FACILITY SPOTLIGHT: IMPRESSIVE RESULTS FOR SPINE AND JOINT ASSOCIATES

Most healthcare facilities care about helping their patients improve. Many will even invest in new programming or equipment if they believe it will help drive results for patients. Spine and Joint Associates in Mishawaka, IN is no exception. In fact, their impressive facility offers many modalities in order to provide optimal service to their clients. Helping their patients succeed is what drives their passion for offering a wide variety of services.

Spine and Joint Associates offer contemporary Chiropractic, Physical Rehabilitation, Acupuncture, Massage Therapy, Yoga, Tai-Chi and Strength and Conditioning, along with Water Therapy. The addition of aquatic therapy was not necessarily an easy one. While it was something that Dr. Alfred Pinto, DC, L.Ac., believed to be a healing modality, the practicality of adding an in-ground pool to a small space was just not there. When HydroWorx began offering a freestanding option, Dr. Pinto was ready to consider adding water therapy.

But, as suspected, adding aquatic therapy is not a simple thing to jump into. There are logistics and cost analyses that need to be done in order to make sure that patients will use it and it will generate money. Dr. Pinto’s wife, Carrie, manages the business side of things at Spine and Joint Associates and was less enthusiastic about the idea of the purchase than Dr. Pinto, initially. She was very thorough at analyzing all the costs of adding aquatic therapy, including the potential ROI. After speaking to patients and potential referrers and running ALL of the numbers, they decided to install their first HydroWorx 300 unit.

Within 7 months, they needed a second unit to keep up with demand.

Why did they have such success?

• Patients who had tried everything else, even chiropractic, are able to see progress with aquatic therapy.
• Patients are getting a good 30-minute workout in water, one that they couldn’t produce on land because of their conditions.
• Compliance, which is an issue for many practitioners, is higher because patients experienced less pain and they were seeing positive results.
• It gives people HOPE, which is hard to find when you don’t feel good. Patients begin to feel like they can get out and go do something for themselves.

With two HydroWorx freestanding units at Spine and Joint Associates, they have patients in both units from 8:00 am to 5:30 pm daily, for 30-minute sessions. They are seeing a 30% increase in referrals and volume to their practice. 

The decision to move into aquatic therapy has been a positive one for Spine and Joint Associates.