TAI-Athletic Club of Bend Video

One of our PTs in Bend, Oregon passed along this video they produced about their practice – TAI Central Oregon PT @ the Athletic Club of Bend.  It gives you a good sense not only of how they work in the clinic, but also how they play outside of the clinic   If you have never been to Bend before, this might paint a clearer picture of why so many active outdoor lovers have flocked there in droves in recent years…it’s a beautiful and magical setting, full of things to do year-round.  Enjoy!

TAI Employs “PT of the Year” in Three States!

In April, Steve Allen, PT, OCS, FAAOMPT, Director of TAI-Liberty Lake Physical Therapy in Spokane, was honored with the “PT of The Year” award at the Physical Therapy Association of Washington’s (PTWA) spring conference.  This award is granted annually to a therapist who demonstrates active participation in the Association,  participates above the average member, and is recognized for exceptional conduct.  In addition to his outstanding work as a therapist and mentor and clinic Director and a NAIOMT instructor, Steve has been an active member of the Association and the legislative side of the profession for years.  Among other things, he is currently serving as a PTWA Delegate to the APTA House of Delegates. 

Steve’s award is the latest in a year of high honors for individual physical therapists in our company.  In March at the Oregon Physical Therapy Association’s (OPTA) annual conference, Bill Temes, PT, MS, CCS, OCS, COMT, FAAOMPT (staff therapist at our Oregon Medical Group main clinic in Eugene) received the 2009 Mercedes Weiss Award.  This is one of the most significant awards that OPTA grants (and doesn’t always give out!), presented to a therapist who goes above and beyond to serve the profession.  A renowned therapist, teacher, and mentor, Bill currently serves the Chief Administration Officer for NAIOMT and Assistant Director of the NAIOMT Fellowship Program. He is the Director of TAI’s Supervised Clinical Placement Program and a Key Mentor and faculty member of our Orthopaedic Residency Program.

In 2008, the Idaho Physical Therapy Association (IPTA) named Matt Booth, DPT, OCS, “PT of the Year”.  The award is annually granted to one PT in the state who exhibits outstanding clinical practice, and commitment to the profession and his/her community.  Not only has Matt advanced himself (through NAIOMT training, ASTYM certification, OCS certification, etc.) in order to provide the best possible care to his patients, but he has become one of TAI’s most active Directors in the community.  His clinic – TAI-Boise Parkcenter PT is the sponsor of many community events.  Matt often gives lectures and workshops on a variety of topics, he is a regular Clinical Instructor for students, active in IPTA, and, as an athlete, he has developed a strong reputation for treating a wide variety of active patients in both a rehab and preventative medicine capacity. 

We are proud of all of our therapists and the amazing work they do for our communities. These three outstanding men exemplify the spirit, dedication, intelligence and generosity characteristic of therapists in our company.  We are very proud of their above-and-beyond work.  Steve, Bill, and Matt -congrats and THANK YOU!!

The Importance of Breath

We all know that the breath brings oxygen into the body but do you also know that the breath helps balance our body chemistry? When breath is dysfunctional, our body chemistry changes. Symptoms may be subtle at first, but the effects of even slightly altered body chemistry can have significant negative effects on long-term health.

BreathWorks Overview

Therapeutic Associates recently started a new specialty program called BreathWorks that looks specifically at breath and the role that it plays in a person’s musculoskeletal and emotional function and wellness.  Many people suffer from over breathing (when the body expires too much CO2) and other breathing inefficiencies.  This Program is intended to benefit a wide variety of people, including those with chronic pain, Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, athletes and performers, and even those battling with emotional disorders like depression and anxiety.  

How It Works

Our BreathWorks therapists (three PTs and a PTA who work at TAI clinics in Portland, OR) conduct an initial evaluation to study your current breathing pattern and determine if you can benefit from a care plan to restore a more efficient pattern.  The evaluation includes the utilization of a Capno Trainer (a machine that measures expired CO2 and is further used to observe and train balanced breathing).  If you are determined to be a candidate for this kind of work, your care plan would include a combination of meditation, therapeutic exercise, and manual therapy – all guided by our expert clinicians. 

Accessing the Program 

If you are interested in participating in a BreathWorks evaluation, contact David Deppeler, PT, OCS, FAAOMPT at davidd@taiweb.com.  Arrangements may be made for those outside of the Portland metro area for an evaluation.

