PINN Partnership Story

Interview with Lee Caton, Regional Vice President

1. What were the challenges in owning your own business that motivated you to explore partnering with a larger company?

Our business was growing and we were faced with having to re-tool to advance our HR and compliance departments. This meant going out and recruiting/hiring new employees with specific skill sets and managing them. This was going to continue to add to our burden of business development and take time away from our ability to focus on the core aspect of our company.

2. What did you see the benefits to be in such a partnership?

A partnership provided an exit strategy for my senior partner while maintaining a growth opportunity for our minority partners, and it allowed us to focus on our core business of physical and occupational therapy.

3. How would you describe your experience with Upstream so far?

Being in partnership with a larger entity that had departments in place for HR and compliance took a huge burden off us in not having to manage departments that we lacked expertise in and had to develop further.

4. What year did your partnership begin? And how many clinics did you have at the time? 

Our partnership began in 2018, when we had six clinics.

5. What advice would you have to others that may be considering a similar opportunity?

Survey where your time and effort are in your current practice. What has made you successful? It probably has to do with quality of care and customer service to your staff, patients and referral sources. As your business grows, it can pull you away from these core areas, and they suffer because of it. This is a natural process and needs to be recognized. Partnership enabled us to re-focus on our core strategies and ensure that we continued to provide high-quality clinical care and customer service.