Speaker 2 0:30

My name is Mary Jean Stack. I'm a physical therapist. I own Great Falls Physical Therapy. We serve the Great Falls community, um, and we treat page patients as early from. Two to maybe even over a hundred. So we see everyone.

Speaker 0:47

Wow, that's wonderful.

Speaker 2 0:48

Thank you. I

Speaker 0:49

can't wait to learn about just all the other things you do. Dr. Stack for listeners learning about Great Falls physical therapy for the first time. Can you share a little bit about your background and what led you into this field?

Speaker 2 1:00

So I actually used to be a ballet dancer. I had a lot of injuries myself, and so I spent a lot of time in physical therapy and when I was a patient, I thought that it might be a great. Backup career to dance to eventually allow me to, um, continue to work in the dance world, but in a different capacity. And so when I had my final foot injury, um, it was, it was time to actually make that happen and to pursue PT a little bit more. And I am from the Great Falls, Virginia. Great Falls, Virginia area. So I moved back here in 2016 and opened Great Falls PT in 2018 and have actually been working with quite a few of the local dance studios.

Speaker 1:43

Wow, that's amazing. What a journey. Yeah. And the rest was history, right? It's

Speaker 2 1:46

come full circle.

Speaker 1:48

That's awesome. And you know, after starting your career and gaining experience in the DC area, what ultimately gave you the confidence to open up your own practice in Great Falls?

Speaker 2 1:59

I had no idea what I was doing yet. I just kind of went for it. I had a really great landlord and I had a really. Awesome former employer that when I saw the space, we decided that it was something that I thought I could do. And I talked to my old boss and she was very supportive, um, as was my first boss in New York. So with their advice, I was able to go on this journey on, on my own, and the places just continued to grow.

Speaker 2:25

That's awesome. Kind of one of those situations like, you know when you know

Speaker 2 2:29

Yes, exactly. It was like, this seems like a good opportunity. No one else has done it. I'm from here. I can help the community, so let's just go for it.

Speaker 2:37

That's awesome. And since opening in 2018, you've grown from a solo practitioner to leading a full team and even expanding into a second location. What has that growth journey been like for you as a business owner?

Speaker 2 2:51

You know, the second location came about two years ago. Um, I started it with a friend of mine who owns Great Falls Pilates, so we both needed additional space. My team had been growing, we actually grew through COVID. Um, and you know, I think we spend a good amount of time with our patients and getting to know people and we provide a good service. And so we said, can we combine these high quality services and make this collaborative wellness center, um, so that now for our patients, we're bridging the gap between acute care and long-term maintenance care. Um, and. Doing all the things that we wish that physical therapy would do when we're a student and we're in school, but isn't always practical in the real world with insurance and the way things work. So Movement Center came about the same way. We walked into a space and we were like, let's do it. It seems like a good opportunity and it continued to grow the team into the space. And it's also, you know, continued to great, great falls physical therapy in that we can have, we can still be a boutique physical therapy office and bring in. Different types of physical therapy, including pediatrics, hand therapy, neuro pt, pelvic floor pt with really experienced practitioners instead of just replicating our same ortho pt place in, in a different location. Yeah, so it's, it's grown. It continues to grow and I hope it does well and continues to serve our community.

Speaker 4:14

That's exciting. I know it will.

Speaker 2 4:16

Thank you.

Speaker 4:16

Really just getting that quality care and being able to, um, service a lot of different problems and issues like that.

Speaker 2 4:23

Yeah, and that's where I really love the team that we've built, is that everyone has something that they do really well. So I know if. I'm not the best fit for one of these patients, then I have someone who can help them, uh, who is experienced and qualified and will provide the best for our patients.

Speaker 4:42

Absolutely. That's wonderful. And going into that, you know, one of the things that really sets your practice apart is your model of care, especially the one-on-one time you spend with patients. Why was it so important for you to build your practice around that approach?

Speaker 2 4:57

So when I was a patient, I was treated in lots of different physical therapy facilities. Um. The type that I preferred to be treated in was that one-on-one for the hour where you're just with your pt as opposed to having someone who isn't a skilled, um, employee who is walking you through exercises. I found that it was where I got the most bang for my buck with patients and that I could do the manual, but I could do the exercise too and really see them through the entire treatment time and making sure that they were doing everything. Correctly. Um, and especially with some of my dancers, they're really good at making the exercises look good, but they might not be using the right muscle and so long term that patient might not get better. So now we actually have the time to spend with people. And it was really my own experiences as a patient that made me want to treat people that way.

