TAI ATs in the News

A while back I wrote a post about TAI’s Athletic Trainer program in Salem, Oregon.  That program continues to grow and gain attraction, most recently from a local newspaper, the Statesman Journal.  This article by journalist Justin Much follows the West Salem High School girls soccer team as they utilize our SAM (Speed-Agility-Mobility) training program. 

SAM is a comprehensive training program for athletes of all kinds, designed to increase athleticism while decreasing injury potential.  It was fully developed and is directed by certified Athletic Trainers.  SAM uses a dynamic warm-up approach and sport-specific activities to guide athletes safely and effectively through training.

TAI physical therapists and athletic trainers across the company are developing sports education and injury prevention presentations and accompanying materials for young athletes in a variety of different sports, including soccer, baseball/softball, running, basketball, cycling, and skiing.  Stay tuned for more information on how and when you can access these tools for your team. 

Health Care Reform and Physical Therapy

If you’ve been around a radio or television or an online news source in the past week you have no doubt heard a lot about “Health Care Reform.”  Naturally, there is significant focus on what shape the plan will take, how much it will cost and who will pay for it, and – the hottest topic of late - when we might expect to see some legislation make its way to the President’s desk. 

Of course, I have been curious about how the field of physical therapy might be affected by proposed reform.  Until more details are debated and drafted by Congress, we won’t really know the answer to that, but I was impressed when I discovered an entire section of the APTA’s website devoted to the “Health Care Reform” issue.  Here you can read the Association’s position on health care reform and find out about how APTA staff, affiliates, and members are advocating on behalf of the profession to legislators.  Their Government Affairs committee has maintained nearly weekly updates and podcasts on their activity and the situation in general – a good resource for comprehensive but relatively quick overviews.  And if you’re so inclined, they even have a virtual rally where you can participate in the advocacy online. 

I’ll keep you posted on details as this whole issue develops (since it sounds like the original August 1 goal date for legislation is no longer relative, we may be waiting for several months ) and invite you to share any information you discover.

Spokane Hoopfest

Did you know that Spokane, WA is host to the largest 3 on 3 basketball tournament on the planet?  Hoopfest is a two-day, outdoor festival that draws hundreds of thousands of people from around the nation.  Hoopfest organizers say that this year’s tournament is expected to include 3,000 volunteers, 6,429 teams, 25,000 players (youth to adult, amateur and elite), 200,000 fans, 13,000 games, 410 courts, and 40 city blocks.  For a moderately-sized city, this is a HUGE event!

In their own words, Hoopfest ”is a place for players of all ages and abilities from all over the country to come together in pursuit of the ultimate goal: to become a Hoopfest Champion. It’s where friends and families gather and cheer at the top of their lungs for their favorite team. It’s the chance to see a college superstar, or your dad, hustle like he’s in the final game of the NBA finals. It’s a place for your seven-year-old to score her first basket.” 

TAI’s Spokane-area clinics have been involved in Hoopfest for several years.  We provide dozens of volunteers for the event and our therapists manage and work at taping tents for athletes in need.  It’s always a busy but rewarding weekend.  If you happen to be in the area, swing by one of our tents and say hi or just come to witness this incredible (and fun!!) event.

North Olympic Discovery Marathon This Weekend!!

The North Olympic Discovery Marathon (NODM) is an annual run (full and half marathons for walkers and runners, relay marathon, and even a kids marathon) from sunny Sequim to charming Port Angeles, WA.  Therapeutic Associates has been the corporate sponsor of the run for 5 years and counting and is looking forward to a great event this weekend.

Called one of the best boutique marathons in North America, the NODM website describes the run as “…a  a unique point-to-point course that incorporates the Olympic Discovery Trail – with stunning views of the Olympic Mountains and a five mile finishing stretch along the shores of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The race is a USATF sanctioned event that is a Boston Marathon qualifier.”  It attracts runners of all levels and ages and provides a reasonably challenging and gorgeous raceway. 