TAI is proud to be at the cutting edge of this study and work.  If you have questions or would like to share information about your own work or research with regard to breath in physical therapy practice, please comment or email me at ldillon@taiweb.com.

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.

Golf Performance Program

Several TAI therapists are TPI Certified Golf Fitness Instructors through the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI). TPI is a PGA and LPGA approved golf specific training program.  Clients who visit one of our instructors for a golf performance assessment go through, among other things, a biomechanical evaluation and develop of a custom exercise program to optimize swing results while minimizing risk of injury.

Our instructors are physical therapists and avid golfers so they not only have an interest in the sport, but an expertise in evaluating and treating biomechanical injuries and issues. Jeff Houser, DPT – a therapist at our Seattle Physical Therapy clinic and one of our TPI instructors – has highlighted some of the program’s features:

• Initial evaluation (60-minute scheduled appointment) of your physical ability as it relates to the golf swing. This 13-point physical evaluation allows the instructor to identify potential weaknesses or mobility limitations that can create erroneous swing patterns, which could be detrimental to your body. This evaluation is both for the golfer in pain, as well as the non-painful golfer who wants to maximize his or her potential by increasing their swing efficiency.

• Videotaping of your swing to identify major swing errors that may be creating your pain. There is also the option of working with a golf professional (through TPI) for a more complete diagnosis of swing faults and ideal corrections.

• Development of a Golf Performance Fitness Program. This is another 60-minute appointment where the therapist instructor and client review the findings from the above to then develop a specific exercise program to address weaknesses or mobility restrictions.

• Access to MyTPI.com, a site where you can view your swing, your personalized exercise program, and all progressions that are made, as well as get tips from the leaders in golf fitness at the Titleist Performance Institute. This is a home based program that will usually run over the course of 16 weeks.

More information on this golf performance program and other tips for active golfers will be found in the upcoming edition of Therapeutic Outlook, TAI’s bi-annual magazine that covers issues in PT, health, and wellness. You can receive your free issues in hard copy or via email. Thanks for reading!

Jessica Smith-Blockley, DPT and the Bogus Basin Nordic Team

The Bogus Basin Nordic Team (BBNT) is a competitive, non-profit Nordic ski team in Boise, Idaho for kids ages 8-18. Therapeutic Associates sponsors the team and TAI-Boise State Street therapist Jessica Smith-Blockley, DPT works with the young athletes. I asked her to share a bit more about this exciting and unique experience.

Jessica is an avid skier. She did cross country racing in high school, attended junior nationals for 3 years, skied during her undergrad career at Dartmouth and also coached high school and club teams after graduating from college. It only made sense that she further pursued this passion when she started working for us in Idaho – and incorporate it into her PT practice. Shortly after Jessica started working at the clinic, she connected with the Board of Directors for BBNT and began working with them as a volunteer coach during the 2007-08 ski season. She worked with all age levels and traveled with the older kids to regional races that served as qualifying races for junior nationals. She also worked with the competition team on strength training.

This year (08-09 ski season) Jessica serves as the development coach for the youth program (ages 8-12). She coaches 2 days a week and travels with the kids to local races in Idaho. Rob Barnes, Director of TAI-Boise State Street, has supported Jessica’s work with the team from the beginning, not only by connecting her to the organization early on, but also by allowing her to arrange her clinic hours around the team needs. She said, “Rob has been really flexible with my schedule, allowing me to maintain a 4-day work week so I am able to go to practice during the week, as well as arranging my schedule to allow me to travel for races on the weekends when needed.”

To further her work with skiers in the community, Jessica runs an annual pre-season conditioning class for downhill and cross country skiers. The proceeds from these classes are donated to the Bogus Basin Nordic Team and Bogus Basin Ski Education Foundation (a primarily youth-based alpine club team that TAI also sponsors). Working with BBNT has helped Jessica to get involved in and more integrated into the Boise and surrounding ski community and, as a bonus, it has resulted in increased in referrals and self-referrals to the clinic! Way to go, Jessica!!

