SPEAR Physical and Occupational Therapy and SymFit Physical Therapy and Fitness Receive Top Awards at Ascend 2020
Andrew Cuomos state of emergency declaration in New York, SPEAR had launched its branded telehealth service, SPEAR Live.
WebPT, the leading rehab therapy platform for enhancing patient care and fueling business growth, recently announced SPEAR Physical and Occupational Therapy as the winner of the 2020 Ascend Practice of the Year Award and SymFit Physical Therapy and Fitness as the winner of the Innovator of the Year Award. The practices were honored during the seventh-annual Ascend business summit, which took place virtually Sept. 24–26.
“To be recognized as the Ascend Practice of the Year is an incredible honor, and one that is especially meaningful after the challenging year we — along with so many of our colleagues — have had,” said Dan Rootenberg, PT, DPT, CSCS, CEO and co-founder of SPEAR Physical and Occupational Therapy. “By staying true to our community, our core values, our therapists and our patients, we were able to rapidly innovate our services and take calculated risks that have propelled us through the COVID-19 storm. This recognition is extremely meaningful to the entire SPEAR team and will fuel our continued efforts to expand our impact and improve the world’s healthcare system.”
SPEAR was selected as 2020’s Practice of the Year for the team’s ability to incorporate new technologies and strategies that kept their practice afloat throughout the COVID-19 lockdown. Within nine days of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s state of emergency declaration in New York, SPEAR had launched its branded telehealth service, SPEAR Live. SPEAR saw its first telehealth visit on March 19, and within 12 business days, the clinic had already treated 3,921 patients via telehealth. To date, SPEAR has treated nearly 5,000 patients virtually and conducted more than 47,000 telehealth visits. As a result of SPEAR’s telehealth success, the organization did not have to lay off or furlough a single physical therapist because of the pandemic. The company has also rebounded to more than 100% of target patient appointments at two of its clinics.
SPEAR also stood out from other award applicants due to its ability to quickly pivot communication strategies in line with current events. Recognizing that its community members were facing significant financial and logistical barriers to maintaining their health, SPEAR resolved to provide free health tips, advice and workouts in an effort to reach as many people as possible. These efforts included instituting #MovementMondays on Instagram to engage viewers in free virtual workouts as well as launching the “Back to Life” Zoom webinar series to answer health-related questions and provide salient wellness tips.
Similarly regarded for its technological aptitude and commitment to patient care is this year’s Innovator of the Year, SymFit Physical Therapy and Fitness. For more than 18 months before COVID-19 hit, SymFit had been providing virtual physical therapy services to out-of-town referrals with great results via the company’s proprietary virtual physical therapy platform, SymFit®TV, which is an integral part to The SymFit® Healthy Fitness System. SymFit®TV provides access to six layers of neutral spine conditioning to establish a foundation for long-term injury management and prevention. SymFit®TV has been successful in progressing patients further and more quickly through their treatment plans than direct patient care provided at SymFit’s Denver facility.
“SymFit has always been dedicated to advancing technology and innovation within our industry to challenge perceived healthcare borders and improve outcomes, so to be recognized for these efforts as Ascend’s Innovator of the Year is tremendous honor,” said Todd Ball, PT, the clinical director and co-owner of SymFit Physical Therapy and Fitness. “COVID-19 provided us with a chance to virtually treat our long-time maintenance clients virtually with SymFit®TV, proving our hypothesis that in-person care was creating a co-dependency and limiting compliance with prescribed home exercise programs. Our mission now is to share SymFit®TV with the physical therapy community so that all practices have the technological resources to get the most out of every marketing dollar. We will continue to make strides to bring the power of the SymFit® Healthy Fitness System to as many patients as possible.”
During the COVID-19 lockdown, SymFit transformed its care model from offering bi-weekly, in-clinic maintenance sessions to providing weekly virtual physical therapy sessions, using SymFit®TV to transfer responsibility for care to the patient. SymFit has engineered a cheaper and more convenient care delivery system for patients with SymFit®TV, helping them establish a higher level of physical wellness.
