Today we’d like to introduce you to Melanie Pagan and Linnette Santiago. Them and their team share their story with us below:
It was all small moments, a simple gesture that linked them and started it all. Melanie and Linnette met through a job they had in common in Jacksonville, FL. They only had a couple passing-by interactions in the office they worked at and in 2014 they exchanged phone numbers on Melanie’s last day at that company due to her moving back to Orlando in 2015. Not so long after Melanie moved, Linnette decided to move to Orlando as well, where she got in contact with Melanie thanks to that phone exchange and they became friends until this day. They’ve been dreaming about owning a therapy company together for a couple of years, which would allow them to have flexibility, more family time, an increased income and be able to better serve our bilingual (Spanish/English) community in the area. But they never thought that would be possible until 2020. After April 2020, when the Pandemic introduced new social/Laboral/economic challenges, they had to change the way they delivered therapy services from hands-on to teletherapy. Their views on establishing their own therapy clinic changed. They realized that it was possible for them to start their own business since the pandemic forced them to do some administrative work at home for the places they were working for during that time. All of a sudden, everything went from a dream to reality. With the help of their husbands, they came up with the name and logo of the company, and by July 2020 they already had Land Of Therapy LLC registered as a business. After a lot of work and organization, they created the template for what the Land of Therapy would be. And by November 2020 they had their first patients. After that, and with God by their side, they started slowly but surely seeing the growth of their business. During the summer of 2021, they got their first contract as an agency for Land Of Therapy with the federal agency Early Steps, an early intervention delivery agency. In November 2021 they got their second contract with Medicaid. They have kept on growing and expanding the team by hiring a speech/language pathology assistant in March 2022, and in May 2022 they hired an ITDS with more candidates being evaluated this time to ensure they are putting the right people in the right positions to benefit their patients, their families, and their team members. With a rapidly growing caseload, it is instrumental that they expand their team of Occupational Therapists and Assistants. They’re working on contracting with other health insurance companies as the year goes on and on the possibility of opening a brick-and-mortar therapy clinic.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has been a very interesting journey. The benefits of having our own practice far outweigh the risks and the difficulties we have faced so far. What has been smooth is our chemistry and the troubleshooting process when we face an obstacle. Some of the challenges that we have encountered are: contracting with health insurances (Medicaid and private insurances) and managing that learning curve as far as learning how to run a clinic from the administrative standpoint because we know the clinic dynamics from the therapist’s perspective. Also understanding and managing the reality of the caseload growth because at one point there were not enough patients to build a full-time caseload and then all of a sudden we have more than we can physically see and we had to hire an SLPA, we are on the lookout for a COTA and more ITDS to join our team. But this last challenge is one we welcome with open arms and warm hearts.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
At Land of Therapy, we want to help our patients to maximize their quality of life through effective interventions that will target the skills necessary to foment the highest level of communication and adaptation possible. We provide home health therapy (OT, ST, ITDS) throughout central Florida: south Orlando (Meadow Woods, Hunters Creek), Kissimmee, Davenport, and St. Cloud. We specialize in occupational therapy, speech/language therapy, and early intervention.
We are proud of providing quality services not only to our patients but also to their families. We are really proud that the families we serve trust us and see us as part of their team to provide the best quality service for their children.
What sets us apart from others is that At Land of Therapy we believe that service to others is the highest of callings. And we believe that supporting our community through the empowerment of every patient is how we will become a premier Speech-Language and Occupational therapy and Early Intervention provider.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
We understand that the pandemic brought an urgency to increase the number of patients receiving telemedicine. That provided an opportunity for many clinics to expand their model of service delivery. Telemedicine became a necessity and a conduit for many therapists to stay active and able to provide for their families. The pandemic has stopped but telemedicine is now a better-known option to be offered and many families prefer it. The same can be said of Home health as a model, and it has added the benefit of bringing the therapy process for people at home to understand and become that extra layer of encouragement to the patient. A family that understands the process is better equipped to support it. Specifically for Land of Therapy, we see the possibility of opening a brick-and-mortar therapy clinic in different locations around central Florida. We want to be one of the go-to service providers for our community. We would also like to partner with other clinics that offer different services so we can complement each other with a holistic approach.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.landoftherapy.com
- Instagram: @landoftherapy
- Facebook: @landoftherapy
