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Business & Tech

Viverant Builds Road to Recovery through Oakdale

Viverant physical therapy opened recently in Oakdale.

Viverant physical therapy is the newest addition to The Oaks Business Park.  Through partnerships with yoga professionals, golf specialists and others, Viverant provides patients with the ability to heal, learn how to prevent future injury, and achieve full optimization. Oakdale Patch sat down with Kim Krueger of Viverant to find out more about the business.

Oakdale Patch: What is special about Viverant—what sets it apart from other physical therapy clinics?

Kim Krueger: Viverant is a healthcare services company, focused on providing patients unique solutions to injury prevention, recovery and a special focus on Women’s Health.  We treat people with both chronic and acute conditions with emphasis on true recovery—not just return to “functional activity.”

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Overall, we make it a priority to make sure the patient is well-educated about their cause of impairment, implement them in their treatment plan of care, position them to succeed with their treatment, and not be satisfied with progressing, but obtain true recovery. It’s the patient’s responsibility to restore, maintain and enhance their own health.  The role of the physical therapist is to serve as an educator to reinforce a healthy and productive lifestyle. I always tell my patients, “I like you, but I don’t want to see you forever!”

Oakdale Patch: LinkedIn lists your core business as injury prevention, recovery, women’s health, and overall bio-mechanic optimization—is there anything you would add?

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Krueger: We do a little bit of everything by addressing acute as well as chronic pain. As therapists, we’re kind of jack of all trades—we see people of all types, and none of us are fresh out of school, so we’ve seen a lot!

We tend to see patients who have failed with other treatment approaches.  They may have decreased their pain, but didn’t return to their desired level of activity, such as a sport or recreational activity.

Viverant takes it that one step further—we help people get to their optimal level of function. We ask, "What do you like to do? Where would you like to be? Do you like golf? Running?" Or maybe it’s an elderly person who just wants to be able to sit through a card game. We want to get you back to what you enjoy.

Oakdale Patch: Can people come to you to use just the other services—personal training, wellness—not just for physical therapy?

Krueger: Yes. A popular service is our golf clinic. We have golf pros who come in and do private lessons using a video camera for people to see their swing on the computer. We also have some upper extremity specialists on staff who focus on pitching, throwing, and of course, golfing.

Our goal is to reach 50 percent physical therapy patients, 50 percent prevention optimization patients. One of the nice things about Viverant is that we work both in and out of network with every insurance company. For those individuals who do not have health insurance or choose to go out-of-pocket because of large deductibles and/or co-pays, our rates are very competitive.

Oakdale Patch: Why Oakdale?

Krueger: We are trying to encompass the entire metro area—we have clinics in Edina, Lakeville, and now Oakdale, and we’re planning on another location in the north Metro.

As for this particular site, it’s a nice location, and I think once people get here they will be pleased. One of the best parts is parking—it’s maybe 20 feet to walk, and when people are walking in with golf clubs or for older clients, it’s an easy walk.

This site also offers women’s health, which is kind of a different niche. I’m certified to address internal and external pelvic pain for women, and I schedule patients according to their needs and not just 30 minute blocks of time. We give them as much time as they need, not the “You’re 10 minutes late, now you only get 20 minutes” kind of treatment.

Oakdale Patch: Why did you choose women’s health as a specialization?

Krueger: Women’s health is an exciting, but personal experience and the treatments we provide are not cookbook style or the same for each woman. I am very sensitive to the needs of women, especially if they have an embarrassing condition such as pelvic pain or urinary incontinence. My patients are very satisfied after seeing me and most wish they found me sooner! From what I have seen, Oakdale does not have another provider like me, so I hope to be a valuable addition to the Oakdale medical community. 

Oakdale Patch: Beyond moving to a north metro location and in terms of service, are there any plans for expansion?

Krueger: Viverant has a very aggressive growth plan. Like I said, we plan on covering the four corners of the Twin Cities by next year, and will expand from there.

And in terms of services, we look at Viverant as a brand, and not specifically a physical therapy clinic. We want it to be a little bit more specialized in many disciplines. Our physical therapists are also certified yoga instructors, running specialists, many different talents, and we’d love to see that grow into even more areas.

Oakdale Patch: Where did the name “Viverant” come from?

Krueger: We didn’t want to be just another “Somebody’s PT Clinic” or “Somebody’s Sport and Spine Care” so the word Viverant was created with the help from a professional marketing group to encompass more than just physical therapy care, but again, to include recovery, prevention and optimization for our clients. 

We are Viverant because we don’t know where our future will go, and we didn’t want to be limited—maybe we’ll bring on personal trainers, massage therapists, or homeopathic practitioners.

Oakdale Patch: Where did the idea for this kind of combining of life and therapy come from?

Krueger: It just makes sense—it’s what people do. It makes sense to try and take all the different parts of people’s lives and put it together, and that’s what people love about Viverant. We care about your golf game; we care about your life. And we want to incorporate how they enjoy their spare time into their recovery.

We’re very careful not to look at clients as just a “shoulder” or a “knee” and we want to incorporate how they enjoy their space time into their recover. We’re passionate about getting to know our patients.

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