A letter from the desk at Hi-Line Retirement Center

We have been busy here at Hi-Line Retirement Center getting our physical therapy department established. Since the nursing home did not previously have its own physical therapy department, we had to start from the ground up. The past couple months we have been busy evaluating and treating residents who were in need of physical therapy (new and long-time residents alike), developing exercise programs for our residents to help keep them moving and as active as possible, as well as getting all the other busy work done that tends to go with starting and running a department. If some morning, you walk by the rehab room, most likely you will see at least 2 or 3 people working with our wonderful restorative aides doing exercises, using the nu-step machine, or working in the parallel bars. We are very fortunate to have such a caring and energetic team.

Currently, we have 2 restorative aides that help residents stay active and participate in their own personalized exercise programs. Visiting with many residents there seems to be a general consensus that they are very happy this program has been started again and that it seems to be going very well.

Here in the next couple months, we hope to be looking to hire a part-time physical therapy assistant (PTA) to assist with treatments at HLRC so that I can begin to increase my time and commitment to my own outpatient clinic that is located in assisted living apartment 1. Also coming in August I will not be available to do any treatments as I will be having my third baby! So, we are hoping that at least by that time we have been able to get some additional help so that there is good continuation of care.