Putting patients first

Advanced Physical Therapy Solutions Celebrates A Successful Year Of Business In Their Second Location

Advanced Physical Therapy Solutions is a private practice outpatient orthopedic physical therapy clinic. After 18 years of operating in Fayetteville, the company opened a second location in Hope Mills last May.

Laura Schindler founded APTS after working in the industry for a while and recognizing some changes she wanted to see. “[I] worked at a hospital for a period of time, worked for a physician owned practice for a period of time, and just kind of got a little bit antsy as I was turning 40 thinking with all of the things that I had seen and done that I thought I could maybe do them a little bit differently,” remarked Schindler.

The business grew slowly. Schindler shared that by the end of the first year she’d hired a physical therapist, and by the end of the second year they were up to four total. This growth continued until eventually it became time to expand.

“That [second] location also came about as we looked at new people coming into the field and wanting growth opportunities. And when you’re a small business, sometimes it feels like there can be a ceiling on growth, so opening a second clinic was a way for us to afford very capable and talented physical therapists the opportunity to be in charge out there. It also allowed us to bring physical therapy services closer to a demographic of people that are driving all the way across town and crossing the mayhem of Raeford Road to get to us, and so it was just kind of bringing services closer to people who are already coming to us and then being able to kind of expand our footprint out there,” shared Schindler.

One of the things that sets APTS apart from other traditional outpatient orthopedics is their specialty programs. These include a breast oncology specialty program, lymphedema management program, vestibular rehab, TMJ program, COVID recovery program and a specialty program for individuals with Parkinson’s disease.

Another thing that sets APTS apart from other services is their one-onone care.

“When you’re being treated as a patient, we are not bouncing between multiple patients at one time. You’re with your clinician for the entire 40 minutes. [This] allows you to get the best customized care. That is kind of our thing is people connect to people, they don’t connect to products” shared Advanced Physical Therapy Solutions’ Practice Liaison Hanna Davis. “We want to be your physical therapist for life. So that doesn’t just mean for the longevity of your life, but all the things that come into your life.”

Davis offered a few examples of how stressors and events in life that aren’t inherently related to health can have a significant impact on a person’s wellness.

“So for example, it’s very important for us to know that if you’re a military spouse and your husband or your wife has just left on their first deployment, and you have two children at home and one is a newborn, that’s going to affect your low back pain and how those psycho and social factors play into the healthcare continuum. So we want to know those things…And we think that our model allows us that opportunity to connect with our patients,” said Davis.

The new location is a satellite clinic that currently houses three physical therapists and one physical therapist assistant (PTA), while the main office has 12 physical therapists and three PTAs. Davis shared that new location was so busy upon opening they never had the opportunity to celebrate. Now the staff are planning a long overdue celebration with a grand opening/one year anniversary event on May 12.

The one year anniversary/grand opening celebration will include catering and an opportunity to meet the staff of the clinic and tour the facility. Davis shared that they’re also working to arrange a ribbon cutting with the area Chamber of Commerce where people will be welcome to network and catch up with fellow community members.

Davis also shared that they are trying to utilize other small business vendors for the event by working with other businesses in the area to assist with catering, flowers and decor.

“We’ve come really far in this first year, but we still have a lot of good things ahead of us, and so I’m excited to connect with the community a little bit more during this open house that we’re having. We’ve invited medical providers and physicians that are in the area that refer us patients as well as coaches at the Jack Britt High School and former patients…this kind of area of Hope Mills is very community based, lots of small little subdivisions and things like that, so I’m excited to connect with the community and to reconnect with some of our old patients and then also kind of show some people in the community who haven’t been here before, kind of show them what we have to offer and talk to them about how we could help them,” remarked Michelle Goto, clinic director at the Traemoor location.

Going into this new clinic’s second year of operation, Goto shared that one of her main goals is to become more involved in the community and to increase outreach efforts in the area.

Laura Schindler took on a business partner in the beginning of 2020 as she prepared to take a few steps back from the business. Her partner, Nisha Wetzel, had been a physical therapist working for the company for about five years and had gradually taken on more leadership responsibilities, Schindler said. Schindler shared that she and Wetzel have very complementary skills and make a good business team. The company continues to grow under their joint leadership.

By Faith Hatton

From FAITH, page 1 year long career in insurance that he had never even thought about in his youth.

“When I was in high school, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a high school music teacher, and so I studied for that. And I got to have a degree, a BS degree in Music Education. And so I taught from 1981 to 1987 at Pine Forest, on the north side of town. But I realized that I needed to make a change,” recalled Rice.

An example of when God calls you to do something; you listen, Rice began the journey that would take him from an independent insurance agent to a business owner in just a little over a decade in the industry.