I did this run myself as part of a corporate relay team last year and had a blast.  It was amazingly well organized, the volunteers were outstanding, the course was beautiful, and I felt like the whole community was supporting the event and - more importantly - the runners.  It was my first competitive run and a great way to enter the circuit.  I am still inspired by the range of participants – from the winner who did the marathon in an incredible 2 hours and 48 minutes, to the woman who walked the marathon as the culmination of a year-long weight loss and wellness pledge to herself, to the near 90-year old man who completed the event even after falling in the second half of the run. 

If you are going to be in the north Olympic Peninsula this weekend, I encourage you to stop by and cheer on the runners.  And if you are a runner yourself and have never done this run, definitely consider it.  TAI is proud to be a part of such an incredible event, especially in a community where we already have strong presence with our TAI-Sequim and TAI-Port Angeles clinics.

Good luck runners, and to all involved – have fun!  See you there

Great Direct Access Video

You may have seen this already, but this news story from a Pittsburg TV station is a great, comprehensive summary of direct access for physical therapy.  Obviously, the details may be different in your state, but this is a good model for us all to follow in promoting direct access in our own regions.  Enjoy!

Athletic Trainers in TAI

Director of Athletic Training, Chelsey Franz, tapes an athlete at the National Girls U16 Fast Pitch Tournament

A few TAI clinics have a certified Athletic Trainer (AT) on staff or work closely with ATs in some capacity, but one clinic – TAI-Valley Physical Therapy  in Keizer, OR – maintains a unique and comprehensive AT program in which they provide AT services for all of the Salem-Keizer high schools in the district.  I asked Chelsey Franz, MS, ATC, our Athletic Training Program Director, to shed some light on the work of Athletic Trainers and our program in Oregon. 

What is an Athletic Trainer?

A certified athletic trainer (AT) is a highly skilled and nationally certified health care provider. Working with physicians and other allied health professionals, ATs specialize in the prevention, assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of injuries and illnesses that occur in athletes and the physically active. Certified Athletic Trainers have, at minimum, a bachelor’s degree, usually in athletic training. ATs study human anatomy and physiology, rehabilitation, biomechanics, exercise physiology, athletic training, nutrition, health and sport psychology. Athletic Trainers undergo extensive training in both clinical and professional settings. An AT’s primary responsibilities are injury prevention, reduction of further injury by administering immediate care, development and implementation of rehabilitation programs, and development of appropriate policies, including return-to-play. 

TAI’s AT Program in Salem-Keizer

The Salem-Keizer School District (SKSD) implemented use of athletic trainers at the 6A high schools in the Salem-Keizer area 13 years ago. It began as a community outreach program with services contracted through Salem Hospital. In 2005, the SKSD contract was awarded to TAI-Valley PT Keizer and we have been running this program ever since.  Currently, we employ 6 regular-time ATs, and 4 on-call ATs, to work in and with the schools during the school year.  A fifth on-call AT directs the program. 

Athletic trainers work at the schools an average of 25 hrs/wk over the course of the school year. Due to demands of different sports, an AT usually averages more hours in the fall and less in the winter and spring. Average start time is 2-2:30 pm (when school gets out) and end time is dependent on home activities. If possible (given the constraints of the contract), an AT will cover all home sporting events to be on the field with the athletes. An AT will travel with varsity football and often times with playoff games.  Most ATs carry a second job in addition to the AT role. Three of our ATs are full time teachers, two others work in the school setting, one is a rehab director and another is a PTA. 

Our AT program implements four core offerings with the student athletes – a Concussion management/return to play program, PEP (Prevent Injury, Enhance Performance) program, SAM (speed/agility/mobility) program, low-cost sports physicals.  We are additionally utilized in a PTAT program, assisting patients who have completed PT but still desire continued workouts/conditioning. 

Our program serves thousands of student-athletes in the local community and provides cost savings by avoiding unnecessary trips to urgent care clinics, ERs, doctor offices and rehab clinics.  The TAI-Valley PT clinics offer 3 free visits to student athletes.

For more information on this program, visit our website.

