It’s finally happening! This has been a long time coming and something I’ve been dreaming about doing for the past 11 years. I’ve wanted to open my own physical therapy clinic since I graduated PT school, but the overly practical part of me said ‘you don’t know enough __’ people, doctors, patients, etc; you fill in the blank. I thought I could go about it in different ways; grow into it so to speak.
After I graduated with my doctorate in physical therapy (DPT) from the University of Pittsburgh I took a staff position at Concentra while my then boyfriend, now husband Kyle was finishing his PhD in Epidemiology. I worked hard and knew I wanted more out of my career and within a year I was promoted to being a clinical director of a small clinic within the company. During this time frame I had a growing interest in specializing in orthopedics and manual therapy and became fellowship trained. I held these clinicians in high regard because their diagnostic skills of the true problem at hand were on point and I wanted it. Took me 3 years to accomplish while working full time, but I did it and ‘joined the club’ and became what less than 2% of all physical therapists have, a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapist (FAAOMPT). Around this time Kyle and I got married and he had just finished his PhD. We decided to move back to Arizona to be closer to both sides of our family. I got the itch to start my own practice again, but once again I thought ‘you’re moving back home and don’t know the medical landscape of AZ’. See if you can find a private practice you can work your way up into ownership and start your own clinic that way.
Over the next 6 years, I continued to grow a lot as a clinician, remodeled a house, had 2 kiddos along the way, and learned the business side of things from referrals to insurance, and billing. However, I was turned off by a lot of the business practices I saw. Ultimately, the business model was the more patients you treat, and the longer you keep them in the clinic the more successful you’ll be. The problem with this is there are only so many hours in a day. This resulted in the timeframes I got to spend with each patient to be less and less. At one point, I was seeing between 20-25 patients in a day and the only way for me to get through it was to have a PT student or orthopedic resident I was teaching to be co-treating with me. I still felt like I was giving my patients excellent care but there were times I’d be managing 4-5 patients at one time in the clinic, and I’d hear myself say ‘we are making great progress but let’s take a look at that next session’ because I could only spend 15-20min with each patient before my next one arrived and find time to run the business in the gaps.
At this point in my career, I was managing multiple clinics as well as treating and it finally hit me; I want more for myself and my patients. If I can spend a whole hour with my patients, I can get my patients better faster, and they don’t need to be in the clinic x3days/week for 18+visits. Patients get their time back, I have the time to do advanced clinical diagnosis, and can speedtrack them back to activities they love. As well as the benefits of me getting to create my own schedule and spend more time with my 4 and 2 year old kids. I had that full circle moment in October of 2023 and thought ‘it’s time, I can do this’.
So here we are, 11 years into my career with a very supportive and helpful husband and two anklebiters in tow, Forward Performance Sports Physical Therapy has finally come to fruition! In fact, I just got the lease for my new space 3 days before my 36th birthday. It’s 1738 sqft of possibilities with private treatment room and open gym.
Can’t wait to meet you; it’s only forward from here!
