Jefferson County Health Center makes change to physical therapy department

FAIRFIELD – Jefferson County Health Center is restructuring its physical therapy department, but the change will not interrupt patient services.

The health center has opted to make physical therapists employees instead of hiring them as independent contractors. The change will take effect Nov. 1.

The new physical therapy department at the health center will employ 12 people, including three physical therapists with a doctoral degree and another three fulltime physical therapy assistants. The office will have one part-time physical therapy assistant, one fulltime occupational therapist, one fulltime OT assistant, one fulltime speech therapist, one office coordinator and one registration attendant.

Curtis Smith, JCHC chief operating officer, said the services will be exactly the same as before. He said the health center routinely evaluates every contracted service, and it decided that hiring the therapists was the right decision.

Hannah Losey, the new therapy services manager who is trained as a physical therapist and athletic trainer, remarked, 'We'll have the same skill set as before. Besides new faces, everything will be the same in the department.”

Smith said the decision to switch to using employees had nothing to do with the quality of the care offered under the contractor model.

'I'm very confident that Hannah's team will provide the same level of quality care as currently being provided,” he said.

Smith said the health center uses third-party contractors throughout the building, and the rest of them will continue operating as normal. Contracted services include a radiologist, an anesthesiologist and emergency room physicians.

'Many people never knew that the current therapy staff were a contracted service because [contractors] are part of our team,” Smith said.

Losey said her team has been going through orientation since they met the week of Oct. 21, and she expects a smooth transition on Nov. 1.

'We welcome the public to meet the new crew, especially if they have been patients here before,” Losey said. 'Three or four of the new staffers are relocating back home to southeast Iowa to fill these positions.”

Losey's background

Losey is a local gal who graduated from Van Buren County High School in 2005 after being active in extra-curriculars such as softball, volleyball and National Honor Society. She tried out the nursing field after high school, but quickly learned it wasn't for her.

'I did the CNA program, but when I did the clinicals, I realized I wasn't tough enough to be a nurse,” she said. 'I looked into other options, and did some observation in physical therapy.”

Losey studied athletic training during her undergraduate education at the University of Iowa, where she traveled with the university's wrestling team during its national championship season of 2008-2009.

'It made me a better athletic trainer in multiple ways,” Losey said. 'It sharpened my skills, and it made me tougher. I was the only female surrounded by 25 males. The guys were very respectful and great to be around, but it was an intense environment.”

After graduating from Iowa in 2009, Losey got her doctorate degree from Des Moines University in 2013. She spent time working at Marengo Memorial Hospital and had a brief stint at this very Jefferson County Health Center in Fairfield. She worked at Great River Medical Center in Burlington for two years, and just concluded two years at the Keosauqua Health Care Center (formerly known as the Good Samaritan Nursing Home), before accepting the position as therapy services manager at JCHC.

'I loved the geriatric population, but this job was too good to pass up because I really liked being here [at JCHC],” Losey said.

Smith commented, 'I think that's a strength Hannah brings to us. She's had experience with the wrestling team and very high-level sports, has worked at critical access hospitals, and with geriatric populations. Those are all populations we serve, because we don't just specialize in geriatrics or athletics. We serve everyone.”

Losey said the department's patients range from infants to the elderly, and that's true for all three disciplines of physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.

Apart from her experience in athletics and with nursing homes, Losey has trained in vestibular rehabilitation (dizziness and vertigo), and is a certified clinical instructor. She hopes to add a teaching component to the therapy department.

'We're going to reach out to the local schools, and hopefully we'll get some students here,” she said. 'It's crucial for a rural area to attract students, because it's also how you can get employees.”

When Losey was in school, she had to do 36 weeks of clinical internships. She wants to provide both clinical and observation hours to aspiring therapists.

'If high schoolers are considering going into a professional program, they must have multiple hours of observation in different settings,” Losey said.

Smith added that a high school senior recently came to the health center for observation in order to apply for physical therapy school.

Losey's husband is Nathan, who attended Harmony, and who now works as an engineer for John Deere in Ottumwa. The couple have three children: two girls Briley, 8, and Claire, 3, and a boy, Cameron, 2.