Aquatic Therapy Applications for Critical Access Hospitals

Presented By: Elizabeth McDonald, CPTA, Director of Therapy Services and Cardiac Rehabilitation at Gove County Medical Center

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Many Critical Access Hospitals have found aquatic therapy to be an ideal match for the unique needs of a rehabilitation department serving a rural community. It can help them to improve and accelerate patient outcomes while offering a service to their community that may not otherwise be available.

In this webinar, Elizabeth McDonald, CPTA, Director of Therapy Services and Cardiac Rehabilitation at Gove County Medical Center, will share the ways they’ve used to aquatic therapy to address several challenges faced by Critical Access Hospitals including reducing outpatient length of stay and increasing patient referrals.

Elizabeth will review why her hospital initially decided to integrate aquatic therapy into their rehabilitation program and how it was intended to be used at the outset. She will then describe how they have progressively expanded the aquatic therapy patient base from orthopedic and post-operative patients to those with MS, Lupus and balance issues then to cancer and cardiac rehab patients. She will also review the unique benefits that aquatic therapy offers each patient group.

She will discuss strategies for using the program to bring in new patients and increase revenue including private pay programs to supplement insurance reimbursement. She will also share ideas for marketing an aquatic therapy program to the community and encouraging word of mouth doctor referrals.

Attendees of the Webinar will learn:

  • How to use aquatic therapy to address several challenges faced by Critical Access Hospitals
  • How to progressively expand an aquatic therapy patient base
  • Strategies to use an aquatic therapy program to bring in new patients and increase revenue


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SPEAKER BIO:

Elizabeth McDonald is the Director of Therapy Services and Cardiac Rehab at Gove County Medical Center in Quinter, KS. Elizabeth has been a CPTA for 21 years and the director of Gove County Medical Center’s therapy program for 15 years. She started the hospital’s cardiac rehab program in 2005, and the aquatic therapy program and cancer rehab program in 2010. She has been a student clinical instructor since 2008. Elizabeth is a member of AACVPR and MOKSAACVPR as well as the Aquatic Section of the APTA. She has taken MFR I and II classes from John F. Barnes and currently practices MFR. Elizabeth graduated from Colby Community College in 1995 and went on to get her Bachelor of Science degree from Pima Medical Institute – Tucson in 2015. She holds certifications in BLS and ACLS and has been a Falling Less in Kansas trainer since 2013.