2008-09 Bogus Basin Nordic Team

Therapeutic Associates and the Northwest’s Premier Cross Country Skiers

Based in Bend, Oregon, the non-profit XC Oregon cross country ski race team is one of a handful of elite development programs for U.S. skiers working toward future berths on U.S. World Cup, World Championship, and Olympic teams. Therapeutic Associates’ Central Oregon clinics in Bend work with these athletes on many levels. I recently connected with JD Downing, XC Oregon Coach and Founder, to find out more about his organization and its connection to our company.

What is XC Oregon?

Featuring up to two dozen young adults (typical XC Oregon athletes are 19-35 years old), an average racing year sees XC Oregon skiers collectively register in over 200 races with over 50 “podium” (top three) finishes in events as diverse as local Northwest ski area races, to the 1998 and 2002 Olympics, to the biggest ski marathons in the world. The diversity of races is matched by the diverse lives of the XC Oregon athletes as the race team features a roster ranging from full-time professional skiers to young parents, school teachers, computer programmers (and more) — who also happen to be very good cross country skiers!

XC Oregon and TAI

For the past five years, Therapeutic Associates has been a proud major sponsor of XC Oregon helping athletes not only with financial support but also providing regular clinic treatment throughout each training year.

Although acute injuries in cross country skiing are far less common than with alpine skiing or snowboarding, with elite athletes training up to 700-800 hours a year (over 15 hours a week on average!), a wide range of chronic problems can develop that are unlike the kinds of typical injuries Therapeutic Associates sees in folks that may never put on a pair of skis in their life.

“Our athletes are training year-round to be some of the best athletes on the planet,” says J.D. Downing, XC Oregon Coach and Founder. “With the level of their training it’s not unusual to see problems develop with lower backs, muscle/flexibility imbalances, joint issues, and other problems. Having our local TAI Central Oregon clinics available to treat our athletes is quite honestly one of the biggest reasons our athletes have the performance track record they have over the past several years.”

XC Oregon and the Community

Beyond the ski race trails, the XC Oregon team has demonstrated a clear commitment to their local and regional community since its inception in 1998. The team athletes and Coach Downing annually devote hundreds of volunteer hours each year to community projects and programs. Whether it is helping with local youth athletic programs or raising funds for local homeless shelters — XC Oregon shares the Therapeutic Associates belief in always being an active and giving partner in your community.

For more information about the XC Oregon race team please visit www.xcoregon.org.

Preventative Medicine in the Workplace

Now more than ever, there seems to be a great deal of buzz about preventative medicine programs. Health care was, again, a major piece of both party platforms during our recent elections and I have heard President-Elect Obama speak about the importance of preventative programs. No doubt, more and more employers will turn to prevention to save on cost and maintain efficiency. While TAI’s primary service is outpatient, ortho PT via our private practice clinics, we have several specialty and wellness programs that go beyond traditional PT services to meet the needs of our communities. I’ll get into several of these in future posts, but today I want to share more on one of them that directly affects employers and extends beyond our clinic walls…

What is Work Kinetics?
Work Kinetics is a workplace-focused program that has been in place at TAI for 5 years. It provides employers with injury prevention/management, wellness programs and ergonomics services that not only create healthier and more productive work environments, but also reduce the direct and indirect costs associated with workers’ compensation and group healthcare premiums. Our Work Kinetics therapists have extensive experience in this area. They treat employees with traditional PT and OT but – and perhaps more importantly – they go to the work environments and provide on-site Physical Testing, Therapeutic Interventions, Consultation, and more.

Work Kinetics Products
Work Kinetics has also developed products to support their on-site programs. Therapeutic Associates Online Enterprise Safety (OES) is offered in partnership with Remedy Interactive, as well as RSIGuard software. It is a web-based product that provides injury prevention education, ergonomic risk assessment, and self-correction of injury risk factors for workers in various environments. Back Basics is an educational video created by Therapeutic Associates Physical and Occupational therapists, designed to improve manual material handling safety and reduce back injuries in the work place; be it office or industrial environments. This DVD guides users through customized training sessions taught by Physical Therapists.  OES and Back Basics are forward-thinking, cost effective, and comprehensive tools for employers to maintain healthy work environments and prevent injuries.

Jennifer Rappaport, MOTR/L

Meet the OT at the Forefront
Jennifer Rappaport, MOTR/L, is Director of Work Kinetics. She earned her Master’s in Occupational Therapy with an emphasis in Preventative Care in 2007. Interestingly enough, she holds an undergraduate degree in English Literature and spent time teaching, traveling and working as an Eco-tour guide before attending graduate school. Jennifer has worked with a variety of clients, including high-tech manufacturing, industrial/commercial construction, and office environments. She started working for TAI in 2007 and is based in Portland, OR.