Speaker 5:47

Okay. I love the point you made about using the right muscles. 'cause the way we live our life, the things we do every day, we might not notice that. We could just do some fine tuning, we could really improve the way our function is.

Speaker 2 5:59

Yeah. I think as a PT and I know my team, like we wish that we could just treat everyone and tweak a little bit of everything to make people feel really, really good. Um, and I think that there's always something that people can benefit or learn from physical therapy even if we don't get you a hundred percent better.

Speaker 6:16

Absolutely. And you also mentioned receiving many patients who are coming to you for second opinions. What does it mean to you to be that trusted resource for someone who may not have found answers elsewhere?

Speaker 2 6:29

Uh, it's really nice, you know, I love that our patients trust us. Um, you know, we've had people who come in and they think it's almost like we're the emergency room to them where we're diagnosing things. But then we also get the second, second opinion cases where maybe they failed PT elsewhere, but they're not a surgical candidate. So when they get referred to us and we can find something different that maybe they haven't tried or hasn't been addressed, it's like you're solving a bit of this. Puzzle for someone that's been lost and that feeling that we get when someone gets better and graduates from physical therapy, you know, you've done a really good thing for someone. Uh, so it's rewarding.

Speaker 7:06

Absolutely. You're kind of like the light at the end of the tunnel.

Speaker 2 7:09

I hope so.

Speaker 7:11

And in addition to Great Falls Physical therapy, um, like you said, you've expanded into Great Falls Movement Center, offering services like Pilates, personal training and recovery. What inspired you to create that more con, comprehensive, long-term approach to care?

Speaker 2 7:28

Pilates personal training, um, we hope to have massage at the center eventually. They're actually all their own businesses and we collaborate together so they. I perviously had relationships with these businesses and we had clients that we would cross refer and the patients did better. And you know, they graduated from us and they established their treatment with these. Other practitioners and it's really, again, nice to see that people graduated and are feeling so good that they can do these things. So now we were able to bring it underneath one roof, um, and then the Recovery services with Red Light Sauna. The idea is that we can go beyond what PT Alone does and allow people to have access to the services that they would otherwise drive to. That, again, help them just maintain their overwhelm. All wellness. So whether you're in PT actively and you need a little bit of extra as far as like your healing journey or you're just looking for maintenance care, again, now we can kind of, we can do it all and with people who we know and we trust.

Speaker 8:33

Absolutely. Oh, that's wonderful. A lot of different avenues and options you can try out. And rather than just treating an injury and discharging a patient, patient, you're creating a model that supports people from acute care through long-term maintenance. How do you see that changing the patient experience?

Speaker 2 8:51

You know, for us it's been nice being in Great Falls. It's a very welcoming place. We have people that they might not need physical therapy. Urgently, but they've been to us before and they stop in and they say, hi. They're going for ice cream next door. They're going to the broke, and they stop in. So it be it's warm. In terms of, I think it's a warmer patient experience. And it really feels that we are much more community based than the traditional PT shop where you're just going in and out. Um, we are getting to know our clients, we're getting to know our community. We're trying to do workshops, um, at events and participate. And so it is, it's really beyond. Just walking through the door and fixing an ankle sprain and then never seeing your patient again.

Speaker 9:37

So much more than that.

Speaker 2 9:38

Yeah. Hmm.

Speaker 9:40

To kind of continue with that, you know, something that really stood out in your story is how much your patients value the care they receive from you and your team. What does it mean to you to hear that kind of feedback and build those true relationships over time?

Speaker 2 9:54

I think it's what keeps all of us going and what keeps all of us in it. There's so much burnout unfortunately, in physical therapy and. When you're not getting, again, that reward or the feedback from the patients that's positive, it's harder to do your day to day and see see growth and see potential in it and be happy, have job satisfaction. So I really like that physical therapy one provides that for, for my team, but also that I can provide that, um, as an employer.

Speaker 10:25

Absolutely. And to just be able to see that kind of positive impact on their life. It honestly, it, it. It makes their quality of life better. They can live their life without that pain.

Speaker 2 10:35

Yeah.

Speaker 10:37

And from your perspective. What are some of the biggest shifts, shifts happening in the physical therapy industry right now, especially when it comes to insurance and access to care?

