Hello to all our friends,

As I sat thinking about the past 34 years of bringing our physical therapy to the Michiana area, I can’t help but remember the first day open in South Bend:

I remember walking into the office, which was in the basement of 416 East Monroe Street, downtown. The workers were still two days shy of finishing our clinic area - about the size of a 2 1/2 car garage. There were two areas for examinations – one small treatment room and a slightly larger room with three pieces of workout equipment. I brought to the clinic a strong belief that I would make a difference. My belief came in large part from what I

learned through my mom, dad, brothers/sisters, and the

training of Beverly Stewart, P.T. of Buffalo, N.Y. (Beverly was

demanding and sensitive, and as good a coach as I have known in

any sport.) I learned how (and why) to treat people with concern and hospitality from my family. But Bev taught me a unique way to evaluate a patient thoroughly, among other things.

On a rainy January 12 in 1989, my first patient walked in. I asked the construction workers to leave so I could evaluate him. After they left, I offered apologies for our unfinished space and then asked my first patient about his injury. He had had a back problem for years. His physician had told him about this new physical therapist in town who might be able to help.

I evaluated his problem, treated his back, and gave him some exercises he had never done before. His treatment completed, I was ready to send him back to work. At that point, I faced my greatest weakness as a businessman. I was, and still am, not good at asking for payment for my services. Why? I still don’t know. As luck would have it, he asked me if I needed to be paid. I answered, “Yes.” He had no money with him, but he would write me a check at his office. He asked me if I had any other patients that day. I told him I was free and walked with him to his office. We talked about life and Notre Dame football. He paid me, and I went home.

That was my first of about 1768 work weeks or 88,400 hours – around 34 years of practicing physical therapy in the Michiana area. I could not imagine at that time that our clinic would grow from our 2 1/2 car garage-sized space to a 2500 sq. ft place and then to our present sized facility.  

Over the years, some of our competitors have criticized our size. The main reason I chose to develop one main clinic, and to avoid the more common corporate practice strategy of owning multiple clinics at 1500-2500 sq. ft. sites, was to have more control over the quality of our care. Putting small clinics everywhere for patients’ driving convenience is a competitive, profit-motivated strategy big corporations use to try to reduce the number of privately-owned healthcare providers.

Unfortunately, we have seen the cost paid in both physical therapy and general medical practices; as we slowly lost most of the private practices our family physicians used to own. As a result of trying to compete as a solo practitioner, most doctors today, except for most of the specialists, have become employees of hospitals and/or corporations.

Since I am in the clinic daily, as well as having physical therapy teams who have worked with me for 31, 30, 26 years, etc., our quality is monitored very closely. As well as carrying my own patient load, I meet weekly with each physical therapist and physical therapy assistant to discuss challenging cases. We see ourselves as patient advocates and also stay in close communication with physicians to give our patients the best care we can.

The successes we have known would never have happened without the loyalty of our patients, the confidence of physicians and caseworkers, and the dedication of our staff.

People continually praise our staff. They ask me how we have found so many happy and caring people. My response has always been: “We hire people who enjoy others.” I am thankful we have been able to find so many special people.

So, as I think of our 34 years of physical therapy service, I guess I would like all our patients, physicians, caseworkers, families, and friends, to know that we could not have done it without you, as well as all the people who have worked and continue to work in our clinic.

I am thankful that my first patient thought enough of my “one man shop” to ask about paying me. I am also thankful to all of you who continue to share your loyalty with us by asking your physicians to send you back to us when you are in need of physical therapy.

 

Enjoy the journey,

Fran McDonald President/CEO