WHEATLAND – There are a lot of hurting people, and one of the saviors of our generation has been the physical therapists with new ways to offer people quality of life after an accident or an illness.
Mike Utt, the supervisor of the Wheatland Clinic has been with North Platte Physical Therapy for three years.
“We are independently owned,” Utt said. “North Platte is owned by eight partners in the company and they are all full-time practicing physical therapists. Together they own North Platte. There are 18 total clinics including one in Wheatland, one in Guernsey and then 16 others.”
17 of the 18 facilities are in Wyoming with the 18th clinic in Gering, Nebraska. There are different names for four of the clinics due to the different affiliations, but they are all owned by North Platte.
“I think we have somewhere around 50 total therapists,” he said. “In this clinic alone, we have four. We have myself and I have a physical therapy assistant named Emily Hilty, I have an occupational therapist, Lyndsie Fuller, an occupational assistant, Maggie Butler and right now we have two traveling physical therapists who are not employed by us, but we are using them because we’re in need of hiring more therapists.”
North Platte had been in their former location on 953 Walnut Street for 15 years according to Utt.
“It’s so awesome that we were able to get this new facility,” Utt said. “North Platte has been in Wheatland for 33 years total. This building came about because the other one just got too small for us. We’ve really grown. We just didn’t have enough space to do the things we needed to do.”
Robert and Bruce Hilty who own the land where the industrial park is being established were looking to build on it and NPPT were the first ones that they approached to see if there would be an interest to move to their brand-new building.
“We had been looking for a new facility,” Utt said. “They approached us and they built this for us. We are going to be leasing it from them on a 10-year lease. They are going to be putting other buildings in this park, but it’s been so great working with them. The dimensions and the exterior were set up by them, but everything on the inside was fashioned just for us. It was customized to meet our needs.”
According to Utt, some of the patients are referred from Banner Health, however Banner does have their own physical therapy clinic.
“The beauty of working in physical therapy and the beauty or working for people in this community is that if you see a Banner Health physician, the people in the community have a choice as to where they can do their physical therapy.”
A big chunk of NPPT referrals come from more independent doctors or even doctors from out of town such as Cheyenne, Douglas and Laramie.
“In addition to this facility, we do pool therapy also,” he said. “We contract with the Heartland Hotel and we go over there and use their pool two days a week. We do all sorts of therapy. I am dry needle certified. I am also a board-certified orthopedic specialist, and the only board-certified orthopedic specialist in Platte County.”
Going forward, NPPT will employ six therapists and depending on how it goes, they do have the extra room to have up to eight therapists working out of their new building.
“We’re just hoping to continue to grow,” Utt said. “We want to help service the community and bring in therapists as the demand requires. We really work as a team and keep you seeing the same therapist each time, but we really make it a pride of ours to know what is going on with every single patient that comes in the door. Just in case, let’s say your therapist is out that day, we want to be able to have another therapist treat you and give you the same quality of care.”
Each of the therapists has specialized training in different areas. The concept is team therapy to help people get back up and living a quality life.
The move began last Friday and the first day of therapy went forth yesterday in the new facility located just off of 16th Street across from Laramie Peak Motors. For questions or more information, you can call (307) 322-1878. A grand opening celebration is yet to be scheduled.
