Justin Kane: 'I love what I do'

HAYDEN - On two walls, in the office at North Idaho Physical Therapy on Hayden Avenue, are newspaper clippings. There are articles and pictures of local high school and college students.

Runners, baseball, basketball and football players and equestrians.

Each of them, at one point in their careers, turned to NIPT for help. Some to be treated for injuries, some for a bit of preventive maintenance, some for help with recovery from a twisted ankle or crunched shoulder.

When Justin Kane glances at those articles and photos, there is a bit of pride knowing he got a chance to work with them, to help them be their best.

"It is rewarding. One of the things it gave me the opportunity to see is the quality of the young people we still have in our community," he said. "I have the opportunity to see a lot of kids come through and there's still a lot of great young people out there."

Kane, a 1987 Coeur d'Alene High School graduate, began working at North Idaho Physical Therapy in 1995, and bought the business from Lee Shellman in 2001.

Today, with offices in Post Falls, Coeur d'Alene and Hayden, NIPT's staff includes five full time and one part time physical therapists, two PT assistants, two massage therapists, two athletic trainers, two personal trainers and a chiropractor.

He praises his staff for his professional success.

"I've been blessed by wonderful people around me who are better than me at what we do," he said. "That's been the cause of it all."

Kane's experience with physical therapy dates back to when he was in sixth grade and injured his ankle playing basketball. The man he would see, and continue to see him through his high school sports career, was Lee Shellman.

"That's actually what got me into the profession. I grew up here and went to Coeur d'Alene High School. I saw Lee Shellman as a patient," he said.

Kane was a running back at CHS and played on the 1985 state championship team. He also ran sprint relays and threw the shot put and discus in track. He would go on to earn a Bachelor of Science from the University of Montana and his PT career soon followed.

A family man, he and his wife Angie have four children.

And Kane, like Shellman, is committed to his community. In the last 12 years, he estimates he's coached about 40 youth teams in football, basketball and baseball, emphasizing worth ethic, a positive attitude and sportsmanship. He's the president of Viking Touchdown Club, and is involved in Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

It is, he says, a good life.

"I think I'm the most blessed person around," he said.

What kind of difference did physical therapy have on you in high school?

It was the difference between playing and not playing. No question I would have missed several more football games had Lee not worked on me. That was a big deal back then.

How big of an impact did he have on you?

Huge. I was motivated by his giving and saw the impact it had on people. I just admired what he did. His work ethic was crazy. The toughest guy I ever met.

Lee donated a ton of time for the kids and took good care of me. I went off to college, quit playing football and needed to pick a profession. I came back and spoke to Lee and he encouraged me to go into the profession. I graduated from school, worked a year in Montana and then we decided we wanted to move back home.

How is the physical therapy business going these days?

Good and bad, like any business. The last couple years have been a little tough. All in all, we can't complain. We grew a lot in the early 2000s. We've actually shrunk a little bit in the last couple years, now we're kind of growing again.

You've worked with thousands of patients, from kids to seniors. Why do they turn to you for help?

Anything from joint replacement or after spine surgery, low back pain, neck pain, sports preventive injury, or maybe they're trying to get guidance on an exercise program.

How does it make you feel knowing you've worked with so many kids here?

It's neat. It starts to make you feel a little bit older when you see them growing up and going off in their own profession. In fact, one of our therapists, Tyler Baxter, PT and our chiropractor, Melissa Jacobson, DC, I worked on them when they were in high school. Crazy.

Are young athletes more serious these days?

There are certainly more demands on them to play their sport year long, which is not necessarily a good thing, in my opinion, because it leads sometimes to burnout and injury with the same movements repeatedly.

What do you like about your profession?

If you like working with people, it's a great field for that. You see them generally over an extended period of time so you really get to know them on a personal basis, and if you can do something that helps them improve their condition, then it's rewarding.

When should someone see a physical therapist?

If they've having any issues with incorrect movement, whether that's from pain, weakness, disease. If you're just not functioning optimally, then we can usually help with that.

How long, in general, until you might see results?

Sometimes, it's instant. People come in, and there are times there's a dramatic change the first visit. But other cases it's longer. We see people for such varying conditions. Some get better right away, others take a while.

Do you see a lot of Ironman athletes?

Even though we do as much sports-related therapy as anybody, it's still a relatively small percentage of your overall business. We work real closely with the orthopedic and neurosurgeons. We see a lot of people post operatively, or we'll see them prior of getting to the point of needing surgery, trying to prevent surgery. That's a huge part of what we do. The surgeons will send somebody to us, see if we can get them well without surgery. If they don't get well and have surgery, we help them rehab.

If someone were considering this field, what advice would you have for them?

Your academics have to be pretty strong, or you can't get into the school. That's No. 1.

Then you really need to enjoy working with people. You need to be a people person. If you enjoy working with people, if you enjoy learning about the human body, it's a good fit.

Is this a difficult field to get started in?

It was difficult to get accepted when I went through the program. Academic requirements now are a lot longer. I only have a bachelor's degree. Now physical therapists have a clinical doctorate.

It's a minimum of seven years now. Statistically, it was one of the harder programs to be accepted in to.

What's the basic difference between a chiropractor and a physical therapist?

A chiropractor's primary emphasis is on the skeletal system with skeletal mobility. A physical therapist might be more into the neuromuscular system and overall human movement, whether it's spine or muscle or strength.

What kind of impact can physical therapy have on health care?

It's significant. It can be cost effective for the health care system. One thing we don't think of, you can have a whole lot of therapy for the cost of an MRI. If we prevent surgery, it saves tens of thousands of dollars. It's a worthwhile profession. It's going to get a little more challenging with the changes in the health care system. The whole insurance industry is changing.

For the good or bad?

Probably for the bad. It used to be that people would have maybe a $5 or $10 co-payment when they would come in here. Now it's not uncommon for people to have to pay $40 a visit. The insurance is paying less, so people are many times just going without treatment. It's not good. Ultimately many times it results in a more costly condition. That's a challenge.

What other challenges are out there for you?

A challenge for our profession is to educate the public about what we do and how we can assist them. Many times people confuse us with personal trainers. They don't know the extent to which we have had academic and general medical training. They many times ask me, 'So, did you go to school for this?' They don't know the difference between us, a personal trainer and a massage therapist.

Overall, looking at your career, what do you think?

I love what I do. I love working in the community I grew up in.

I love what I do. I love working in the community I grew up in.

Date of birth: July 15, 1968

Education: Bachelor of Science, University of Montana

Family: Wife, Angie, four children.

Number of hours on average you work in a week: 50-plus

Number of hours on average you sleep in a night: 7

Hobbies: Family activities, coaching youth sports, hunting, fishing

Favorite movie: "Rocky"

Favorite book: "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell

Favorite type of music: Christian or Country

Favorite spectator sport: Football

Best advice you ever received: The answers to life's questions have been given to us in the Bible.

Quality you admire most in a person: Self-sacrifice

Person who most influenced your life: My family, my wife, my parents. I can't pick one.

Accomplishment you are most proud of: My family