The director of rehabilitation services at Tennova Healthcare – LaFollette Medical Center worked with a local hockey team to learn how healthcare and professional sports can work together.
“I had the amazing opportunity to work with the Knoxville Ice Bears, a semi-pro hockey team, along with some orthopedic surgeons, and I got experience with the business side of sports medicine,” said Chris Matthews, Tenova LaFollette's director of rehab. “When we think about PT and athletic training, we think, 'I've got to go to the doctor. I get an injury. I get a prescription to fix it. I see someone in the outpatient department. I've got to rehab my shoulder or my knee.' Then you think about the sports side of owning a franchise and bringing in players from the U.S. and even internationally, putting them in a Marriott hotel downtown for two weeks and doing tryouts. But how do you screen all those players from all over the world? They literally come in with binders of health information, and you have physical therapists, optometrists, orthopedic surgeons, neurologists.”
Matthews spoke at Tuesday's Campbell County Rotary Club meeting.
“Every player that comes in, we're kind of working them in a factory. We're evaluating all of their joints, spine, concussion history, testing them for any health concerns and then we're trying to determine if we're going to employ this player with our franchise, if we're going to take a risk as a franchise owner,” Matthews said. “Some of them don't want to reveal that they've had six concussions in hockey, that they've had three ACL rehabs, they've had two spinal surgeries. They try to hide that as much as possible because they really want to make the roster. So we're looking at the professional sports side, getting that experience and trying to figure out how to incorporate that type of orthopedic care into what they would experience in rehab and in family practice. Local health is important, and that's why we have Rachel as an athletic trainer for the school system.”
Also attending the Rotary meeting was Rachel Kozemko, athletic trainer at Campbell County High School.
“My role at the hospital is the director of rehabilitation, which encompasses physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and athletic training with Rachel for the school system,” Matthews said.
