ACRH physical therapy thrives in new facility

In 2005 physical therapy procedures totaled 6,800 at Allen County Hospital, the most of any year through 2013. During the past year at Allen County Regional Hospital the total was 22,000.
Hospital CEO Ron Baker laid much of the increase at the feet of Ben Taylor, who directs a staff of eight in the hospital’s therapy department. Taylor gave Iola Rotarians an assessment Thursday; Baker listened and couldn’t help but crow a bit.
RehabVisions, Omaha, Neb., provides therapy services at ACRH. Taylor is the director. He completed a physical therapy degree at the University of Kansas Medical Center, and then worked with an Iola doctor and care home before taking his expertise to ACRH when it opened.
That he came to Iola is because of his wife, the former Jen Greenwall and a native of Iola, whom he met at a college in Utah. Also, Taylor said, when he completed course work at KU, jobs were not plentiful, but an opening in Iola existed.
Taylor made the move over to ACRH about the same time it opened its new facility on North Kentucky Street. He found the opportunities to explore work in outpatient, inpatient, swingbed and home health fields enticing.
Three of the four are self-explanatory. Swingbed involves care of patients who usually have had surgery, often elsewhere, but need a few days more care before moving to a home setting.
“Typically, swingbed patients have had joint surgery,” Taylor said, and until the past few years that usually was knee replacement. Now, “we’re seeing a lot more shoulder surgeries.”
Recovery from shoulder surgery has much improved in recent years, Taylor said. “They’re going very well. The outcomes are much better.”
Other areas that demand attention are work-related and sports injuries.
Taylor and his staff deal with neurological problems arising from maladies such as strokes and Parkinson’s disease, by “helping with patients’ balance and coordination.”
Therapy also is an avenue to control or abate pain, often as a follow-up to medications.
Being a part of the Omaha company keeps ACRH current on treatments, he said.
One of the newest is therapeutic taping to help alleviate pain, reduce swelling, soften scar tissue and improve posture.
“It’s amazing what a piece of tape properly applied can do,” he said.
Astym treatment is a therapy that uses molded instruments that regenerate soft tissues, such as muscles and tendons, and reduce or eliminate unwanted scar tissue that causes pain or restricts movement. Treatment helps tendonitis, shin splints and the debilitating effects of carpal tunnel.
Taylor said the department is looking into a program for pre-employment screening, to determine whether a potential employee is physically able to do what is required of a job. Local industries are being made aware of the new service.

Taylor encouraged Rotarians to exercise and stay active. Advantages are many: flexibility, balance and coordination, weight loss, greater endurance, improved sleep and better frame of mind.
He proposed much could be gained by exercising 30 minutes, three times a week, with a goal of reaching 60 to 70 percent of maximum heart rate — determined by subtracting one’s age from 220. “It’s important to warm up and slow down,” with stretching after exercise.
Taylor said one can increase his strength by using heavier weights with fewer repetitions, and endurance with more repetitions using lighter weights.