Physical Therapy
We are passionate about keeping you in motion
St. Vincent Health’s Physical Therapists, Kelly Bergkessel – PT, DPT, COMT and Terri Handy, PT, ACT, MTC are dedicated healers who advance their skills with equal parts science and art in a culture of caring.
Doctors of Physical Therapy are specialists in the intricate relationship of the body systems and structures that control how we move. Physical therapy (PT) is hands-on, collaborative care between a patient and a practitioner that aims to ease pain and help a person function, move, and live better. It can both prevent and heal chronic or acute injury. The St. Vincent, PT clinic offers traditional therapies along with new innovations for healing, pain management, injury prevention, physical conditioning and fitness.
It’s helpful to know that in 2015, Colorado became a direct access state, which means that obtaining a referral from a physician or other healthcare provider for PT isn’t required to receive care.
Services include:
- Inpatient and outpatient care
- Sports medicine & rehabilitation
- Concussion management
- Pre and post-surgical treatment
- Dry needling
- Balance training
- Vertigo & dizziness
- Weightlifting technique
- Cardiac rehabilitation
- Running analysis
- Conditioning classes
- Osteoporosis management
Hours: M-Fr 8:00am-6:00pm. Saturday hours are available on request.
The PT clinic offers one-on-one 45-minute appointments and individualized care.
Occupational Therapy
Pediatric, inpatient and outpatient occupational therapy at St. Vincent Health is offered by Rachel Griffin – OTD, OTR/L, ATP.
After illness, injury or other health challenges, occupational therapy empowers a person to do as much as they can on their own–safely and effectively–at home, work, school and other settings. Occupational therapists can also adapt a patient’s environment to facilitate independence throughout their day.
In the hospital at St. Vincent Health, occupational therapy helps swing bed patients and inpatients recover, improve, maintain, and develop the skills they need to return to independent living and working. Rachel assists outpatients with in-person appointments and has a special interest in pediatric occupational therapy.
St. Vincent Health and Lake County boast having the only Pediatric Occupational Therapy service in the central mountain region. This service was opened in 2021. Medical providers from Lake, Chaffee, Eagle, and Summit Counties – and beyond, refer their patients to St. Vincent Health and Occupational Therapist, Rachel Griffin, OTD, OTR/L, ATP.
Rachel is known for her care and treatment of children with conditions like attention deficit disorder, autism, traumatic brain injury, seizures, cerebral palsy, anxiety, oppositional defiant disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and more. She helps children who experience deficits in fine and gross motor skills, visual perception, social skills, and activities of daily living.
Speech Therapy
At St. Vincent Health, Holly Kosanovich, MS, CCC-SLP of the Center for Vocal Health, is the clinician who helps patients with speech and language needs. Her specialty practice includes treatment of a variety of vocal and speech disorders through voice rehabilitation and swallow rehabilitation, including various vocal pathologies, head and neck cancer, and neurological conditions.
Communicating with our voice is a critical social skill, vital to learning, working and other daily interactions. When health conditions impact vocal communication, a person called a speech-language pathologist or speech therapist can help. In this evolving healthcare specialty, speech therapists can teach patients how to manage speech clarity, as well as comprehension, and mechanical aspects that impact communication like chewing and swallowing.
Adults may need speech therapy after a stroke, traumatic accident, brain injury, Parkinson’s disease, head and neck lymphedema, or other physical impairments or surgery that changes their ability to use language or their ability to swallow.
Children may need help either with language or the mechanics of speech. Occasionally the need extends to multiple facets of speech, language, and swallowing in kids’ speech therapy and treatment.
To learn more, or for an appointment
call 719-486-7180.
We are located at 822 W. 4th Street in Leadville, Colorado in the basement level of the hospital. The entrance is on the west side with close-in parking.
