ARC Physical Therapy+ finds success

By GEOFFREY WOEHLK | THE FORUM

MARYVILLE, Mo. — Even when trying to create a thriving business during a pandemic, the same tried and true ingredients add up to success.

“The world’s crazy, but it’s still the same rules of physics, you know what I mean?” said Frank Grispino, clinic director of ARC Physical Therapy+. “You provide a good service, top-quality clinical skills at a reasonable, competitive price, and just make the patient and the employers your No. 1 priority — and you can boil success down to that. And it works.”

At the beginning of March last year, ARC Physical Therapy+ opened in the shopping center next to Hy-Vee, providing a new outpatient clinic for physical and occupational therapy. The aim was to give affordable care to a population that needed it, and Grispino, with 23 years working at St. Francis Hospital in Maryville as an administrator and director of rehab and sports medicine, saw a way to do it.

“We’re the only freestanding outpatient clinic in the area,” Grispino said. “Others are hospital-based or nursing homes, so we’re the only one that’s freestanding. So that allows us to provide services really economically compared to some of the other people who have higher overheads that they have to just bill out so much more than we do.

“So we’re giving a cost effective, high quality service — and boy, people are just responding to it.”

ARC Physical Therapy+ is a regional provider that has more than 20 locations across the Midwest. And in Maryville, Grispino said the location really started to take off after hiring a new physical therapist, Jill Henry.

Since hiring physical therapist Jill Henry, the clinic has taken off and found even more success with community support, clinic director Frank Grispino said.

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“Since she’s been on, we’re just growing and growing,” he said. “We’re actually having people come in to help us cover the patients, we’re so busy. … And during a pandemic, that’s pretty amazing.”

Once he had the right personnel, it was a matter of creating the right kind of space.

“When I was with St. Francis, we provided the community with a family-like atmosphere,” Grispino said. “And I feel like we’re able to do the family atmosphere through ARC here now, and that really made me happy. It’s just been awe-inspiring, really.”

He’s put much of what he’s always wanted to implement during his career into the new business, he said. But what has stuck out to Grispino is the support from the local community that’s made it possible.

“We’ve really got some traction, and I owe it to the community, both Maryville and the surrounding communities, and our providers who refer us patients — I just can’t thank them enough,” he said.

Grispino said he couldn’t imagine wanting to find success anywhere else.

I’m born and raised in Maryville, you know, I don’t want to not be in Maryville. And it’s just heartwarming to know we’ve got so much support in the community.

ARC Physical Therapy+ is an outpatient clinic for physical and occupational therapy located next to Hy-Vee in Maryville. The clinic opened in March of last year, but has thrived through a global pandemic. A wall inside ARC Physical Therapy+ in Maryville is shown. ARC Physical Therapy+ is a regional provider with more than 20 locations across the Midwest.

PHOTOS BY GEOFFREY WOEHLK/THE FORUM