Meet Julie Byrt | Physical Therapist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Julie Byrt and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Julie, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The day I opened Coal Creek PT, I started a little game for myself. I wanted every person who came to CCPT for their rehab services to be so happy with their experience that they became a patient for life! Of course they would complete thier plan of care fully healed and back to doing the things they love, but if something else happened in thier future, they would most certainly came back to CCPT for thier PT care. This game drove every decision I made to create the best, patient-centered PT clinic in town. I organized the clinic to have both private treatment rooms as well as a large open gym with a full mirorred wall, and commited to deliver one on one visits with a highly skilled PT for every patient. I hired all my staff not only on experience and skill, but on thier willingness to play this game . Not only do patients get a huge variety of highly skilled hands on techniques in additon to thier individualized theraputic exerice prescriptions, but they get friendly, genuine customer service and care from the front desk and all thier billing questions and concerns take care of in house. I’ve known hundreds of patients and thier familys for 15- 20 years now and this game has us expanding steadily and loving being the community’s PT for life!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I was drawn to Physical Therapy out of a love for being active and outdoors and a desire to do something that helped others. I hate to hear someone say they can’t do something they want to do or can’t be something they want to be, because of pain or loss of function. Skilled PT can completely resolve over 80% of muscle, joint, and nerve pain! With 10 PTs delivering 500 visits per week, Coal Creek PT prevents at least a surgery a month and gets people back to doing the things they love, pain-free, every single day. “Skilled” PT is the key though. The challenge of insurance companies paying less and less for PT services every year has influenced many practices to spend less time with patients, provide less one-on-one, technically skilled services, and in the end deliver non-individualized, “mill” PT, in order to turn a profit. This challenge has nearly closed my doors twice in the last 20 years. It has not been easy to create a model of delivering one on one, highly skilled, personalized PT to every patient, and be able to pay employees a living wage and stay in the black. But putting patient care first, and building a team of PTs and support staff who all are committed to delivering the kind of care they can be proud of, has had Coal Creek PT expand by 10-15% every single year (except in 2020 ;)) since 2001. We made the Top 100 Fastest growing business list from 2014-2018, The Largest Woman Owned Businesses in Boulder County list in 2017, 2018, and 2019 and are the proud recipients of The best PT in East Boulder County in 2020, 2021, and 2022! It is exciting to be officialy acknowledged by these awards, but I am the most proud of the testimonials and Succes Stories that patients share every week, thanking my team for the wins and gains they have achieved due to our care.The lesson I learned along the way is to stay true to my mission, build a team of people who believe in it and are willing to do their best every day, and ALWAYS, ALWAYS do right by my patients. The message I’d like to get out to everyone reading this is to never give in to pain or to losing your abilities! A skilled PT evaluation can determine the root cause of your pain, and what biomechanical problem is causing that tissue to stress and strain. Then through a variety of hands-on therapies, technical modalities such as dry needling, taping, Graston, or blood flow restriction therapy, and an individualized therapeutic exercise and self-care program, you will be back to doing the things you love in 6-12 weeks!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I LOVE COLORADO! If my best friend were to visit for the week, we would definitely get outdoors. If thier trip was over Memorial Day, we would run the Bolder Boulder, hands down the most entertaining 10K in existence. I would take them to hike in Boulder up Mount Santitas, The Anenome Trail, Hogs Back, and to explore the winding trails of South Boulder out of Chautauqua. If they were up for a big adventure, I would take them to the top of Green Mountain or Bear Peak! A favorite mountain bike ride to share would be Betasso Reserve or Heil Vally Ranch. We would go to a concert at Red Rocks and spend the weekend in Breckinridge or Vail. For a yummy dinner, I would take them to Jax in Boulder or The Sushi Den in Denver.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
So many people to thank! I’ve got to start with my Dad, who generously paid for all of my education, then Pete Emerson, my Manual Therapy Certification instructor who delivered the cornerstone of my orthopedic knowledge and skills. I want to thank my colleague, Bob Cranny, and my initial business partner, Debra Layne for teaching me the nuts and bolts of how to run a private practice, and my business consultant, Survival Strategies for delivering my “mini MBA” so that I could realize real expansion and success. I have to thank my children for their never-ending support and patience when I had to work evenings and weekends. And, finally, I want to thank my incredible staff for delivering exceptionally skilled PT and genuinely caring services to our wonderful patients day in and day out, so I could realize my dream! I couldn’t have done it without all of you 🙂

Website: coalcreekphysicaltherapy.com

Facebook: facebook.com/coalcreekphysicaltherapy

Image Credits
Chantal McDonald; Erin Jensen; Julie. Byrt; Nicole Whitely; Ting Ting Burnham, Shannon Denham, Danielle Ortega, Stephanie Huang, Kendall Fosse