Physical therapist puts personal touch on treating patients

OrthoSports' specialty is tailored programs

MOSES LAKE — There's a lot of tools in physical therapist Julie Loudon's toolbox. But they wouldn't fit in an actual toolbox.

Loudon's equipment is on display within OrthoSports, which opened in March at 2200 S. Maiers Road, Suite C and has been garnering much positive response ever since.

"I've been a physical therapist for almost 17 years," Loudon said. "Work for other people long enough, and sooner or later you get the drive to want to do your own little shop."

While working in Spokane, Loudon ran a health club.

"My favorite was always working with people that were injured and needed something special, and so I decided to go back to school in something that would do that," she explained. "You have to set up tailored, special programs for them, versus the plain, go walk on a treadmill, take an aerobic class. The different conditions that you'd run across in a health club, you had to change things."

OrthoSports is an out-patient physical therapy clinic, where Loudon can offer individualized programs for patients to get over their illnesses or injuries. Her personal specialties are injuries to the spine and neck, and other orthopedic injuries.

"So most patients get better, faster if they attend physical therapy, then if they try to nurse their injury along," Loudon said.

She treats anything from a thumb, a foot, an elbow to a head injury, strains and sprains, muscle tears and post-surgical treatments.

"One of my goals was just to be able to offer a very high quality of care, and a lot of one-on-one type services with the patients," she said. "When you focus on only one patient, you're more attentive to what their needs are, you're able to adapt and adjust their programs on a real frequent basis to progress them more readily."

Originally from Pullman, Loudon moved into the area about seven years ago with her husband of 20 years, John. He was in the military, so they were stationed in Texas for about 15 years. They were looking to move back up north to be closer to their families, and John was recruited to work at Samaritan.

A variety of physicians from around the area send their patients Loudon's way. She is the only physical therapist in the business, with the support of office manager Myra Wentworth, who "wears eight hats on the job, at least."

Since opening, Loudon has been kept busy, with 30 percent of the business being referrals by patients to other friends, she said.

"I am totally pleased and don't regret a minute of taking that scary step out on our own," Loudon said. "Doing your own business is a worry, exciting and scary and all those things wrapped into one, and I wouldn't change it. It's turned out excellent."