2023 Health Care Champions Specialty Provider: Dana Scott

Having accrued almost 25 years of experience in physical therapy, Dana Scott considers herself an integral part of what she dubs a “health care army” that is needed to appropriately treat and manage a patient’s needs.

“As an outpatient physical therapist, my role is to work on the mobility, function and pain reduction portion of a patient’s care,” she says. This includes addressing the various dysfunctions leading to the medical issues and using tools such as manual therapy, exercise, modalities and education to promote healing and recovery.

Scott, who has spent the past seven years with CoxHealth at an outpatient physical therapy clinic, previously worked for 11 years as an acute care physical therapist with Mercy Springfield Communities. She began her health care career in 1999 at the Life Care Center of Waynesville after receiving her master’s degree in physical therapy from Southwest Baptist University. That was followed by a doctorate in physical therapy degree she earned in 2008 from the Bolivar school.

As a physical therapist in a busy outpatient clinic, Scott says she sees roughly 25 patients per week. Still, she gets to see them for 45 minutes per visit, typically twice a week. Striving to be a patient advocate, Scott says she routinely reaches out to physicians to clarify a patient’s plan of care, voice concerns about progress or request additional therapy, if needed. She specializes in chronic pain management and spine care and is a certified spinal manual therapist and therapeutic pain specialist.

“I try to listen to every patient to accurately understand what they need from me and attempt to meet them where they are,” she says. “When I am working with a patient, my goal is for them to know that they are my priority during their session.”

One of those patients is Carol Taylor, who retired in 2020 as president of Evangel University. Taylor says Scott became her primary physical therapist in April following her knee replacement surgery. She says Scott consistently goes beyond the fundamental requirements of being competent and professional in her work.

“I was amazed at her sustained focus during each PT session as she watched how I did each of the prescribed exercises to ensure I was doing them correctly and would be able to then do those prescribed at home,” Taylor says. “Dr. Scott is also a fabulous coach – affirming, caring, compassionate and encouraging – while also challenging and pushing forward, always pleasant and engaging.”

Scott says she is professionally motivated to see her patients meet their personal goals, adding if they ever lose hope in their recovery, she wants to help them find it again.

“To see someone’s life trajectory change because of the treatment they received while in my care, that is it – that is really all I need,” she says, adding the work can sometimes wear on her confidence and start to cause burnout. “But it only takes a win to make it all worth it. There is nothing like seeing a patient walk in on a walker or in a wheelchair and leave without any assistive device, planning to return to work.”