US Physical Therapy: Changing the perception of rehabilitative therapy

Source: Healthcare Exec

Date :13/12/2007 08:42:51

US Physical Therapy has had a big impact on the way post-operative and post-injury rehabilitation therapy is provided. Glenn McDowell spoke to Ruari McCallion.

Written by Ruari McCallion and Produced by Tom Venturo

Treating an injury, whether work or sports-related, is relatively simple at the clinical stage. The surgeons operate; they repair, replace or excise the injured body part and put the patient back together again. It’s then that the hard work starts.

The patient has to learn to use the affected hand, limb or whatever, get used to the changed muscle behavior and endeavor to bring the working parts back up to full performance. Surgery may take a matter of hours; rehabilitation can take months. Everyone – patients who want to get back to earning a living and employers who want productive workers back – has a vested interest in achieving full recovery as quickly as possible. In some ways, however, the rehabilitative has been a bit of a Cinderella activity.

Employers may be less enthusiastic about granting the time away from work they were happy to accommodate when it was about surgical treatment. If there are budget pressures in hospitals, then rehabilitation services are likely to come under close scrutiny. US Physical Therapy, Inc. (USPh) is changing the perception of rehabilitative therapy and is doing so with a business model that provides value for money, efficient and effective services and gives its key employees – the therapeutic staff themselves – a stake in their businesses, without the burden of time-consuming administrative tasks.

“USPh was established in 1990 by Livingstone Kosberg and two partners. He was very entrepreneurial and thought there was an opportunity to partner with physical therapists and hand therapists who were interested in opening up private practices but may not have the financial means or background to do so…

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