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NovaCare
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(L-R) Claudia Paulette, Stephen Davis and Kelly Lecy
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Local specialists in physical therapy, by Bob McCarthy
Nova Care provides physical therapy to patients who have been injured, perhaps in an automobile accident or through work and are receiving Workman's Compensation. "A lot of our clientele consists of the elderly," said Kelly Lecy, a Patient Service Specialist, with the Nova Care facility housed in the Jewish Community Center (JCC) in Longmeadow. "Other patients have had total hip replacements or knee replacements and are in a lot a pain." The program at Nova Care is designed to help patients who have experienced some type of trauma. Stephen Davis is the physical therapist at the JCC location and its manager, aided by Ms. Lecy and Claudia Paulette, a physical therapy assistant who has been with Nova Care for 25 years.
The Process
Patients are generally referred by a physician who is seeking a non-surgical treatment plan for their patients. "We are sort of the last resort before surgery," said Lecy. They undergo an assessment by Stephen Davis to determine in part what their life was like before the trauma, what they could achieve and what their goals are while in therapy and after therapy. A patient then undergoes some basic tests which are documented in what are referred to as SOAP notes (Subjective Objective Assessment Plan). Before they begin any program patients are made completely aware of what their treatment plan will entail, whether their insurance plan will cover their treatment, etc.
On average, a patient comes to the Nova Care Center two-to-three times a week for up to three months. During that period, the patient's performance is re-evaluated. "Usually by that time," said Lecy, "the physical therapist will know whether the patient can be referred back to their physician. "But a lot of patients don't like to leave," said Lecy. "I think a lot of it is that this is something they enjoy, it breaks up the monotony of the day, and there is a social aspect, companionship, to being here."
The Corporate Picture
The Nova Care facility at the JCC is one of a half-dozen in the area, all of which are owned by Select Medical Corporation headquartered in Mechanicsville, PA. All of them offer a similar menu of services with some variation. The Springfield facility offers work conditioning and the JCC offers aquatic therapy and treatment for patients with vertigo. Claudia Paulette notes that their facility does a lot of hands on therapy for patients. "If a person's shoulder is stuck, we don't just stretch it, we do what is called mobilization."
This facility treats on average one hundred patients each week. Geographically most come from western Mass or northern Connecticut but they have treated people from the eastern part of the state or students, many of them athletes, attending local colleges.
Marketing is handled by personnel in the Springfield office which arranges regular "meet and greet" with physicians.
Meet and greet also applies to the JCC operations where both Paulette and Lecy say that their work day is fun, partly because of the diversity of patients they see and treat and also because the staff takes the time and makes the effort to have an upbeat approach to their work, an approach much appreciated by patients who come to them with pain seeking a way to return to a more normal and hopefully pain free way of life.
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