“My father in law had been in the insurance industry for a long time and had retired and so he was the one that kind of encouraged me to make that shift. And that was a long time ago, that was 1987 that I started in this industry. And [I’ve] just been plowing away ever since,” shared Rice. “I started out by myself and then just made a series of changes. I came to be connected with this agency in 1991, and then officially became Partner in 95 and then I bought the company in 98.”

But purchasing the company came with more than a promotion. Callahan & Rice Insurance Group Inc. has been serving the Fayetteville Community since 1966, bringing with it not just a reputation to uphold but also a business to grow and improve.

According to Rice the independent insurance agency is broken into three segments: commercial insurance, the niche “Defense Base Act” coverage, (a type of insurance specifically for those who do work for the U.S. government and for service members who travel outside of the country) and the more traditional types of insurance.

“We have clients in over 50 countries now, and it's just really interesting to watch that whole thing progress. Probably 60 percent of what we do is helping commercial clients, the other 40 percent is helping our personal clients. We will help them with home and auto and boats and beach houses and those things that relate to them personally and then we also help all of those clients with employee benefits and individual life insurance and health insurance and disability and long term care and those types of coverages too so, we’re pretty broad based,” said Rice. “We represent a lot of different companies and we write a lot of different types of insurance for our clients.”

According to the company’s website, the Callahan & Rice Insurance Group Inc. now employs eleven employees and has several strategic alliances in place to serve three generations of clients. The agency represents numerous insurance agencies and supports clients ranging from individuals to local and regional businesses. But Rice said getting to where they are now wasn’t always easy, and it was his faith that helped him through those dark moments.

“When I bought the company, it was in a very, very bad condition. The person who had previously been in my role had really almost destroyed the company financially. So when I bought it, I had to sort of resurrect it, and that was hard, for a lot of reasons,” shared Rice. “It took a lot longer to bring the company back up to speed than I thought it would. There were a lot of challenges and a lot of financial challenges because we owed a lot of people a lot of money. And when you’re trying to fix all of that and still pay your employees and grow the business, it was really challenging. So I really had to depend on God. I think He was trying to teach me that ‘You’re not going to do this on your own. You're going to do this with my help.’ And so I had to depend on Him to get to that point. And it’s clear when you look back now over, gosh, 24 years. When you look back over that time period, then you can see the steps that He took and the things that He put in place to make all of that happen to where we are right now.”

Rice said that operating as a business of faith means starting with the right mindset.

“I think that you have to start from the from the standpoint that everything here, everything that I have or you have doesn’t belong to us it belongs to God and what our role is and what my role is, is to steward what He’s given us to use it to honor Him and to grow it in a way that honors Him,” said Rice.

He added that it also means letting your faith affect every aspect of your business, including the day to day interactions and operations.

“Having a faith based business impacts how you treat your employees, it impacts how you treat your clients, it impacts how you treat vendors. We have a lot of vendors that we deal with, whether it’s [a] company’s representatives or the people that we buy from. I think it just impacts the culture and how we respond and react to other people,” said Rice. “We keep a running prayer list, it’s on the board in the back break room and we talk about that from time to time when certain things happen. We say ‘How can we help this person? They're going through a tough time,’ or occasionally when one of our staff is working with a client, they'll find out that something’s going on big in their life and they’ll ask him to pray for them and they’ll do that with the client.”

Rice, who has been an active Christian since the age of 13, said that the most important thing you can do is to live based on the faith and principles you truly believe in.

“You cannot live a bifurcated life. So what that means is, if you have a faith and if it’s really a part of who you are, it really needs to be manifested and it needs to come out in everything that you do. You can't have your business life over here and your personal life over here. In my mind, if your faith is really a true faith, then it has to be incorporated in everything you do. Whether it's what you do here at work, whether it’s how you deal with people at home, whether it’s how you deal with people at a restaurant, I mean it just has to be a part of the fabric of your life,” said Rice.

Today Rice attends Snyder Memorial Baptist Church, which he’s been a member of for nearly 20 years. Despite leaving his musical background behind, he currently serves as the director of the Snyder Memorial Baptist Church Men’s Ensemble. He said his goal is to continue to serve his clients and to continue to make a positive impact on the community.

“This is a business where you can help people in a lot of different ways. Sometimes, I say this to people, they say ‘What do you do for a living?’ I say I’m a professional problem solver,” said Rice. “We all have an expiration date, but we don't know what that is, and so we’ve got to make sure that whatever time we have, we have to use it and make it fruitful. And that's kind of really what my goal has been in this business.”

