Physical Therapist

Where You’ll Work

Dominican Hospital (a member of Dignity Health) is a 222-bed facility that offers a wide range of services to residents of California’s Central Coast. With 24/7 emergency care, comprehensive care in cardiac, orthopedics, oncology, women’s and children’s services, we continue to lead the region in medical innovation and excellence in healthcare.

Comprehensive Care
Dominican offers emergency services and is a Certified Stroke Center and Chest Pain Center. Dominican’s services include the only comprehensive Cancer Center in Santa Cruz County, a Total Joint Replacement program, and advanced neurological and endoscopic services. Dominican regularly receives ‘A’ grades for hospital safety from Leapfrog Group, and has received national recognition for superior patient safety, cardiac care, and stroke treatment from Healthgrades, a leading provider of comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals.
As Santa Cruz County’s heart attack (STEMI) receiving center, Dominican Hospital provides cutting edge cardiac care. The hospital’s heart attack treatment times consistently beat the national average, and the hospital offers two cardiac catheterization labs available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Groundbreaking cardiac procedures at Dominican include the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) procedure, which allows for heart valve replacement without opening a patient’s chest.
Dominican Hospital has forged significant partnerships with area hospitals to bring exceptional care to Santa Cruz County. The hospital offers a level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) through a partnership with Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Neurosurgery at Dominican is also offered through a partnership with Stanford Health Care.

One Community. One Mission. One California 

Job Summary and Responsibilities

As our Physical Therapist, you will help patients rebuild or maintain their physical wellbeing so they can function at their best level, reduce pain, and improve their quality of life.

Every day you will perform initial evaluations, develop and update individualized plans of care, and provide a variety of direct treatments. You will be expected to consistently meet patient care productivity standards, collaborate with the interdisciplinary team and families, and promote a positive customer service environment.

To be successful in this role, you will possess strong age-appropriate competency skills, excellent communication abilities, and a collaborative, patient-centered approach to care.

• Evaluations: Are completed according to department protocol. Completed within 48 hours once evaluation has been initiated. All relevant areas are thoroughly completed. Appropriate goals are set relative to the patient's prior level of function. Treatment plan is relevant to patient's problems identified. Patient/family participates in treatment plan and in setting goals.
• Provides Effective and Adequate Treatment: Implements effective and adequate treatment following department guidelines. Ongoing assessment of treatment effectiveness. Goals and treatment are modified as appropriate in relation to working toward goals. Selects appropriate treatment interventions. Utilizes specialized techniques. 
• Patient/Family Education and Training: Addresses patient/family education. Demonstrates a variety of teaching methods. Methods are appropriate to the level of understanding. Education is timely (initiated when patient/family capable of learning) and need is identified with action taken to initiate training. Content is comprehensive-all aspects of care, including safety.
• Documentation: Complies with department policy regarding documentation. Completed in a timely manner according to department policy. Concise, legible, correct grammar using medical terminology and approved abbreviations. Reflects all interventions used in treatment, all ongoing assessment of treatment effectiveness, and changes in goals and treatment plan as appropriate. 
• Communication & Collaboration with Team/MD: Appropriately communicates treatment plan and patient status with team and MD with no more than 1 complaint per year. Participates in team conferences. Addresses verification of payor guidelines/authorization as needed, in a timely manner (i.e., prior to scheduling/treating patient or obtaining equipment. 
• Delegates to and Supervises Others: Delegates to and supervises support staff and students in achieving desired outcomes with no more than 1 complaint per year. Delegates appropriately to support staff within licensure and practice standards.

Job Requirements

Required

• Minimum of one year experience as a physical therapist in physical disabilities setting, preferably in acute care or acute rehab OR completion of six to nine months internship in an acute care or acute rehab required.
• Doctorate, Masters or Baccalaureate Degree from a school of Physical Therapy accredited by the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals of the American Physical Therapy Assoiciation or its equivalent required.
• CT CPRBLS;LIC PT required.
• Current BLS certification required.
• Current and valid physical therapy license, according to the laws of the State of California required.
• CCS paneling for pediatric care (only if they are treating pediatric patients) required. 

Preferred

• CCS preferred. 
• Knowledge of physical therapy theory, treatment, and evaluation in areas of neurology is recommended.