Today we’d like to introduce you to Kirsten Protos and Kimberlee Wing.
Kirsten and Kimberlee, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We are a mother-daughter team of Pediatric Occupational Therapists. Kimberlee has been an OT for 40 years. She began as a school based therapist and later owned an Occupational Therapy private practice in Maine for more than 16 years.
Kirsten grew up immersed in the world of therapy and helping families of children with special needs. Seeking a career in pediatrics was only natural for her. When Kirsten, a former Cobb County teacher, received her Master’s in Occupational Therapy and started a family in Atlanta, Kimberlee moved to the Atlanta area and the two began the process of developing a pediatric therapy practice in Smyrna, with the help of Kimberlee’s husband (Kirsten’s father). In 2009 Pediatric Development Center of Atlanta opened and over time has expanded to include Speech Therapy and Feeding Therapy. The practice currently employs eight other therapists.
Kimberlee is a very talented evaluator and currently focuses on evaluating, parent support, school consultations and presentations.
Kirsten treats and evaluates on a regular basis, focusing mostly on feeding therapy, sensory processing disorders and reflex integration. Kirsten also manages and runs the practice. Both Kirsten and Kimberlee have been through the rigorous process of getting certified in Sensory Integration, which is a treatment approach that is highly valuable in treating children on the Autism Spectrum as well as children with Sensory Processing Disorders. The practice itself is known for its sensory-motor based approach to working with children with a wide range of diagnoses. The therapists at the practice are highly knowledgeable and skilled in treatment approaches that set them apart from many other occupational therapists.
Kimberlee and Kirsten focus heavily on mentorship with their employees to ensure that all children and families are receiving the highest quality care.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
As with all businesses, there have been ups and downs. But overall, we have grown quite quickly in 8 years. We started the practice with only ourselves and have grown to a total of 10 therapists. Working in healthcare we have to deal with insurance companies on a regular basis, which can be challenging. We often have to fight for families to be able to receive services through their insurance. As healthcare costs for consumers have risen and reimbursement from insurance carriers has gotten more difficult, we have had to find new ways of providing affordable care for families so that their children can receive the therapy services that they so desperately need. By providing affordable self pay options, bundled services and group services we have been able to continue to meet these needs. But it hasn’t always been easy because the healthcare industry is always changing. High quality patient care and employee satisfaction is hugely important to us. We put that above all else. Another challenge is owning a business as a family. Inevitably it changes the family dynamics. A few years in Kirsten became Kim’s boss as she took over managing employees and then eventually running the practice. There are definitely benefits to working together as we have great respect for each other’s knowledge and talents; we do well collaborating on patient cases and presentations. But it can be very hard to separate work life from family life.
Please tell us about Pediatric Development Center of Atlanta.
Pediatric Development Center of Atlanta is a pediatric private therapy practice. We provide occupational therapy, speech therapy and feeding therapy for children ages birth to 18 years of age. We work with children who have developmental delays due to a congenital or acquired diagnosis or injury, prematurity, neurological condition, or due to an unknown cause. We work with many children who are otherwise typically developing, but have specific areas of weakness that affect them at home, in school or socially. The average person who is unfamiliar with occupational therapy, might focus on the word “occupation” and have a difficult time trying to associate that with children. A child’s occupation includes play, school and learning independent skills (like eating, dressing, writing, riding a bike, etc). Pediatric occupational therapists work with children to help them develop the necessary skills to thrive in childhood and adolescence. Sometimes this involves going down to the basic neurological functioning to fix weaknesses there before we can work on developing higher level skills. This includes all types of processing (including sensory processing) and neural connectivity.
We essentially work on re-wiring the brain to help the child become more skilled and more efficient in their processing abilities. Many people think “handwriting” when they think of OT. You have no idea all of the intricate functions going on in handwriting and the writing process. It is very complicated and even with our handwriting patients we start from scratch to make sure that all of the basic foundational skills, like strength, motor control, coordination, reflex integration, establishment of a midline, establishment of a dominant hand, and crossing midline is all improved and in working order before we can work on grasp, drawing and writing. Our Speech Therapists treat speech and language disorders with a similar approach. They have extensive training and a number of certifications in many areas of speech and language development, oral motor and feeding. Unlike many other SLPs, they also have an understanding of sensory processing disorders and sensory input needs to help their patients be able to get more out of their therapy sessions. If a child needs to wiggle and move to concentrate, they incorporate that into the session. If a child needs to chew to pay attention, they recognize this and accommodate the child with gum or a chewy tube so that the child can focus and participate. Otherwise, they might spend the whole session working on behavior issues because the child’s sensory needs are not being met. In general, you could say that we take a more holistic approach to working with children.
We never work on anything in isolation because everything is connected. We work closely with families to make sure that our recommendations fit with their expectations, abilities and family culture. Our therapists also work closely as a team; collaborating on specific patient cases to make sure that the child and family are receiving the best possible treatment. We also provide more parent education than some other practices are able to offer. We include parents and caregivers in on treatment sessions, as long as it is not disruptive to the child. Every session we go over results and provide home activities to do over the next week to continue working on skills. Carryover at home is extremely important for children to make progress. I tell parents it’s like working out with a trainer. If you only work out one time a week for an hour with a trainer, you’ll never get in great shape. But if you work out one time a week with a trainer and the work out another four days a week doing the same exercises the trainer taught you, you’ll get in great shape pretty quickly. The brain and body need repetition to improve and to maintain. With the brain and body it’s a “use it or lose it” situation. This is why it’s vital that parents practice the therapy activities at home on a regular basis if they want their child to improve and graduate from therapy. I’m proud of how dedicated our whole team is; this includes the therapists and our front office coordinator. Everyone cares deeply about the families we serve. We all provide more time and attention to families than is typical or required.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I can’t say that we would have done anything differently if we had to start over. Because Kimberlee and her husband had the experience of starting and running a successful private practice already, starting the second clinic required less of an initial learning curve. During the lifetime of this practice so far, we have had to contend with a number of changes to healthcare, including stricter HIPAA requirements, changing to electronic medical records and electronic billing, the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and how this has changed insurance coverage and reimbursement. It’s a constant learning process because healthcare is changing at a faster rate than it did in the 90s and early 2000s. If anything, we wish that the changes had been easier and slower, but overall, we’ve done well despite all the changes. The lesson we’ve learned is to be innovative in a way that is focusing on what the community needs. We saw a lack of resources for families with children who have feeding difficulties. At the time, we weren’t specialized in feeding, so Kirsten started getting advanced training and becoming specialized in order to meet this need. We now have a speech therapist who is also specialized in feeding and highly skilled in working with infants and children who are trying to wean off of feeding tubes. This part of our practice has grown and evolved to where we feel we can more effectively meet this need in our community. We also offer a private Facebook group (GA Support for Picky Eating and Feeding Disorders) and parent meetings that provide support for families of children with feeding disorders.
Another challenge is owning a business as a family. Inevitably it changes the family dynamics. A few years in Kirsten became Kim’s boss as she took over managing employees and then eventually running the practice. There are definitely benefits to working together as we have great respect for each other’s knowledge and talents; we do well collaborating on patient cases and presentations. But it can be very hard to separate work life from family life.
Pricing:
- Out of pocket costs are $200 per hour for evaluations, $100 per hour for therapy services and $65 per half hour for therapy services.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3200 Highlands Pkwy., Suite 150
Smyrna, GA 30082 - Website: www.pdc-atlanta.com
- Phone: 770-433-2300
- Email: info@pdc-atlanta.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Pediatric-Development-Center-of-Atlanta-LLC-124883614233620/
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
