Samantha Schmidt recently received the Community Impact Award from the American Physical Therapy Association. The organization recognizes a single member of the Private Practice Section who demonstrates core value of excellence, integrity, social responsibility, altruism, and professional duty through a unique and sustainable program that positively impacts the community. Schmidt graduated from the Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training in 2002 and co-owns a thriving small business in Missoula, Alpine Physical Therapy. We caught up with Schmidt to learn more about her career path, the award, and why it’s so important to be involved in national policy conversations.
How did you end up at the University of Utah?
I grew up in a small town south of Missoula and did my undergraduate degree here in Montana. I was ready to be somewhere bigger and Salt Lake City had those opportunities. A children’s hospital, the orthopedic trauma center and the burn unit all drew me to the area.
The other thing that appealed to me was that the physical therapy program was about to transition to a doctorate program. It was a three-year program versus two, so I was getting a newer and higher level of education as compared to some other schools. The PT program was ahead of its time and I wanted to stay out West.
When I interviewed, I loved that they emphasized talking to not only faculty, but current students. That’s reflective of our field, we’re often talking with so many different people and they wanted to see how I’d interact in different settings. Of course, I’m a big skier and that was another pull!
What was your experience like in the program?
I had the opportunity to do my clinical rotations all over the place: in a rural town in Alaska and in the big city of Portland. The University offered so much variety to stimulate my curiosity—I was exposed to different areas of physical therapy. The faculty has a wealth of knowledge and expertise, they’re well rounded. You could tell people wanted to be there; there was this sense of a team. They were proud of what they were doing, and they took a lot of time and interest to show up.
Where did you career take you after graduation?
I moved to Southern California and completed a comprehensive certification in Pilates. I was able to pay off some of my loans in the greater LA area and move back to Montana with some money. After I’d worked for big hospitals and corporations, I really wanted to able to innovate and direct where I was engaged in the community. I wanted to create a community of other professionals who are seeking how to elevate our profession, always asking what we can do better and staying up to date on the most current research.
That was the driver for my partners and I when we began Alpine Physical Therapy. We started with three to four physical therapists and now we have 26, plus five locations! I think our success is due to the work life balance we have, being involved in the community, and of course, our passion for what we do. We want to give people hope and change lives through movement.
Tell us more about the Community Impact Award you and your business received?
It’s a peer nominated award, so community members within the PT community and some other folks I work with nominated me. During the pandemic, we made the news because we worked hard to promote the “Cover Up Missoula” initiative. At the time Missoula didn’t have a mask mandate or vaccine and our business serves a lot of people who are immunocompromised. We connected with a lot of other businesses to say that we can stay open and safe if we wear masks—driving it from that sector made it less political. Our local emergency room felt that impact and told our story to a newscaster.
With a pivot to telehealth during the pandemic, we were also working to understand how we would be paid. We had to get a legal opinion and take that to each payer. Through my work in the state chapter, we started to get more engaged, and we realized that policy is closely tied to healthcare and our business’s success. We ended up getting involved with APTA and now I’m the vice president of our state APTA chapter and chair of the legislative committee. We’re trying to work with policymakers to improve access to healthcare across Montana.
Our business also just launched a walk-in clinic—we know there’s a huge amount of value in physical therapy when people can access it. Often times there’s a wait period so we’re trying to shift to allow this walk-in model. If they have an urgent concern or they can’t get in to see their regular PT, this is a backup an alternative. We can really impact pain when we’re able to educate people by giving them hope and some tools they can use to control pain. It’s the Starbucks effect too, the more people who are doing PT, the more people would seek out PT. Finally, from an insurance perspective, we want to help payers understand that we can save them a bunch of money if we can get their members to us PTs first. We can reduce healthcare costs through active conservative highly skilled interventions.
I’m humbled and honored to receive this award, but I’m truly just the front person and I have so many people behind me. I keep coming back to this story of hope—when you don’t have action, hope is wishful thinking. When someone is recognized for their actions, it fuels hope for more positive action.
What would you say to a PT student who wants to be a voice for change?
Providers must get at the table or we’re going to be part of the menu. It’s hard because we don’t get paid to be at the table, but if we don’t have a voice, we’re just going to be a very specialized technician. The best way is to get involved is with your professional association, even if it’s just making the effort to send an email or write a call-to-action letter. It’s worth the value to be involved on a state or national level.