What do you get when you combine the skills of an overachieving physiotherapist with an astute and wise chartered accountant?
You get The Joint Physiotherapy and Sports Injury Centre on Eighth Street in Courtenay.
Soon after opening in June 2009, they were busting at the seams; therapists were working compressed hours and space was tight.
In this current and difficult economic time with businesses downsizing, struggling, and even closing, owners Eddy Betinol, orthopedic physiotherapist and Donna Cloutier, chartered accountant with Pateman & Company, have expanded their clinic.
“By Year Three, we started looking seriously at proceeding with an expansion,” Cloutier says.
The vision to expand was always there, however the timing had to be right.
“Our business model has never been about taking another piece of the pie. It is about the services that are not currently being provided in the Valley,” Betinol explains.
The Joint is the first facility in the Comox Valley to offer the Worksafe BC Hand Therapy Program. Injured or post-surgical clients no longer need to travel to Campbell River or Nanaimo for therapy.
Betinol is adding a board-certified clinician for musculoskeletal ultrasound. This service will assist in clarifying the diagnosis and treatment path plan of the client, a first for the Comox Valley.
Before the end of 2013, Betinol will be certified in pain management, a multi-disciplinary post-degree program offered at the University of Alberta.
“In pain management, when people understand the pain and they learn how to manage it, that adds to their quality of life,” Betinol explains.
The Joint was also the first locally to offer intramuscular stimulation (IMS).
Besides offering more services, The Joint has increased in size from 1,600 square feet to 3,800, offering clients a larger gym and floor exercise area, plus additional treatment rooms.
Soon to open (mid-summer) is a physiotherapy pool. Betinol explains that the in-house pool will offer patients flexible scheduling and a greater degree of privacy during their therapy.
Office manager Jessica Dyck is ecstatic about the expansion.
“We have grown so much in the three years that I’ve been here,” she says. “This is the extra space that we have needed for a long time.”
Betinol and Cloutier credit clients and staff for their success.
They recognize that clients have a number of great clinics to choose from in the Valley and they readily acknowledge “it is a privilege” to treat the clients who have navigated their way to The Joint.
“We are blessed,” Eddy confesses. “Our front end (staff of five) is unbelievable and our six physios, the exercise physiologist and our massage therapist are amazing.”
The therapists at The Joint are constantly pushing themselves and continuing with their education. Betinol adds that they are passionate in their drive to learn.
Betinol and Cloutier believe in treating clients with compassion and employees with gratitude.
What’s next?
There have been a lot of sacrifices during the expansion project. Being partners in life as well as business, Betinol and Cloutier are looking forward to normalizing — even though they are not sure what that means.
For more information, contact The Joint (250) 331-1200.
www.thejointphysiotherapy.com