Achievers

Cumberland County Financial Services staff awarded for Excellence in Financial Reporting

County Commissioners recognized Cumberland County Financial Services staff for receiving the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence

What are you and your peers achieving? Have you reached a new goal? Have you acquired another business? Maybe your business has a new hire you would like to highlight.

Greater Fayetteville Business Journal wants to hear from you and your business to shine a spotlight on your accomplishments.

To nominate someone for GFBJ’s Achievers section, email editor@bizfayetteville.com with the subject line “Achiever.”

Following retirement in 2012, Jones returned to provide guidance and direction as LREMC’s interim Chief Executive Officer from January 2022 to January 2023.

Fayetteville named AllAmerica City Award finalist

The City of Fayetteville is a finalist for the All-America City Award, an honor that is bestowed annually by the National Civic League. Fayetteville is one of 20 finalists in the competition, which recognizes civic activists and community problem-solvers.

The City’s application displayed civic engagement and collaboration, a community-wide effort for inclusiveness and creative leveraging of resources to complete projects that have dramatic impact in the community.

in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) for the County’s annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021.

The report was judged by an impartial panel to meet the high standards of the program, which includes demonstrating a constructive “spirit of full disclosure” to clearly communicate its financial story and motivate potential users and user groups to read the report.

The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting, and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management.

FSU names Army General (Ret.) Michael X. Garrett as Military Executive-inResidence

Fayetteville State University has named four-star GENERAL (RET.)

MICHAEL X. GARRETT as Military Executive-in-Residence in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, home to the Army and Air Force ROTC programs as well as the departments dedicated to military education.

Garrett’s appointment was announced at FSU’s inaugural Military Appreciation Luncheon. In his new role, Garrett will serve as a guest speaker in selected classes, such as intelligence studies, military history and international politics; assist in leading a community-wide speaker series on selected topics of interest; lead faculty workshops on how to better serve and support military-affiliated students; and serve as advisor to Marcus S. Cox, M.B.A., Ph.D., dean of CHSS, regarding programming in the Gillis-Jones Institute for Ethics and Leadership.

“I am privileged to begin this new chapter of service as we gather with our military members and their families to thank them for all they do and reflect on what their commitment and sacrifice mean to all of us,” Garrett said in a press release. “I am excited to join FSU’s efforts to find new ways to further strengthen this incredible commitment to our community and look forward to working with my colleagues in CHSS and across campus to prepare the next generation of leaders.”

The appointment is part of FSU's pledge to better serve the needs of the military-connected community, including the university’s commitment to provide free tuition to all military-connected students (active duty, veteran, military spouses and dependents) that began in Fall 2022.

Lumbee River EMC’s Randall Jones recognized with a Resolution of Appreciation

The NC Electric Membership Corporation Board of Directors presented RANDALL JONES with a Resolution of Appreciation at their board meeting on February 15, 2023, in Raleigh, NC. Jones was recognized for his years of service to the electric cooperative program in North Carolina and was wished the best of health and happiness in his retirement.

Jones served for four decades, serving the electric cooperative network through progressive responsibilities. In February 1981, he was hired as the cooperative’s Office Manager. He later assumed the positions of Assistant to the General Manager, Manager of Human Resources, Director of Industrial, Commercial, and Community Development, and Vice President of Key Accounts for Lumbee River EMC. Jones also dedicated his talents to serving as Administrator of Lumbee River Rural Telecommunications Corporation, a subsidiary of LREMC.

During Jones’ tenure as CEO from 2009 to 2012, cooperative membership grew by six percent. Under Jones’ leadership, LREMC made technical improvements to its system, including upgrades to the electric cooperative’s distribution lines, substations, and office technology. These have been instrumental in improving electrical reliability and reducing outage time for LREMC members. Jones successfully led LREMC through restoration efforts following several severe storms, emphasizing employee safety.

“I was thrilled to hear our application made it through the process and we were a finalist. Especially given this year's focus on youth who [are] such a critical part of our community,” said City Manager Douglas J. Hewett in a press release.

Specifically highlighted was the commitment to engaging youth through the Fayetteville-Cumberland Youth Council. The FCYC community outreach efforts included in the application detailed the council’s passion for and desire to serve their community in a meaningful way, which is a part of the council’s mission. Additionally, the application included Market House Repurposing efforts and Education, Mentorship and Empowerment Programs.

The 2023 awards event will be June 9-11 in Denver where 10 winners will be announced. During the three-day competition, a delegation from each community will present its challenges and solutions to a jury of national experts from across the United States.

Fayetteville is a three-time All-America City Award winner, earning the honor in 1984-1985, 2001 and most recently 2011.