After founders Russell Heerkens and Spencer Blackman observed a growing need in senior care, Spruce Therapy was founded on the idea that our seniors deserve better healthcare. As a part of an industry in constant change, Physical and Occupational Therapy has seen services for seniors become less comprehensive, more confusing and ultimately less effective. Spruce seeks to change that on two different fronts.
First, instead of waiting for a change in status, discover risks before they become problems. By identifying risk factors before a significant event, therapists can help patients prevent change in status and potential injury. Through use of functional outcome measures (FOMs), therapist are able to compare patient performance (by both age and gender) to that of their peers to identify underlying issues that might otherwise be overlooked. The use of FOMs both helps identify potential issues as well as gives patients and families real data on performance that shows how far they’ve come.
Second, understanding that accidents can continue to happen, Spruce aims to increase the continuity of care by adding more runway on the road to recovery. With the changes in healthcare, patients have seen shorter sessions with decreased lengths of stays resulting in a significant reduction in the total therapy time patients while recovery time has not changed significantly. By increasing