A physically untapped market
Richard Symister, senior physical therapist and co-owner of Brooklyn Body Works, gives an evaluation to a patient in his Williamsburg clinic. PHOTO: TRICIA SUMMERS
Reported on Aug. 22, 2009
Health care is getting physical in Williamsburg.
“This neighborhood needs quality health care,” said Richard Symister, senior physical therapist and co-owner of Brooklyn Body Works on Union Avenue. “Most people I speak to, they actually go into the city because they have a stigma of Brooklyn not having good clinicians, good doctors, and we found there was a great need around here for that.”
Incorporated in 2005, BBW is in its fourth year. Co-owned by senior physical therapists Symister and Matthew Spiegelman, BBW prides itself on one-on-one attention between therapists and patients, a pleasant office, and a holistic approach. For Williamsburg, which has had few physical therapy outpatient clinics, this has been a welcome change.
“Within five miles, there were probably three or four places,” Symister said. “And all I hear when patients come to see us, if they’ve been to another clinic, they say the same thing: ‘They stuck me in a room, left me with my exercises, all they did was hot pack and then a bike, and that was it.’ I don’t hear a lot of people saying they received quality treatment, hands-on care. It was almost like a meat market, like a conveyor belt for patients in most of these clinics.”
According to Symister, the choice of Williamsburg was strategic: He and Spiegelman consider it an “un-captured” market, where they found lower rent for more space, and a diverse population. BBW has capitalized on these under-served and diverse demographics, accepting insurance and pay-for-service coverage from its patients. BBW’s bread-and-butter specialties are a broad range of orthopedic injuries: muscle strains, rotator cuff tears, and sports injuries–the bulk of their treatment–in patients that range in age from 30 to 55.
“I don’t really have any other experience with any other physical therapy places here in New York, just because I came here first and I liked it and I stayed,” said Tricia Turbold, 26, a marathon runner.
Stephen McDowell, 32, is a city corrections officer who has been coming to BBW to treat a torn Achilles tendon since July. McDowell, who was on crutches for the first two weeks of his treatment, comes on a weekly basis to strengthen his healing tendon.
“You work pretty hard here,” McDowell said. “I believe it’s necessary if you have injuries. I had an injury a few years ago on my shoulder, and I didn’t seek out any type of physical therapy, and I had that injury for three years.”
Nearby Woodhull Hospital has its own physical therapy services, and is not a source of referrals for BBW. According to Dr. Jonah Green, chief of Woodhull’s department of rehabilitation medicine, Woodhull sees a wider variety of medical cases than smaller clinics like BBW.
“Maybe some physical therapy places might just deal with the back pain, orthopedic issues whereas physical therapy here deals with a wide variety of cases from neurologic to orthopedic to any sort of trauma,” Green said.
“The patients have access to a full range of services,” said Woodhull spokeswoman Nancy Peterson. “They may need imaging services in order to better diagnose and come up with a treatment plan for them, or any of the other services a hospital provides.”
Symister, however, is confident that BBW has struck a chord with Williamsburg. His patient traffic has steadily increased over the past four years, and at BBW, business is good.
“It’s an experience, and that’s what we were going for,” Symister said with a smile. “When people leave here and they’re like, ‘Wow, I’m glad I came in here.’ ”