To learn more about Work Kinetics, visit our website.

History of TAI

I recently revisited the history of Therapeutic Associates for a project I was working on and was again struck by the awesome 56-year longevity of our company and legacy of our founders. Our roots are truly at the foundation of private practice PT in this country and our core structure and principles have remained the same after all these years. I thought it would be fun to share the following summary with all of you. Enjoy!

History of Therapeutic Associates, Inc.

The roots of TAI date back to the early 1950s and the beginnings of private practice physical therapy in the United States. Company founder Jim McKillip, PT, graduated from Stanford University in 1950 and began his career as a staff therapist at the University of Oregon Hospital and Clinics in Portland, Oregon. Later that year, Jim serendipitously met with Sister Genevieve, the Mother Superior and Administrator of St. Vincent Hospital in Portland – a connection that would later prove fruitful to the development of Jim’s vision and the company’s growth. In 1952, Jim moved to southern California and opened his first private practice clinic. It was a bold move at the time, for there was no precedent for this kind of operation and even the act of obtaining a business license proved challenging. Driven by his goal to see private practice physical therapy thrive, Jim persevered with his business and later that same year met Robert (Bob) Dicus, a fellow PT who shared his drive and entrepreneurial spirit. The two men joined forces to create Department of Physical Medicine (DPM), the business that would eventually become Therapeutic Associates, Inc.

While the company’s structure has always been based on independent, private practice clinics, its early growth was driven by several hospital contracts. Through the Sister Genevieve connection, Jim and Bob engaged in contracts at Providence St Joseph in Burbank, CA (an arrangement that TAI still maintains to this day), St Vincent Hospital in Portland, and Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, CA, among others. Key players in TAI’s early history – including therapists Warner Owens, Bert McCurdy and Bob Gifford – were hired at this time to assist with these contracts.

In 1964, Flanders Physical Therapy (now known as TAI-Northwest Portland Physical Therapy) opened under the direction of Dan Jones. This was the first of the company’s private practices outside of California and started what later became booming growth in the Pacific Northwest. The 1960s also brought the development of APTA’s Private Practice Section (PPS; originally called the “Self Employment Section”), thanks to the dedication and motivation of Bob Dicus, who helped create the section and acted as its first Chairperson. DPM was originally solely owned by Jim and Bob, but growth and a combination of other factors encouraged them to expand the group and Bert, Dan, Bob, and Warner were among the early partners. The biography of J.C. Penny, “The Man with a Thousand Partners”, was an early inspiration for the concept of shared ownership and helped to develop the Key Person model that TAI maintains to this day. Unfortunately, the 1960s also brought heartbreak, as Bob was diagnosed with ALS, a disability that gradually took him out of practice and the business and eventually took his life. His vision and legacy remain significant to TAI and PPS.

In the 1970s and 1980s, expansion led to several new clinics in the Pacific Northwest, including West Seattle Physical Therapy, our first Washington clinic which was started by Steve Anderson, PT. In these two decades, several of our current Shareholders were hired as Staff Therapists and moved onto become Key People and many clinics opened in the Portland, Seattle, Albany, Salem, and Bend areas. The hospital division of the company also continued to expand during these years. In the 1990s, Warner Owens took over from Jim McKillip as CEO of the company. A new hospital contract – with the Motion Picture Television Fund in southern CA – was started, with Kim Archer (daughter of Jim McKillip) leading the way. Also at this time, Rich Katz was instrumental in starting the independent practice association we now know as Northwest Rehab Alliance and some of our company’s products, including the now-named CareConnections package, were developed.

The later 1990s saw the creation of TAI’s Central Billing Office in Portland, the move of the Administrative office to its current location in Seattle, and, in 1998, the naming of Steve Anderson as CEO and Dennis Powers as President. The 2000s have seen continued growth of the company, in terms of number of clinics (we now have over 65 facilities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California), staffing (administrative and clinical), programming (Orthopaedic Residency Training Program started in 2007, e.g.), and offerings (as several of our clinics have developed unique specialty programs utilizing traditional PT methods, as well as concepts of preventative medicine and wellness approaches).