LVC clinic fills need for service, training

Listen to this article

The college’s student athletes couldn’t get necessary, rigorous physical therapy from its sports medicine department, so they were driving a half-hour to Harrisburg or Hershey. Residents of Annville who needed similar therapy were doing the same thing — after many of them first called the college to see if the services were available there.

The college solved the dilemma by asking its physical therapy department to open the off-campus, school-funded Lebanon Valley College Physical Therapy and Sports Rehabilitation Clinic in the fall. The clinic opened to the public at the beginning of June.

“For a college student athlete, to drive that far, three times a week, often was a very large burden,” said Brian Peers, the director of the clinic and an assistant clinic professor of physical therapy at the college. “And there is a need in the community. It’s the perfect marriage.”

The full-service clinic accepts most insurance policies, relies on the skills and expertise of the college’s physical therapy faculty and allows students in the department to learn on the clinic’s patients.

The clinic occupies a 3,000- square-foot downtown space in Annville, a short walk from the college campus. About half of the space — which formerly was the Levi Samuel Hair Studio — has been finished, and the other half should be finished by the end of the summer.

RELATED: LVC physical therapy clinic to open to the public

At its peak, the clinic hopes to see about 100 student athletes a week and 100 members of the community. That would result in a likely profit for the clinic, the proceeds of which would sustain the center, covering salaries and operations, and also help fund the physical therapy department’s future research and programs, Peers said.

A similar model

Array

Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind., saw a similar need in its community when it started the ISU Physical Therapy and Sports Rehabilitation Clinic. The rural college only had one major hospital within about 20 miles, with one major physical therapy clinic associated with that hospital.

The Indiana facility opened for student athletes about seven years ago, expanded to the campus community about a year later and shortly thereafter opened to the entire community, according to Ryan Hanigan, the clinic’s director.