MMC Welcomes New Physical Therapist
Memorial Medical Center recently welcomed new physical therapist, Gene Lopez.
Lopez began his new position last Wednesday as head the physical therapy department for the hospital, which had previously contracted physical therapists for the department.
Born and raised in San Antonio, Lopez graduated from St. Mary's University with an English degree and planned to become a professor. After realizing lecturing a large class was not something he wanted, Lopez became a licensed vocation nurse.
"At that point, I was decent as a nurse, but I wanted more autonomy, and just the way I was thinking, the very peculiar, idiosyncratic way I thought, I need more autonomy," Lopez said. "I needed more autonomy to be able to develop a plan of care for these patients. In that respect, I had a lot of confidence, where maybe in other places in my life I didn't."
Lopez worked as an LVN for more than 25 years in San Antonio at the Rehabilitation Institute of San Antonio where he did rehabilitation nursing. Lopez also earned a degree in radiation therapy and worked with people who had cancer.
After a particularly difficult day as a nurse, Lopez said he returned home and told his wife, Diana, he needed a change. At the age of 38, Lopez went back to school for physical therapy.
"I applied to osteopathy school in Fort Worth and I applied to the Health Science Center, and I got the acceptance from the Health Science Center," Lopez said. "Here I was, a 38-year-old man in a class of 26 year olds that were just absolutely brilliant. I thought, 'How am I going to compete with these people,' so essentially it was just being in a library grind, 24/7 studying and I struggled so, so much. There were just some really difficult times, but I knew there was a purpose."
"It was time to go back. I was like a kid in a candy store. I was, 'Give me information,'" he added with a laugh about PT school. "What I lacked in raw intelligence, I think I made up for in commitment and motivation and was determined to have fun at it."
A key motivation for Lopez, he said, has been the memory of his grandmother, Oralia, who raised Lopez as a child. Lopez, who saw gang activities growing up, said his grandmother helped set him on his path today.
"She would say, 'You disappoint me.' I think that was the epiphany for me that I wasn't just going to be a cog in this process of heroin and graffiti, tagging, and such. I wanted to do something a little bit more for her essentially," Lopez said. "Years after she's been gone, that's really what guides me, what motivates me. I know that in some capacity that I'll see her again. It just motivates me."
Lopez graduated from physical therapy school in 2009, acknowledging that one of his strengths is working with patients who have lower back and neural problems. He went on to earn additional certifications in that area of physical therapy.
"I wanted to be the expert in lumbar spine pain because I suffer from it. I'm very active in martial arts and judo. They only teach you enough (in school) to pass your boards. It's your dime and your time after you graduate," he said.
Prior to moving to Victoria where he now resides, Lopez worked at the Veterans' Affairs hospital in San Antonio, but when his allergies became difficult to manage, he and his wife made the move to the Texas coastal area.
"I love San Antonio. I had a job at the VA hospital," Lopez said. "I wanted to work for a federal institution because there, money is no object. There's no such thing as productivity and pressures for productivity and money and such. It was, 'Okay Gene, tell me what these soldiers from Fallujah need, and we'll get it to you.' Now, it takes 20 offices and hierarchies to get it. It's the bureaucracy, but when you do get that brace, it's the best brace that money can buy."
"I was in my 40s and the cedar from the hill country was just killing me. I would just spasm and cough, and Diana sat down and said, 'There's an opening at UHV,'" he added. "So we came here and I can't say that it hasn't been challenging for me at least."
After moving to Victoria, Lopez worked at Warm Springs where he operated in a learning environment with mentors, he said. As MMC's director of physical therapy, he hopes to bring that same atmosphere and implement policy from his perspective at a physical therapist.
"There's universal themes when you ask a patient to be honest with me, to tell me what it is that you want and they say, 'Gene, I want continuity of care.' They won't say it that way, but they will say, 'I want to stay with one person throughout my course or at least two,' and that resonates so much here," Lopez said.
"The other thing is where physical therapy is going. It's a volume-driven system because we have less reimbursements from insurance, so it's about micromanaging as many patients as you can through the clinic, and I simply didn't get into PT for that. If you are my patient, I am front and center for an hour, and I'm not going to put you in the corner," Lopez added. "They (MMC administration) have so far let me run with that vision."
Although Lopez did not become an English professor, he also teaches at Victoria College for the physical therapy assistant program when not at MMC.
"I'm grateful for my students. I'm an adjunct at Victoria College, I teach physics. I teach the physical therapy assistants, which is very rewarding for me because in that dynamic, less and less I'm in academia and didactic, and more and more I'm a clinician," he said
While Lopez studies the latest research in the field of physical therapy, his approach to the practice is a comprehensive and patient-centered, he said.
"If you're a mechanic, why aren't we changing the oil in your car? If you're the little grandmother who has a stroke or a head injury why aren't we brining her grandchild and you and I are passing the child off and changing hands and rotating her," Lopez said. "All of a sudden, that's therapy that makes sense."