“Both SPEAR and SymFit have demonstrated extraordinary ingenuity and dexterity during one of the most challenging years our profession has faced, and we are so proud to recognize them for their efforts during this year’s Ascend conference,” said Heidi Jannenga, PT, DPT, ATC, co-founder and Chief Clinical Officer at WebPT. “It’s resilient practices like these that elevate our profession as a whole. We look forward to watching these practices — along with so many others — continue to break new ground to broaden our industry’s reach and make rehab therapy more accessible to the remaining 90% of people who could truly benefit from it.”
Those interested in receiving updates on applications for the 2021 Ascend Practice of the Year Award and Innovator of the Year Award can subscribe to the WebPT Blog at webpt.com/blog. For more information about Ascend, visit webpt.com/ascend.
About WebPT, Inc.
With a 40% market share, WebPT is the leading rehab therapy platform for enhancing patient care and fueling business growth. WebPT’s product suite provides a robust end-to-end solution covering the entire rehab therapy business cycle, from billing and managing a practice to delivering quality, evidence-based care. With a 99% retention rate and an uptime rate in excess of 99.9% across its entire platform, WebPT is the most-trusted and most-reliable solution in the industry, regardless of practice setting, specialty or size. WebPT’s growth has earned it a spot on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing companies seven years in a row as well as inclusion on the 2018 Healthcare Informatics list of the top 100 U.S. healthcare IT vendors. Learn more at webpt.com.
About SPEAR Physical and Occupational Therapy
Founded in a single room in Midtown Manhattan in 1999, SPEAR Physical and Occupational Therapy now provides remote, in-home and on-call physical therapy; over 20 immaculate clinic locations throughout the NYC-metro area; and dozens of free online and offline community health events each year. SPEAR now improves the lives of tens of thousands of New Yorkers each year and has become the highest-rated physical therapy practice in NYC (with over 3,500 online reviews that average 4.9 stars). SPEAR’s quality of service and rapid growth have earned it significant recognition, including being the first private physical therapy company to ring the opening bell on the NY Stock Exchange; being profiled in the NY Post's feature on democratic leadership; being named the Nation's Top Physical Therapy Practice by the American Physical Therapy Association's Private Practice Section in 2016/2017; making the Inc. 5000 List six times; receiving the Columbia Award for Leadership in Clinical Education; winning CEO Report’s Corporate Culture Award; and winning 2020 Practice of the Year from WebPT’s Ascend Conference.
Visit SPEAR Physical and Occupational Therapy:
https://spearcenter.com/ | https://www.facebook.com/SPEARPhysicalTherapyNYC/ | https://www.instagram.com/spearptnyc/ | https://www.linkedin.com/company/spearpt/
About SymFit Physical Therapy and Fitness
SymFit PT and Fitness was founded in April 2006 by Todd Ball, PT, and his wife Jennifer Ball, after having secured a contract with the Denver Fire Department to provide them with a safe neutral spine conditioning system to strengthen spine alignment. In 2011, SymFit created The SymFit® Healthy Fitness System to ensure all aspects of fitness were being addressed in each prescribed home exercise. Five years later, SymFit launched its first version of SymFit®TV, a proprietary, video-on-demand platform where patients can access their prescribed home exercise program in a structured way to maximize compliance and safety. Currently, there are three phases to the SymFit® Healthy Fitness System: SymFit 1, Neutral Spine Conditioning; SymFit 2, Functional Fitness; and SymFit 3, Complete Fitness. Rather than compete with other physical therapy practices, Todd and Jennifer want to share what they have learned to help other therapy providers reach their full potential and provide an optimal patient care experience. They believe a medical referral should be the beginning of a life-long relationship and are excited to share SymFit®TV with other physical therapists to improve cash flow diversity and reduce dependency on third-party reimbursement.
Visit SymFit Physical Therapy and Fitness online:
For patients: https://symfittv.com | https://www.facebook.com/symfitptandfitness | https://symfitptandfitness.com/blog
For physical therapists: https://symfittv.com/resellers | https://www.linkedin.com/company/symfitptandfitness/
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