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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Therapy Institute Training Site Moves to Larger Space

Jessica Vernabe A North Hollywood-based institute that offers massage therapy and physical therapy aide training recently moved to a larger facility as part of a greater growth plan. The Southern California Health Institute is now located in 7,000-square-foot space at 5200 Lankershim Blvd. in the NoHo Arts District, said Nataliya Borchenko, the institute’s president. The institute now has about triple the space of its former campus, which was located at 5644 Vineland Ave., she said. The move follows several other changes over the past few years. Borchenko said she acquired the training institution, formerly known as the Institute for Professional Practical Therapy (IPPT), in 2008. Last August, it received accreditation for the first time from the Accrediting Council for Independent College and Schools. Borchenko said moving into the new facility allows the institute to accommodate the new inflow of students that the accreditation will attract. “The piece that was missing before in the success of our schools, and in being able to enroll students, was not really being able to offer those students the financial aid,” Borchenko said. The accreditation will now make way for that aid, she said. She expects the institute, which was enrolling less than 50 students, to enroll between about 250 and 300 students this year. The institute has graduated about 1,500 students since it started in 1996, Borchenko said. Jessica Kallio, a practicing chiropractor and the institute’s director of education, said the new site expands the institute’s student pool. “We’re able to accommodate a lot more students per classroom, as well as having more students going at the same time,” Kallio said. “It allows our students to spread out more.” Borchenko said that even with more students in a classroom, the institute still maintains its ratio of one instructor for every 20 students. The new location also gives the institute more visibility, Borchenko said. It is on the ground level of the building that houses the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. That area also gets a lot of foot traffic and is near businesses that support the institute’s mission, she said. “Right in the hub of NoHo, you’ll happen to find a lot of gym and yoga studio and dance studios,” Borchenko said. “This is (the students’) lifestyle, so it fits very well.” The Southern California Health Institute provides physicial therapy students with the training they need before they receive certification from industry associations. The programs generally last about seven and a half months. The institute originally had three locations, but Borchenko said it was down to one when she took over. She said when she bought that the niche-focused institute she knew it had the potential to be something greater. “We realized there was a little gem here and it was undiscovered,” she said. Borchenko’s immediate goal, she said, is to continue developing the institute’s programs and ensure that students’ training align with what employers are looking for. In the future, she said she hopes to move beyond the physical therapy aide training level and start providing a physical therapy assistant program, and eventually, a physical therapy program. Hospital Becomes Stoke Center Valley Presbyterian Hospital is now a primary stroke center, allowing the health care facility to better treat patients, hospital officials said. The Van Nuys-based hospital earned its primary stroke center certification from The Joint Commission early this month. The hospital is also the first in the San Fernando Valley to offer local patients advanced telemedicine technology, which helps them have immediate access to neurologists, said Valley Presbyterian Hospital CEO Gustavo Valdespino. The hospital’s “RoboDoc” two-way audio and video communication system allows physicians to examine patients and interact with a hospital’s medical team from another location. The Joint Commission requires each primary stroke center certified to have a neurologist available at all hours. “We already had the capacity to care for patients who suffered a stroke in the hospital or came to the emergency room seeking care,” said Dr. Marco Hernandez, Valley Presbyterian’s stroke team medical director. “Now that VPH has RoboDoc and its Primary Stroke Center certification, even more stroke patients will receive care more quickly with better outcomes to be expected.” The Joint Commission conducted an on-site evaluation of the hospital to make sure it followed national standards for stroke care. The organization’s certification is based on the recommendations of the Brain Attack Coalition and the American Stroke Association. Staff Reporter Jessica Vernabe can be reached at (818) 316-3123 or at [email protected]

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