talking to him, he excused his staff with zero apology. This is after he informed me that proper protocol is PTA should confirm my availability and not book without consent. So I wonder what their receptionist is for if jen doesn’t answer calls, return them, or make appointments. Billing perhaps? Which takes little time and explains why she is constantly talking to staff/ patients leaving her desk unattended. Instead he simply tells me “Well Angelina, you’ve made progress according to your notes. So what are we doing here? Do you plan on continuing PT or what?” The notes listed were noted by the staff, not me. It took over 24 hours for the owner to reach me, this gave his staff the proper amount of time to formulate their own excuses for their poor behavior and to note what they please on my profile. Due to the lack of respect and consideration, I decided to continue my treatments on base. Which I have to say, has been so much better overall in comparison and is what compelled me to write this review. I hope no one shares my experience with this office. Per other reviews, it looks like that is not the case. 11/8 Dan reached out to apologize for my expectations not being met. It’s not that they weren’t met. As someone who’s never been to PT, there were no expectations in place. This office is simply unprofessional, which led me to go elsewhere. Take care

Thanks to Dan and Amy, I managed to walk 3.5 miles on Friday. Folks, that's a big deal!! It wasn't planned like a charity event or anything, just a day out with the wife. First time away from home in 5 months. All Thanks to the team at Benchmark.

I had rotator cuff tendonitis (shoulder impingement) for at least 6 months (probably more like 9 months but I lost count of the time) after an acute injury from lifting something very heavy overhead. I would continuously alternate between rest/recovery and reinjury and felt like I’d never get better. Basically any time I used my shoulder I would get worse and worse pain. Luckily I found BenchMark PT. I had much better and faster results at Benchmark than I could have imagined. After 2 weeks, I had significant improvement in my pain and shoulder stability. After 5 weeks I was like 85% better. Everyone I worked with was super friendly. The hours are really convenient. Eliza, the PT I primarily worked with, was incredible. She gave me some very effective exercises and found a glaring weakness in my shoulder stability that we worked to fix. She found one exercise in particular that 100% fixes my shoulder pain after doing it. That gave me the ability to do other exercises I couldn’t do before due to pain. She knows her stuff. I highly recommend this place. Especially if you’ve been procrastinating like I was and have been dealing with unresolved pain for months.

I stopped coming here after the 2nd appointment. This was the worst and most unprofessional experience from any provider I have ever experienced. Dan informed me at the end of my 2nd session after massaging my derrière in the main room while carrying on a conversation with his receptionist, that there was really nothing he could do for me that I needed to see an orthopedic doctor for a hip replacement (1st session the massage was done in a private room). I was never given any exercises to do at home. I was there for my Sacroiliac Joint that has arthritis, the only surgical fix is to fuse the joint which is very rarely done. His demeanor was not appreciated. My doctor wasn’t amused and gave me a new referral. 2 sessions in with Dave at Sea Coast Therapy and my pain is gone without one derrière massage and at my first appointment I was given exercises to do at home too.

Greatest place ever for PT! Let’s face it no one wants to be in physical therapy but, Dan,Amy, crew make it awesome! From weekly polls on topics to silly Dad jokes. It always takes your mind off the pain of whatever injury you have and allows you to progress. If I ever have to do PT again I will go there it a heartbeat! I highly recommend you go to this place if you are in need of physical therapy!

Very professional staff in a laidback environment. Dan and Amy made the task of recovering from total knee replacement a very tolerable and successful process. Highly recommend Benchmark.

After attending a few sessions myself. My wife had knee surgery and I wanted her to start there even though they are very limited to equipment (under capitalized) it would be a place for her to start. But, after to scare tactics were used by Dan the owner, I called to questions his bed side manner but he didn't want to discuss anything just refused service to me an the wife. He believes that because he is the owner he does not have to put the patients care first. Oh it was worst than I am telling. So much for their MOTO. My wife is a 30 year veteran with Coldwell Banker and our son is also a broker there, and I am a real estate developer now in Brunswick County and we built our first home up here on Topsail Island 25 years ago. You can bet I have never been treated like this by anyone much less someone in the medical profession. I have never posted a negative review on any company BUT this JERK needs his story told