Exercise is an essential component of health and wellness. However, medical limitations, excess weight and other conditions often keep some individuals from getting the exercise they need. To address the fitness needs of medically compromised patients, one physical therapist combined his private physical therapy practice with a medically oriented gym (MOG). Russ Certo, PT and owner of Grand Island Physical Therapy is the founder of the MOG concept. He shares details about medically oriented gyms in this week’s PT Talker podcast.
The medically oriented gym resembles a traditional fitness club with a few exceptions. Exercises are based on the science of exercise and are supervised by medical staff including licensed physical therapists, physical therapy assistants, and exercise physiologists. Physical therapists work closely with patients to help them achieve their personal fitness goals while keeping their physical limitations or medical condition in mind. Many of Certo’s clients begin as physical therapy patients and transition to the MOG once therapy is done.
One of the hurdles Certo faced when starting the MOG concept was learning how to run a fitness club. He attended a National Fitness Club Convention to learn how the industry worked and realized he can build a niche by providing a medically-focused service to clients. Over the years, interest in the MOG concept has grown. Certo started a MOG group co-op to help other private physical therapy clinics add a MOG to their clinic and now has 8 co-op members located across the nation.
To learn how a MOG can benefit your physical therapy practice, listen to the full podcast now.
Could Your Practice Benefit from Adding a Medically Oriented Gym? [ 15:19 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
One Comment
I am just beginning a new position as clinical coordinator at two facilites which are independent and assisted living communities for a large company which also has SNF and memory care facilities. My primary directives are to improve maximum utilization/outcomes via oversight of improved functional progressions in both the home health, outpatient through to our facilities wellness programs. My second directive is to increase utilization of therapies in these programs overall. I have a strong belief that all of these type of facilites who are adding and wanting to increase outpatient services are not adequately developing their clinics in order to offer truly competitive outpatient services. A personal goal is to work toward getting this huge corporation to use our settings as pilot sites to implement progressive investments to expand space and equipment geared toward the goal of making legitimate outpatient clinics which I can then honestly and with integrity funnel my residents’ into our OP program versus going out of house. I want to know much more about your MOG approach and hopefully use you as a resource to strengthen my fiscal justification to reach this goal. Ultimately the idea is to then reproduce the same model in all of their facilities nationally. That is their concept, of having essentially the same programs for efficiency of management in every location. This latter point will work against me in instigating real change, initially unless I can make very strong presentations and then execute with real finacial (and of course improved resident care). I have other benefits to present such as staff retention, using the model clinics as magnets for new residents to be highlighted in marketing programs etc. I think you might be just what I need because of the expanse of MOGs you have been involved with growing across many sites…right? Do you have any similar settings who have invested in the MOG concept? I want to start a revolution! I don’t have my PT website developed yet, but I hope to have one by the end of the year. I know several of the PTs listed on the right!
The above websites are not directly related to my PT practice but is a home business which offer elite objective functional lab tests to customize daily nutritional supplementation and other tests to help identify issues with prostate, pre/menopausal/post hormone needs, digestive issues, fitness (usually done pre weight loss program), all matched with extensive research review and monitoring and evidence based research corresponding supplementation. These are great products and concept to be utilized by clinicians, physiologists, fitness trainers to safely recommend on a medical model based concept. Clinicians can increase their income, improve their clients health and wellbeing (there is also a whole product line for kids snacks and innovative nutritional support–1 in 8 persons today will likely develop diabetes and 1 in 3! persons born after 2005). I would like to converse with you about this as an adjunct to the MOG concept, which will increase your earning potential as well BTW. As a start, I would like you to consider taking time to look at the world class lab our company uses which has a full menu of, “functional lab tests.” Please look up Metametrix Labs. Then either through their site or by going directly to the site go to our Ideal Health site and review the tests and products and listen please to 5 to 10 of our medical director’s video blogs which are about supplementation/health in general and how the company’s products are formulated to be products that are designed to work. Then go to my today is your time site about the business opportunity. I do have a flow sheet for the potential earnings based solely off of the sales of the Privatest (all our tests are done at home and picked up with a phone call to Fedex included in the price) and clients buying monthly, “Custom Essentials.” I also have a report from a Privatest for you to look at to get a better ideal of the elegant design of the testing for the daily nutritional supplementation (custom essentials) and how each person’s supplements are custom calibrated to improve health.
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