Speaker 2 10:48

Yeah, I think insurance is unfortunately one of the biggest things. We are an out-of-network provider when our clients come to us. So we bill the insurance company on their behalf, but their reimbursement really depends on their own insurance company. And a lot of people do prefer to. Go in network again, it's just a different standard of care. But what I wish wasn't happening was that insurance was dictating so much of the care that patients receive. It is, I think it's very difficult to see four patients in an hour because you're trying to make up for what insurance would reimburse in network and now you don't have time with that pt and so maybe that patient doesn't get better. And so to the patient and the doctor, they have now failed physical therapy and maybe they are now pushed down a surgical route that wasn't necessarily needed. Or they just have a bad opinion of physical therapy or they're like, I can't get better. And so that really sets up the patient for failure long term. And so we're trying to get them past that or past that mindset by the time we get them for their second opinion. So I do wish that insurance would recognize physical therapy a little bit more for what we do and also the quality of physical therapy, um, that they were reimbursing better for patient. PTs who are spending longer with their clients and getting them better versus just churning them out, uh, right.

Speaker 12:09

Absolutely. Um, I definitely think that you're a niche in that way. Um, just really spending that time and, and getting to assess the situation. It's so important in today's care. And you've also mentioned hosting workshops and community focused events like your upcoming running workshop and injury prevention sessions for artists. How do you, how do these events play a role in your overall mission and connection to the community?

Speaker 2 12:35

So I now have a team of, I'm wanna say six or seven other PTs, which is great. And again, everyone has their own thing that they're really good at. So for Kelsey, she's. In the running community, she's doing running assessments and so, that is who we want her to be able to help. For Tom or hand therapist, we know that like lots of artists have hand, wrist, elbow, shoulder pain from sitting there and painting all day. Ryan recently did baseball assessments. He used to play baseball and. Amazing with the return to sport athletes. So it introduces the community to the clients or to the PTs that we have. So when they need something, they know who to go to. But also it's really just a very cheap, easy way for us too, to help people with little like tweaks and things that might make them feel better without them needing to come in or say, I need a full physical therapy session for my knee that hurts. Um, it's again, going back to that way of how can we help our community in these very. Easy. Cheap, reasonable ways so that you can do a little bit better without needing a huge time commitment.

Speaker 13:41

Yeah. Oh, I think that's a great opportunity to be able to just take advantage of and explore.

Speaker 2 13:46

Yeah. And so we're trying to constantly ask for feedback too, from the Great Falls community as well as the surrounding of what people want, what people need. Um, this artist workshop that we have coming up in April. Is actually something that the artist asked us to do. And so I love that. I hope that people continue to ask us to do things because we're happy to help them and happy to put these events on for them.

Speaker 14:08

Absolutely. Oh, that's wonderful. And as you continue to grow and expand your reach beyond Great Falls and to surrounding areas, what are your goals for the future of your practice?

Speaker 2 14:21

I think it's, uh. I think a lot of times PT just continues to grow, and again, you pop up in different locations and I think for us it is really staying in our Great Falls community, allowing our new location is a little bit closer to Route seven, so ideally we're now getting a little bit more into like Reston, Sterling, Herndon, Vienna. And so the people have again. A little bit better access to the amazing team that we've built. But I think that's where it stops. I don't wanna become a big kind of chain place and I think what we've created is something magical and I don't wanna lose that. And so I just wanted to continue to grow us and to grow my team in a way that instead of maybe adding additional providers, we're bringing in more quality and expanding our knowledge base, um, and potentially other types of PT services that. People need that. They would otherwise have to go to a hospital to receive or drive a far distance. And so that's the future

Speaker 15:21

for sure. Sounds perfect. And for listeners who may be dealing with an injury, looking for expert care or just interested in your services. Where can they find great falls, physical therapy, and connect with you?

Speaker 2 15:35

The website isBest@greatfallspt.com. There's also an appointment request on the website, and we're more than happy to to talk to people. So if they have questions about what's going on, we are happy to have the conversation talk about. What the case is, what you have done, if we think we're the right provider for you, or which of our providers might be correct. And ultimately, if you decide that like physical therapy with us isn't the right fit, we're happy to help you try to navigate to the right place for you. Um, so we are a resource no matter what, if you choose to be a client or not.

Speaker 16:11

Awesome. All you gotta do is reach out.

Speaker 2 16:13

Yep. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 16:15

And as we wrap up, is there anything you'd like to add that I haven't touched on today?

Speaker 2 16:19

No. I mean, I hope that this gives people a good sense of the business and the growth and what we are trying to do. And again, I'm very proud of the practice that I built, but also the team that I have. And so I hope that we can just continue to build our name and recognition for, for what we do and help. People get through their injuries and find, you know, meaning for my staff and also get patients to, the light at the end of the tunnel.

Speaker 16:49

Absolutely. Thank you so much, Dr. Stack for joining me on the podcast today and sharing your knowledge and story with us. I wish you and the entire team at Great Falls Physical Therapy, the very best in all that comes your way in the future. Thank you.