Hillsboro PT and Sports Education and Injury Prevention

Several of our therapists have created strong outreach programs which extend their skills and services beyond the clinic walls. I was inspired by one recent program developed at our Hillsboro PT clinic in the Portland metro area. They are a Certified Clinical Site for Cincinnati SportsMedicine Research and Education Foundation and their SportsMetrics program. Hillsboro Director Tim Brinker, PT, OCS, FAAOMPT and his team have started a lecture and on-field training series with the soccer players and parents of FC Portland Academy. The first presentation was conducted in February for about 150 young female players and it focused on ACL (anterior cruciate ligament ) injuries. The same format presentation will be repeated for about 150 male players later this month.

Presentation highlights include:

• Statistics on female athletes and ACL injuries (e.g. Did you know that 1 in 100 female high school athletes and 1 in 10 female collegiate athletes will sustain an ACL injury and that female athletes are 4-6 times more likely to sustain a non-contact ACL injury than males?!)
• ACL injury overview, including a discussion of pertinent anatomy and function and, in this case, biomechanical and developmental contributions to ACL tears in women and what you can and cannot change about these contributions
• Review of the PEP Program, a dynamic warm up program that has been proven to decrease non-contact ACL injury in female athletes by 2-4x
• On-field training and education on Sportsmetrics WIPP Training (Warm-up for Injury Prevention and Performance)

• Overview of the SportsMetrics program where the athletes are evaluated to determine if they are at high risk of developing a non-contact ACL injury. This is done through SIT (Sports Injury Test) and video analysis.  For those athletes who are high risk or are returning from a knee surgery to sport, two different SportMetrics programs are offered: a 6-week group training session or a Return to Sport program, which have been shown to reduce the incidence of serious knee ligament injury by 80%.

Not only will Tim and his therapist team continue to work with these athletes, but he is leading a group of TAI therapists through a 2009 Sports Education and Injury Prevention program where clinics throughout the company will offer lecture demonstrations to young athletes in their communities in Soccer, Baseball, Athletic First Aid, Cycling, Running, and Speed and Quickness among other things. Not only is this kind of work timely and relevant (e.g. I have heard a number of stories on NPR in the last several months that point to the seriousness of injury in young athletes and the importance of proper attention and training to prevent injury), but it also points to our continued efforts to use our skills as musculoskeletal experts to make a positive difference in people’s lives.

If you are interested in finding out more about this programming, contact me or email Tim Brinker at tbrinker@taiweb.com.

Fairwood Physical Therapy and the GRAVITY SYSTEM®

General wellness programming is an exciting trend in outpatient physical therapy nowadays. Well designed and executed programs can not only draw new potential patients to a clinic, but can also keep patients healthy and active in the clinic even after therapy discharge. Several of our practices have endeavored upon various wellness and fitness programs in the last few years. In July 2007, our Fairwood Physical Therapy clinic in Renton, WA began offering GRAVITY classes. I recently connected with Jeannette Baker, NASM, CPT, a personal trainer who teaches the classes at Fairwood PT and asked her to explain the GRAVITY program and share some of its successes…

Lori: How does the GRAVITY program work?

Jeannette: The classes are taught mostly using a machine system called Gravity. If you’re familiar with the Total Gym that sells for home use . . . the Gravity machines are similar but a little more versatile and built for a health club/physical therapy environment. You can read more about the system on their website. The classes work using your muscles to lift a variable portion of your body weight and focus a lot on core strength as we build muscle strength, cardio endurance, and flexibility. During the course of the classes we also do some complementary exercises off of the machines to work on balance and core strength as well. Sometimes the classes are a total body workout and sometimes we spend a session focusing on a specific area of the body. I try to tailor the classes to each participant.

Lori: How many people at a time participate in a GRAVITY class?

Jeannette: We have a maximum of 4 participants in any given session so there is LOTS of one-on-one attention. The small classes also allow the participants to get to know one-another and have lots of fun! I have some clients that have been with me for 4 sessions now and thoroughly love the program!  The other instructors and I are constantly working to find new and fun things to do with the classes on the machines so that we don’t get bored too

Lori: So how long is a session?

