Submitted by Jon Anderson, DPT, Senior Therapy Resource, Keystone, Texas
Soon after graduating from Texas Tech University, Katie started working at one of our Legend Healthcare locations, and shortly after that, Katie stepped into the role of ADOR. Although she was initially hesitant to take the next step into a leadership role, in 2019 the nudging paid off and Katie transitioned into the role as DOR at Legend Oaks Northwest Houston.
Katie is incredibly humble and displays Level 5 leadership qualities; for example, if you give her praise, she will shyly say thank you and credit the success to her team. The demographic of her facility is primarily made up of long-term care residents. Katie quickly realized and embraced the need for creating a therapeutic environment for those residents, building solid relationships with orthotic and wheelchair vendors, and increased her proficiency in understanding PASRR and how valuable access to therapy services can be for that resident population.
Katie has introduced clinical specialty programs in each therapy discipline and has supported the advanced clinical training for members of her Therapy team. Her OT is LSVT Big certified, her PT is trained to perform Percutaneous Tibial Neuromodulation (for urinary incontinence management), and her SLP is trained in the McNeil Dysphagia therapy program (individualized treatment program for patients with dementia). This is only a small share of the clinical program offerings in her facility.
Another area worth mentioning is Katie’s urgency to not allow her team or facility to fall behind the curve. Katie offers outpatient therapy services in-house or at the patient’s home to those in need. She also extends her support to her cluster partners and beyond, playing a vital role in the therapy market initiative about the Power of the Cluster and how to carry out the model. Katie believes and understands the need to grow others around her; this is evident by her invested development of her current ADOR. Katie is also a PDPM champion and serves on the Keystone PDPM committee. Katie’s joy of serving and her passion for leading makes it truly apparent as to why the honor of Chief Therapy Officer is deserved! Congratulations, Katie, and welcome to the club!