New physical therapy clinic
Berks County native Michael Bartolomucci wanted to establish a physical therapy practice in his own community, which he viewed as an underserved market for clinics.
So while the new state-of-theart Phoenix Physical Therapy center along Route 422 in Lower Heidelberg Township is technically part of a larger chain, Bartolomucci gives the facility a decidedly local touch.
“The biggest thing going forward is keeping that hometown feel in a physical therapy climate,” said Bartolomucci, doctor of physical therapy and clinic director at Phoenix Physical Therapy. “We’re not just Phoenix, we’re that hometown PT place.”
An Exeter High School graduate, Bartolomucci resides in Robesonia with his wife, daughter and son — so when he says hometown, he means it.
“Being eight minutes down the road, I’m as local as it gets,” Bartolomucci said.
Not so local, however, that the
Phoenix Physical Therapy located just west of Wernersville at 6889 Penn Ave. doesn’t offer some of the most sophisticated forms of therapy available.
Preventative health measures
Bartolomucci held an open house on Tuesday to show off the clinic, which is outfitted with an advanced piece of technology called a MAC Concussion Cart, which could wind up saving victims of head trauma a trip to visit a big-city specialist.
The MAC Concussion Cart can share data with a member physician
in the Mid-Atlantic Concussion Alliance to quickly diagnose a brain injury and begin treatment.
“The thing that’s nice is they don’t always have to drive all the way to Philadelphia, the Main Line, Delaware,” Bartolomucci said. “They can actually have a telehealth once a week with the MAC physician, and those same notes are sent to their primary care physician so they’re not left out of the loop.”
The Concussion Cart can also assess athletes before an injury occurs by using what is known as an EyeGuide test.
“We can screen the entire football team, for instance, and we know their baseline, we know their normal, so if a concussion ever does occur, we know what abnormal is,” Bartolomucci said. “Then we can hit the ground running with them because we know where they were previously.”
One specific hope for the technology is it can benefit area high school athletes.
Phoenix Physical Therapy will also consult with local companies to assess whether physical work is being performed safely and correctly. And, in the event of a workplace
injury, that allows Bartolomucci’s practice to know ahead of time the precise condition an employee needs to reach to return to action.
“We’ll see are they going through the lifting mechanics properly, are they at risk of future injury, and we’ll create a job analysis specific for that job task,” Bartolomucci. “That way we can prevent future injury.
“And if they actually do get hurt, then they would come here after the injury and we would have their physical demand level that we need to get them back to.”
Physical therapy with a personal touch
Though Bartolomucci specializes in orthopedic care such as shoulders, neck, back and knees, Phoenix Physical Therapy treats a wide range of injuries “all the way down to your great toe.”
Bartolomucci earned his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and exercise science from Bloomsburg University before attending D’Youville College in Buffalo, N.Y. to become a doctor of physical therapy.
He spent the last nearly seven years as a facility director with Pivot Physical Therapy until the opportunity to join Phoenix and direct this new clinic emerged.
“From the top management to executives, they’re all there to help and to help you grow,” Bartolomucci said of Phoenix Physical Therapy. “There’s autonomy. They trust you.
“You are the specialist in your field, which is physical therapy, and they’re there to make sure you achieve your goal.”
In some sense, Bartolomucci has achieved his goal in launching the facility, which opened in July. But to really accomplish what he’s set out to do in his field requires him to continue providing individualized care to every patient who walks through his doors.
“There’s not going to be anything that’s cookie-cutter,” he said. “Most of us have had physical therapy at some point, and sometimes you go through that process and get into a scenario where you become a number.
“What I try to avoid is the old school thought where, ‘Hey, here’s your exercises, good luck.’ I try to have that one-on-one care.”