Jeannette: We have our program structured in 10-week sessions – either coming twice a week for 30 minutes each time or once a week for an hour. We also do offer drop-in sessions (as space allows) but the pre-requisite for that is either having gone through our program once already or having a personal training session first with me on the machines so that you know the ins and outs of the machines (working on them, adjusting the machines, knowing some of the moves, etc) when you drop in. I also do individual personal training sessions with people. The group classes are offered in the early morning hours, evening hours, and on the weekends.

Lori: What benefit have you seen this program have on the participants? and for the clinic?

Jeannette: The initial measurable benefit that I have seen from the clients is their drop in body calculation figures . . . body fat, measurements, weight, blood pressure, etc. (All are measured at the start and end of each 10-week program – we’ve seen some amazing changes!) But far more impacting than those numbers has been the increase in self esteem that I have seen in each client.  At the start of the program many of the clients are pretty quiet and timid about the exercises and the levels that they push themselves. However, after they get through a few weeks of classes, a few “test days”, and some “workout pains”. . . they start to see their hard work pay off and become hungry for more and learn to enjoy the journey along the way. They learn how to push themselves appropriately, how to deal with and overcome minor setbacks in their program, and become proud and confident about the person they are. Just this last weekend I had a client come off the machine with a grin ear-to-ear after doing a set of pull-ups at an incline level 8 (the machines progress from level 1-8). She told me the first week she doubted that she would ever be able to even accomplish the exercise on a level 3; and now in her second session she has already made it to level 8! She then giggled and said “I know you’ll find a new way to challenge me on it though!” The clients also use the time we have together as a basis for a change in their overall lifestyle. We help the clients develop short and long-term goals at the start of their time with us. Many choose to adopt additional workout activities or healthy eating patterns in addition to our program to help them reach that goal. We provide knowledge and support to help them meet their goals.

As for the benefits to the clinic, the program creates more opportunities for the clinic to touch the community and promote healthy and active lifestyles. The classes are also quite often a bridge for clients between physical therapy (as a patient) and a safe new workout lifestyle. Clients who join the program feel that they are still in the safe and supportive environment of the physical therapy office that they have become familiar with, but are learning how to help themselves stay healthy on their own. I am able to provide my background knowledge from my personal training certification as well as interact with the therapists in the clinic to design a safe and effective program for the individuals. Some PT patients have witnessed the fun classes happening during their treatment times and have also been excited to work through their PT time and be released to join in the program – hopefully providing a good goal to help motivate their progress as well.

Jeannette Baker and two GRAVITY clients

PT ‘in the news’

This past week, two great resources came across our internal clinical list serv that I want to share:

• On February 16, New York Times writer Cailtin Kelly published an article titled “Physical Therapy and the Camaraderie of Healing” in the paper’s Health section.  It’s a beautifully-written, inspiring story about Kelly’s first-hand experience as a physical therapy patient.  She not only explains the challenges that PTs face relative to other healthcare professionals, but also describes what is probably one of the most important aspects of this profession – the human connection factor.  In our TAI customer service class, we talk about how many industries nowadays have moved away from establishing authentic engagements with other people or even having human contact of any kind.  Physical Therapy is, at its core, about that connection with another person - actively listening, truly educating, dedicating time to establishing a relationship and affecting positive change in a person’s health and well being.  Kelly describes this so eloquently in her article…it makes me incredibly proud to work in this field.  Thanks for Amy Temes Clifton, DPT and David Deppeler, PT, OCS, FAAOMPT for finding and sharing this great article. 
• The second link is a follow up from my post on Legislative Impact Day here in Washington.  APTA has established a page on its website to “provide information and facts about physical therapists and spinal manipulation.”  It offers definitions, distinctions between the work of PTs and chiropractors, and APTA’s official ‘position on thrust manipulation.’  Good resource for those of you who want to know more about or who are following this issue.  Thanks again to David Deppeler for sharing the link!

TAI at CSM

If you are going to be at APTA’s Combined Sections Meeting this week, please stop by the Therapeutic Associates booth!  We will be located in the Career Center section of the exhibit hall.  I’d love to chat with you and share more about TAI, answer any questions, and get any feedback on the blog.  The conference is set to break records for attendance…

See you in Vegas!!