2011 APTEI Acupuncture & Dry Needling (ADN) Program

Wendy Rogers, Physiotherapist
2010 Professional Business Woman of the Year
“How was I to know that there was more to running a business
than registering a business name at the library and handing out business cards?”
Wendy (Bannerman) Rogers is a 1975
graduate from Dalhousie University and
completed her Bachelor’s program at the
University of Manitoba in 1983. Her private
practice, Access At Home Physiotherapy,
has grown significantly in the past five
years and provides in-home physiotherapy
services throughout the Ottawa region.
On April 28, 2010, Wendy was selected as
the 2010 Professional Business Woman of
the Year, a prestigious city wide business
award sponsored by The Ottawa Women’s
Business Network. (www.womensbusinessnetwork.ca).
Following is an interview with
Wendy Rogers.
You have been a registered
physiotherapist for many
years; what have been your
primary areas of practice?
My primary interest has always been
neurological rehab but in the early years of
my career I travelled/worked throughout
Canada and internationally and consequently
had the opportunity to develop a
very broad experience base. Since I love
learning, I have taken a great variety of continuing
educational courses which make me
well suited for general rehabilitation.
What attracted you to
community based rehab?
In 1992, I moved to Brisbane, Australia
with my husband and family. While taking a
pool therapy certification, I met a PT who
suggested I would be well suited for their
“domiciliary” program, their home based
service. I accepted a locum position – I
loved it immediately and I have never left!
It provided me the opportunity to use all
of my skills and experience, often at the
same time with the same person. I enjoyed
the independence, flexibility, variety and
constant challenge of the work as no two
clients are quite alike. I moved to Ottawa
in 1996, so I naturally joined the Home
Care Program which, at that time, was
stimulating. With today’s CCAC mandate
and focus on consultative practices, the
work was less challenging and satisfying
for me, so after a major reorganization in
2004, I moved to the private sector where I
Wendy Rogers.
Wendy Rogers and the staff of
Access At Home Physiotherapy.
was confident people would pay for service
excellence and active home based rehabilitation
that was no longer available within
the public sector. Although I had absolutely
no previous business experience or any idea
how to run a business, I was happy to move
away from the system wide bureaucracy that
seemed to be eroding professional morale.
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What was your biggest
challenge in trying to make
your business successful?
Naively presuming that physicians and
hospital staff would recognize the need for
in-home rehab services, I was unprepared
for the divide between public and private
services. Much to my surprise, professionals
working in the public system believed that
their patients would be unable to afford inhome
rehab services and implied that those
of us in post acute rehab were not colleagues
providing a necessary service to complete the
circle of care, but PTs taking financial advantage
of people in need. I had no idea that
physiotherapists and physicians would be
such a marketing challenge. I believed that
since active in-home rehab was no longer
offered through the Champlain District
CCAC, I knew that my services were not
only needed, but could also relieve pressure
on the wait lists for CCACs and outpatient
departments, while assisting people to self
manage chronic conditions. Fortunately,
this paradigm has changed significantly over
the past few years and the lines of communication
are improving, as mutual respect
for each other’s expertise continues to grow.
It is my dream for community based physiotherapists
to be able to refer to hospital
based physiotherapy programs without the
physician gatekeeper model.
How did you overcome
your biggest challenge?
I overcame these challenges through
volunteer activities, in-services, public education,
networking, and marketing directed
towards the people who needed this service.
Our clients have always been our strongest
advocates and their frustration with existing
publically funded programs is the stimulus
for our growth. Regardless of expertise
levels, it has always been clearly understood
that acute care facilities are not permitted
to recommend specific private sector service
providers. Gradually, many of the physiotherapy
practice leaders and CCAC case
managers acknowledged the limitations
within the various publically funded and
outpatient programs so that now many acute
care PTs, OTs, physicians, social workers