Doctors of Physical Therapy get Small Biz Feel-Good

 A Plainfield physical therapy group is up for a big feel-good from the small business community.

 , with its newest office at Caton Farm Road and Route 59, made the cut as one of 54 finalists out of a field of hundreds of competitors for the Top Small Company Workplaces 2011 recognition from Inc. Magazine and Winning Workplaces.

 This is the ninth year Winning Workplaces, an Evanston, IL-based nonprofit organization, pairs up with Inc Magazine, a New-York-based monthly magazine for the people who run growing companies, to showcase the best small workplaces in the country.

 “We are extremely excited that one of the largest business magazines and communities in our country are recognizing our small company for doing the right thing when it comes to physical therapy,” said Aaron Kraai, founder & CEO of Doctor’s Physical Therapy.

 Hiring only top-shelf therapists is what sets Doctors of Physical Therapy apart, Kraai said. Only doctorate-level physical therapists who graduate from one of the top 20 schools in America get slots on its staff.

 “By hiring ….the highest-educated clinicians, Doctors of Physical Therapy are getting people better, faster,” he said. 

 Patients pay the same co-pay and cost-per-visit to see an assistant with two years of school as a doctorate-level physical therapist with seven or eight years of education, Kraai said. But industry literature shows major differences in the length of treatment and outcomes between the two, he said.

 “The health-care industry is placing more of the burden onto the patient, and as a result people are doing more research and becoming more educated on how they spend their healthcare dollars,” he said.

 What does it take to be a top small company workplace?

 For one thing, they find ways to weather the recession by opting to share the pain rather than lay off colleagues. Some executives at last year’s winning companies—which ranged from the New York Jets to A Yard and a Half landscaping company of Boston and outdoor clothing designer Patagonia—took salary cuts to keep their business afloat, according to information on the Winning Workplaces Website.

 We'll find out who wins the Top Small Company in America later this month. They'll get ink in Inc. Magazine’s June edition and will be honored at an awards ceremony in Dallas.

 Doctors of Physical Therapy has six locations in Wisconsin and Illinois.