Local middle school, high school and college athletes with injuries acquired in the previous 24 to 48 hours now can visit the Acute Sports Injury Assessment Clinic in West Des Moines for free treatment.

The clinic is open from 7-8 a.m. Monday through Friday. Walk-ins are welcome, but appointments are preferred. Athletes under 18 will need signed permission of a legal guardian to be evaluated. There will be a charge for supplies such as braces or crutches.

The clinic, which opened Feb. 9, offers care with minimal disruptions to the schedules of students or their families, says Dan Sweet, supervisor of Iowa Health - Des Moines Outpatient West. It’s also an option for athletes at schools that do not have an athletic trainer regularly on site.

The service is an expansion of the clinic that has been offered through a partnership between Des Moines Orthopaedic Surgeons and Iowa Health - Des Moines Outpatient West for more than 15 years, Sweet says. The clinic previously was held on Saturdays during the fall sports season. Patients then were mostly high school and college students, he said.

“That program has been very successful, and throughout the years of doing that program, we’ve had requests from coaches, parents and athletes to offer it more often, on a daily basis,” says Sweet, a physical therapist.

During a patient’s visit, a physical therapist evaluates the severity of the injury and determines whether he or she needs to see a physician, Sweet says. The physical therapist may give the patient tips and exercises to do. A follow-up visit may be needed if the injury is not better in a couple weeks.

Tyson McDonald, 18, of Winterset suffered a knee injury in a football game last fall and reinjured the knee while weightlifting in February. At the clinic, the Winterset High School football player was given six or seven exercises to do for a few weeks to help strengthen his muscles, he says. He’s still doing them now.

The physical therapist was straightforward and told him exactly what he needed to do, McDonald says. “I feel like it’s getting better. It doesn’t really hurt at all. I would go there again.”

Source: Dawn Sagario Pauls/ Des Moines Register