Labeed Diab, Chief Executive Officer
2020, COVID-19 and the challenges faced by physical therapy practices
At ATI, we began the year 2020 with an optimistic outlook. We knew the payer pressures headed our way and had solid plans to help mitigate them. We planned to take a leadership position in MSK-related treatment and further define our role in the healthcare landscape. By March, we faced the same reality as all other businesses when it became clear that COVID-19 would alter, but not derail, those plans.
2020 was a challenging year for everyone. Last year, many business owners had to close shops or make significant sacrifices. Others are struggling, having to make difficult decisions that affect their lives and those of their employees.
We understand. We too have been faced with these same decisions, but our size and scale allowed us to react quickly.
Facing challenges, creating opportunity
Throughout 2020, we took a hard look at all aspects of our business and customer lifecycle and asked, “How can we do this better? How can we change the traditional physical therapy practice for today’s healthcare landscape?” We redefined key positions within our clinic operations and streamlined our call center operations and initial patient processing structure. This allowed us to effectively allocate resources based on market volume, hire additional staff in high-demand markets and establish a grant program to address hardships of team members as a result of the pandemic.
We are confident that our collective decisions and hard work will enable us to emerge in a position of strength going forward and as an industry leader for years to come. And as we continue to recover, we are picking up where we left off, addressing the significant industry changes and pressures which have been heading our way. Like yours, the pandemic compressed our timeline and caused us to react more quickly, but we have not altered our goals. Our plans are based on market demand and expectations of the customer now and what they expect from their healthcare provider in the future.
ATI, remolded to achieve our physical therapy practice goals
We want patients to see us as integrated into their circle of care, and of course, when it comes to physical health, their provider of choice. We want to be their first call for MSK-related issues. There are powerful opportunities demographically, technologically and through innovation. We are ready to capitalize on them.
Our vision is to be the leader in prevention and treatment of MSK-related disorders – the leader, not a follower. Our journey will continue to be exciting as we proactively set the industry standard for outcomes and redefine how consumers engage and use our services.
Just like a rising tide lifts all ships, we firmly believe our actions will fundamentally change the landscape for physical therapy services. And we are just getting started in making waves.
Labeed Diab joined ATI Physical Therapy as its CEO in February 2019. A seasoned business executive, Labeed brings a successful track record of effectively combining strategy, business development and operations in the emerging retail healthcare space.