Sending your future patients to exercise facility?

[SFT]

Before you read this post, it is somewhat related to PT and I believe I will get great feedback from the members on here.

I've been back and forth between Physical Therapy and opening a gym that would offer group and individual exercise classes to special populations. To provide a little bit of feedback, I have a BS in Exercise Science and initially worked at a private strength and conditioning facility. After two years of that, I took a job as a therapy tech. at an inpatient rehabilitation hospital with hopes of increasing my chances of being accepted to a DPT program.

After a few months of being in this setting, I cannot stop thinking about how many of these accidents could have been prevented. Many of these patients could be functioning at a much higher level if they had better "fitness" for a lack of a better term.

This has really made me believe that my calling is opening a fitness facility for under-served populations. Now I know some hospitals have programs for special populations. However, I feel that often times there is not a tremendous amount of effort to market them and reach out to a large number of individuals. At the same time, it worries me that people will be concerned about a facility that is not affiliated with a hospital.

All that being said, I would like to work with cancer patients, diabetics, healthy elderly individuals, post-rehab patients, or any other population that could benefit from a fitness program.

A few questions:

- Would you send your future patients to a place such as this if it was run by an exercise physiologist that you trusted/respected? I am still not sure whether or not I should go for the DPT to learn more about the rehabilitation side of things and provide another service. I could always partner up with a physical therapist in the future.

- What other training/school would be necessary? I have already ordered the training materials for the ACSM Certified Inclusive Fitness Trainer. I look at this purely as a starting point.

I will couple this with essentially writing a manual for each population that I intend to train. This will be used for my educational purposes as well as training materials for my future employees. On top of this, continuing education is obviously important in every field and I would read the most recent scientific literature for each condition.

If things went well with the business, I could go for the MS in Exercise Science just so I have that additional credential. I would likely enroll in an online program.

Thank you for your feedback.

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[SFT]

One part I forgot, as far as to DPT or not to DPT, my thoughts were this:

- My goal would be to work with groups of various populations more so than actually do traditional physical therapy.
- The DPT would provide a greater knowledge base, but would also set me back 4 years by the time I'm accepted. The cost including opportunity cost might be somewhere around $200-300k when all is said and done.
- By the time I get out of school, I will be 28-29, with debt that would likely prohibit me from starting a business until I was 32-33. Right now I am only 24 years old and ready for the risk involved in starting a business.

So, as I might have hinted at before, I am somewhat against going for the DPT unless it could mean that I would be underqualified for what I intend on doing in the future. I guess this might depend on how much physical therapy a cancer patient might qualify for now or in the future?

 

[Rallen13]

I have a Master's degree in Wellness Management/Exercise Science and I am also a certified Health Fitness Specialist through the American College of Sports Medicine. I used to work at an exercise facility with a diabetic population through the Healthy Heart Grant. I start my DPT program in August and my future goal has always been to do basically what you have just described above. I feel like attaining my DPT will allow me to see my patients at my own practice that adjoins to my fitness center. The fitness center will be open to anyone for membership, however, I will reccomend that all of my patients do their rehab at my fitness center and the center will probably primarily serve special populations as well as my patients. Great minds think alike I guess. Goodluck with your endeavor.

 

[Rallen13]

For my thesis project I actually wrote an exercise manual for a diabetic population based on where I was currently working. They adopted my manual and currently use it to train new exercise specialists. I think you have great ideas. Goodluck with everything!

 

[SFT]

Thank you for the feedback. I guess where I'm coming from is that I don't really know that I want to practice PT as much as I want the knowledge base. I'm sure that a decent level of knowledge can be attained by studying the books used in a PT program. Not to suggest that I would have the same level of knowledge, but I would be able to have a conversation with a physical therapist in their lingo.

I think there is a disconnect between physical therapy and prevention of injury and/or maintenance of fitness. Physical therapists are looked at as medical professionals, where personal trainers are not. I'm hoping that if I do not attend school for the DPT, I can overcome this by putting in just as much time as DPT students do in self-study. I want to learn everything I can about preventing injuries and making people function at as high of level as possible.

Also, I personally think that a physical therapist with an adjoined fitness facility wouldn't have the time to maximize the potential of both. So, maybe I need to find a PT to partner up with. I'm sure that owning a PT clinic is a huge time commitment without the headaches of a fitness facility.

I look forward to hearing more feedback!

 

[Rallen13]

I actually did my observation hours for my physical therapy application at a clinic where the head PT did just that! He owned his own practice that adjoined to his own fitness facility, Of course he had to have wonderful exercise specialists that he employed that staffed the fitness center, but he was the owner of everything and started it himself. I think partnering with a PT would be a great idea. I hope to employee a few great exercise exercise specialists in my fitness center along with have a few other PTs and PTAs in my PT practice. Yes, it will be hard work. But, I think it would pay off in the long run.

 

[SFT]

Yes I was thinking along the lines of having an exercise physiologist manage that aspect of the business. I was hoping that I could align myself with a PT such that it would either be a partnership, or I rent out a larger facility in which we split the rent so we can have a business interest in it either way. I think that being the owner, or partial owner, gives you considerably more motivation to ensure that the business is successful.

 

[atstudent]

I work in a company that does both physical therapy and fitness. We currently have 4 combined PT/fitness facilities and 2 strictly PT clinics. We don't have any special programs for diabetics, etc but we have programs such as Silver Sneakers, CrossFit, athletic performance, and Pilates. Our Pilates also is involved with a cardiovascular program..

 

[Bones26]

- Would you send your future patients to a place such as this if it was run by an exercise physiologist that you trusted/respected? Yes. Like others have mentioned, many out-patient ortho clinics already do this. Several PT's and urologists referred patients to me for private Pilates lessons, and it was great. These clients were highly motivated, and I learned a LOT working with them. They benefited because going to a "normal" fitness class wasn't really appropriate. I often recommended "healthy" patients to a specific PT if needed and appropriate. Everybody wins.