By Alexander Germanis
It has been said that the best gift
one can give is the gift of time. This is becoming more and more true as
we are hurried from place to place — always in a state of flux — our
identities becoming little more than a series of numbers in an
electronic database. All it takes in order to reset that, however, is an
expenditure of someone’s time. Caring through time can make all the
difference between making someone feel like a number and helping someone
feel like a person. 16 years ago this September two men had just such a
thought when they began to organize what would become Advanced Rehab
and Sports Medicine Services.
From Dream to Reality
Educated in physical therapy at Chicago Medical and Washington
University in St. Louis respectively, Chris Byers, PT, and Mike Salaway,
MS, PT, had what may seem like a simple idea, but one that is
nonetheless becoming increasingly less realized throughout the health
care community as a whole. “Our idea was to have a physical therapy
company in which we spent a lot of time with patients,” Chris explains.
“We also wanted a place where therapists really liked to work, so there
was an appreciation for doing a good job and getting patients better. We
really started thinking that if we could accomplish those two things,
we could have a successful company.”
When they first started out
with the help of a mutual business associate in 1997, success didn’t
fall right into their laps. “In the beginning, anything you could do in
the physical therapy world we were doing it: nursing home contracts,
home health,” Chris recalls. “When we started the Kewanee clinic in
March of 1998, that got us in the outpatient world — got us started down
that track. That’s what we wanted to do.” From there onward Chris and
Mike opened up or contractually partnered with seven more clinics in
Aledo, Bloomington, Canton, Clinton, Galesburg, Macomb, and Monmouth.
Small Town Origins
The fact that most of the clinics reside in smaller towns across the
rural belt of Illinois is no coincidence. Both men have their origins
in small communities, and those origins are what led them to, and
continue them on, their professional paths.
“I grew up on a
farm,” Chris says, “and had done some observation and rode around with a
local large animal vet. I went to school thinking I wanted to be a
veterinarian.” Chris’s personal involvement with sports directed him
toward a different destiny though. “I did a lot of athletics in high
school, had a knee injury and had multiple surgeries — two within a year
on the same knee. In the process of having therapy, I thought I’d like
to do that instead. I got to experience therapy by having the need to do
it. Through that process I decided that was a better path for me.”
A three-sport athlete in high school, Mike also had his share of
sports rehabilitation, specifically as he continued to play football in
college. But it wasn’t his experience with rehab that lured him to the
profession; his initial interests were quite different.
“I
initially went to college at the University of Illinois to become a
chemical engineer, but decided that wasn’t for me,” Mike says. “I left
and went to Monmouth and thought I would do something medical but didn’t
know what. A family friend was the physical therapist in town, and the
head of the biology department said what a wonderful field that was
going to be to go into. I got into it that way. So, my interest was a
little more profession-based.”
Memories of those small town
beginnings remain with Mike and Chris, specifically the memories of
dealing with sports-related injuries. “When we were in school, you
didn’t have therapy unless you had surgery,” Chris says.
“We never even had an athletic trainer,” Mike adds. “And in college we had one that came only one time a week.”
For that reason, Chris and Mike endeavored to give big city physical
therapy access to the small towns of their youth. Regional Marketing
Coordinator for Advanced Rehab, Angela Holloway, explains one of the key
ways in which they do that. “Trainers from most of our clinics to the
west go to different football teams — they go out and cover athletics in
different schools.”
Because most small schools can’t afford
that kind of care, “we give them access to specialized services —
essentially for nothing,” Mike continues, “because it was something we
didn’t have when we went to school.”
A Path of Dignity
“I came from a corporate PT environment,” Mike relates. “When I
started with the company I was working for, we had five clinics, and
when I left we had 350. I ran the largest one they had. Along with an
athletic trainer and an aide, I treated 60 people a day and still ran
our clinic. I felt we could develop a model that could provide a better
quality of patient care.” That rather typical physical therapy
environment is precisely what Mike and Chris wanted to get away from
when they started Advanced Rehab, not as much for their own sakes as for
the sake of their patients and employees.
“We work in a
high-demand field where it’s extremely difficult to recruit,” Mike says.
“Where you don’t have high population densities, trying to recruit and
retain employees was always going to be a problem.”
Employee-incentive programs seemed one way to solve that problem, Chris
explains. “We wanted our therapists rewarded for doing a good job. We
wanted to have a place where they had some ownership in the company —
where hard work was rewarded.”
Weaving that perfect mesh of
well-treated employees and well-treated patients has been the core of
Advanced Rehab from the outset. Mike explains the resultant fiduciary
conundrum he’s had to struggle with as the president of operations, “How
can we afford to be as kind to our employees as we can and get as much
one-on-one time with our patients as we can and still have the money
work out? Chris and I didn’t start this to get rich. We could see 50
percent more patients a day than we do now and cut the payroll by a
third. But we have chosen a different path.”
Part of that path
is recognizing an inherent problem in the medical care community. “There
are jobs out there that just aren’t conducive to trying to access
health care during normal working hours,” Chris points out.
“[That’s why] almost all of our clinics will accommodate outside the normal eight-to-five hours,” Mike adds.
Chris exemplifies that ethic in his actions. As president of
marketing and public relations, he is “afforded a little time to see
patients. I still have patients that I’ve known a long time here in
Bloomington that I still see if something happens to them,” he says.
“And I pick up those odd-hour patients. I don’t mind that. We have
people that will come in at six o’clock in the morning for treatment.”
“And he likes to get up at five in the morning,” Mike interjects jovially.
Chris shrugs, “I’m up anyway. I had to do it for 15 years at home to
take care of animals. To take care of humans is a little more
dignified,” he laughs good-naturedly.
Walking the Walk
Promoting the work that Advanced Rehab does is what makes up
Angela’s job, but it’s much more than just a job to her. Her previous
workplace had not embodied the philosophy with which she and Chris and
Mike feel themselves aligned. “I really like people and the job I had
was starting to make me jaded,” she explains. “At Advanced I found
something that would allow me to do sales and public relations involving
health and wellness. It’s nice to sell a product that helps people, and
what we’re selling is wellness.”
Mike adds, “We’re not a
maintenance program. If someone has to keep coming back to us and rely
on us to stay well then we’re not fixing what’s wrong. If you had
something wrong with your car and you had to keep taking it back once a
month so they could fix the same problem then you’ll eventually realize
they’re not fixing it.”
“We don’t want to treat those same
ailments again. We want our patients to stay fixed,” Angela concludes.
“We like having no ‘return’ customers.”
“How we do things is
different. The difference is the level of caring. We work very hard at
making sure that when somebody walks in here they get 40 minutes of
solid attention about their problem and about how it’s affecting them in
life. [Two of the] things that get lost in our society: general caring
and taking the time to listen to people,” Chris points out. “I hope the
thing that makes us different — if you ask our patients — is that they
feel well cared for. If you feel well cared for, that’s half the battle.
We’re going to do everything in our power to get them better.”
You may contact Advanced Rehab & Sports Medicine at 309-664-9104 or www.advrehab.com.
Their office is located at 135 N. Williamsburg Dr. in Bloomington. Free
assessments are offered within 24 hours of contact for patients of all
ages.