Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Jamie Bovay.
Dr. Bovay, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was always active and involved in sports as a kid. In college, I was interested in athletic training but majored in Chemistry because that was the most challenging thing I could find. After being in the working world a short while I figured out that chemistry wasn’t social enough and didn’t have the open ended problems I would enjoy solving. So I tried to figure out what I wanted to do next. While I was researching I got a random flyer in the mail for a new physical therapy program that was starting up in a school near me. Before college I had been interested in physical therapy but didn’t want to do all of the extra schooling ,after the first college degree, that was needed. When I found out that just being in the working world and making money wasn’t enough and that I needed to enjoy my job I started reading everything I could about physical therapy and shadowing anywhere that would take me.
Eventually I started PT school and luckily one of my assigned clinical rotations as a student hired me after graduation and I started my first job in Lone Tree, Colorado. I was relatively quickly promoted to the clinic director and started having aspirations of owning my own PT company. I then switched jobs with the promise of partnering with an established company. That is when things started to go downhill. Around six months after starting the new position we started to have to see more and more patients. Eventually, it became so bad that I would only see the patients for 10 min or so and a PT tech, which is a term meant to confuse the public as they have no medical education, did the majority of the exercise work. Most of the changes people experience are a result of the hands-on care and the exercises are only meant to reinforce the changes so my patients were the ones who suffered.
It was extremely frustrating to know that if you only had 5 more minutes with someone you could help them, but you didn’t have those five minutes and it was unlikely that person would get better as a result of your time limitations. As someone who prided myself in my work, this was very disheartening. I watched as my clinical rankings that started in the 98th percentile in the country move down to 90, 80, and eventually 70th percentile as a larger patient load was forced on us every day till eventually I was expected to see 30 patients a day. Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore and I quit and traveled the world with my wife for five months. This time helped me to reflect on what I wanted. When I started I wasn’t sure I wanted to come back to rehab after our sabbatical was over, but after thinking about it I knew I wasn’t done, I just had to figure out a way to do it my way.
I was lucky enough to meet a chiropractor who treated similarly to me and also taught continuing education classes all over the country that was opening a clinic and wanted me to help. We started working out of CrossFit gyms and in the meantime he introduced me to some people that eventually lead to me teaching around the country for 3 companies as well. I started KinetikChain Denver in Cherry Creek in 2018 with the idea of giving people extended one on one care by an expert doctor of physical therapy and setting a new standard in healthcare. It is our opinion that you shouldn’t design your life to fit your pain. We primarily work with active adults and work with them to remain active during their injury instead of telling them to rest or just accept it because of their age or “you’re just getting old”. Pain isn’t a normal part of aging and we have thrived working with those who aren’t ready to accept that they have to give up or modify their favorite activity.
Our business has taken off like a rocket as word of mouth has spread and we now have a bigger office and have added another physical therapist, office manager, as well as other part time staff. We give movement based seminars around the city several times a year and have a growing following on social media as well as in the fitness industry as fitness leaders like coaches, personal trainers, and studio owners have started to rely on us to keep their members healthy and in personal training, group classes, and in the gym. A majority of our patients have tried several other therapies and methods to get rid of their pain. While we are proud that we have been able to help them it is our goal to get to these same people faster so that they don’t have to go through the frustrations of getting cookie cutter rehab programs and useless time missing their favorite activities. Our clients deserve better, and we are going to be the first ones that treat them the way they deserve.
Has it been a smooth road?
Looking back the growth has been phenomenal, but it was far from smooth. When you are trying to change the model and try to change people’s thinking it isn’t easy. While it made sense to us we had to learn how to communicate our value to our patients in their words and around what was truly valuable to them. This took a lot of extra learning on my part and setting systems in place to get free information out to our potential clients like our free Ebooks on ways to help solve your shoulder pain, back pain, knee pain, etc…There were multiple instances of 100 hour work weeks. We were also in a 144 sq foot office for a while and space could be an issue and finding the right new space to move into took about nine months longer than expected.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
KinetikChain helps people in Denver quickly recover from pain or injury so they can stay active in their favorite sport/hobby, exercising, and get back to what they love to do. We specialize in helping active adults get back to the activities they love as fast as possible and working with them in modifying their workouts/sports/hobbies so they can still enjoy them during the rehab process and not just telling them to rest. We focus on extended one on one hands on care and not giving you exercises you could do at home during your time with us. While the exercises are important we make sure you know how to do three specialized exercises specific to your issue, goals, and circumstances and you are responsible for doing those at home to further your progress to the next session.
That way we can make the biggest difference during your session with the things you can’t do on your own. I’m the proudest of all the lives we have changed or improved and how we have helped people live a happier more fulfilled life. What sets apart from others is not only our hands on skills and history of producing results, but our customer service and our “there isn’t too much we can do for you” attitude. We start every interaction with a free 20 minute phone call so we can make sure we can help you and make sure we would be a good fit to work together. After that, if it is appropriate we offer a 20 min free discovery visit as sort of a “first date”. This allows you to make sure you trust us, believe we can do what we tell you we can do for you, and make sure you want to work with us. We follow that up with emails, videos, and written information so that you would have as much information as possible to make a better more well informed decision about your health. After that, we see patients for around 40% the number of visits as the national average. This more personalized treatment allows them to get them back to what they want, need, and love to do faster than anybody else. Most importantly we give our customers an amazing experience and let them have fun with rehab, therapy, and life.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Denver is the most crowded scene in the country for physical therapy. So for it to be a good place for business in such a crowded marketplace we had to completely flip the script, recreate what we are offering, and offer so much more than just physical therapy. Because of the outdated way of seeing 3-4+ patients an hour most PT clinics are run in Denver I think someone could come in and start here although you need a network of people who support you. With as many active people as Denver has there are no shortages of injuries, only people realizing we can help.
Contact Info:
- Address: 121 S. Madison St.
Suite A,
Denver, CO 80209 - Website: kinetikchaindenver.com
- Phone: 720-651-0674
- Email: jamie@kinetikchaindenver.com
- Instagram: @kinetikchaindenver
- Facebook: KinetikChain Denver Physical Therapy
- Yelp: KinetikChain Denver Physical Therapy
Image Credit:
Right to Left: Dr. Jamie Bovay (the Movement Jedi), Dr. Courtney Gieseman (the Mobility Master), Crystal Turner (the Client Experience Chauffeur)
Suggest a story: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
