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Home health care setting leads to innovation

Ken Mosier Bryce Hartman loads equipment for patients into the trunk of 'his office' as he prepares to make his rounds.

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By Ken Mosier, Health Care Today Updated 10:05 AM Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Bryce Hartman

Title: Physical Therapy Assistant

Affiliation: Upper Valley Medical Center Home Care Services

Education: Bachelor's degree, exercise science, Bowling Green State University; associate degree, physical therapy, Clark State Community College

After graduating from Bowling Green State University with a degree in exercise science, Bryce Hartman went to work in the corporate fitness center at Navistar in Springfield.

Questions from those using the facility changed his career plans.

"These individuals would come to me and ask, 'How do I fix this (injury)?' I would tell them that that wasn’t really my scope," Hartman said.

He decided to put it within his scope and enrolled in the first-ever class for physical therapy assistants at Clark State Community College.

"It seemed like a nice complement to what I had already been doing," he said.

Upon receiving his associate degree, Hartman, a Troy native, found a job as a PTA in Home Care Services at Upper Valley Medical Center.

"I have been here 10 years now — 11, come August," he said.

A new patient requiring physical therapy is first seen by a physical therapist — a job which requires a master’s or a doctoral degree — who makes up a plan of care.

"Really, the care is directed by a physical therapist, and I report directly to the physical therapist in regards to the care of the patient," Hartman said. "(The PTAs) see the therapist regularly. We will kind of discuss patient progress, challenges and changes we might need to make for the patient."

Hartman said on a typical day, he sees five to seven patients and spends about 45 minutes with each. Patients are seen two or three times a week for two to four weeks. With that many visits, he gets familiar with the patient quickly.

"You really get to know the patient much better than the 15 to 25 minutes that you get to spend with a patient in an inpatient setting, where you are always running from one (patient) to the other. Here you get the opportunity to kind of sit down with them," he said.

He said the home setting also forces him to be innovative.

"I might use a tissue box as kind of a target for them to reach," he said. "Different things throughout the home become the equipment."

Hartman conceded there would be one advantage to working inpatient services.

"My wife doesn't like to drive my car because it is my office and it can be kind of messy with all the stuff that we are dragging around," he said with a smile.

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