There is something grueling, yet spiritual about restoring an injured part of oneself to its highest strength and function through physical therapy. Dina Hayes, PT, DPT, MHA oversees this process as director of Therapy Services at St. Luke’s Hospital in Chesterfield, Mo.
“It’s such a great field,” Hayes said. Unlike some other vocations, she explains, “It’s nice with physical therapy because it doesn’t take long for you to see that what you are doing is making a difference.”
Hayes is responsible for inpatient and outpatient physical therapy, occupational, speech and cardiac rehabilitation programs as well as athletic training and wellness services.
“You try to make sure you have staff that is working in an environment that they enjoy and they can provide excellent patient care,” Hayes said.
“You have to make sure you have the programs and the facility set up so that you patients get a positive experience and would want to continue to come back, and then you are making sure you are managing it in a way where you are being financially profitable and being a good steward of resources.”
Hayes found her calling after her father had a stroke when she was 15.
“I was very protective of my dad and I remember going to the hospital in the middle of the night and the doctor saying that he was going to be okay but he was going to need physical therapy,” Hayes recalled.
That was back before the internet, when people relied on books to do research.
“I remembering going home and looking in the encyclopedia and seeing what physical therapy was but I wasn’t quite sure what it was,” she recalled. “So I was volunteered at the VA hospital at that time, and I remember that Monday morning going into my troop leader and saying, ‘I want to volunteer in physical therapy.’”
Hayes went to the VA hospital at Jefferson Barracks.
“Instantly, when I started volunteering, I would say, within an hour of being in that department, I knew that I had found the right place for me,” Hayes said.
She witnessed what physical therapy accomplished for her late father, who she said woke up from his stroke unable to talk, eat or move on his own accord.
“My dad, he didn’t return to 100 percent, but the therapy made a huge difference for him,” Hayes said. “He got to the point he was walking with a cane independently by himself and he could definitely talk and eating was not a problem.”
Hayes went on to earn a doctorate in physical therapy and a master of health administration from Saint Louis University. She earned a bachelor of science in physical therapy from Rockhurst University after graduating from Rosati-Kain High School in Saint Louis.
Her work started out 19 years ago at Saint Louis University Hospital where she worked for several years. She worked briefly in their physician practice area before moving a skilled nursing facility before going to St. Luke’s.
“I missed the hospital setting,” she said. “And St. Luke’s is a great place to work.”
At St. Luke’s, women’s health has become her passion. Hayes led the development of a physical therapy program for women with pelvic pain and incontinence.
“We’ve brought a program called Total Control to St. Luke’s, and that is an exercise and education program,” Hayes said. “It’s all about good bladder health, teaching women what are the things that can add to incontinence – things like diet sodas, caffeine – and then telling them the same way you have to strengthen other muscles, we have to strengthen our pelvic floor muscles too.”
With St. Luke’s as a member of the Spirit of Women Health Network, Hayes said the hospital is building its entire pelvic floor program.
“I think we’re different in that we are not trying to improve pelvic health for just the women in therapy services or just the OBs or just the different groups,” Hayes said. “We are looking at it comprehensively and seeing what we need to improve this area to improve the pelvic health of women.”
The other main area Hayes is involved in is the hospital’s cancer therapy program, designed by a physician who is a cancer survivor, called STAR – Survivors Training and Rehab – which she says moves beyond survivorship to preparing people to get back to work.
Hayes said, “That was designed for people who have cancer so we can improve their quality of life and not just tell them to get back to the things they were doing, but actually help them get back to the things they were doing.”
Hayes has a daughter named Destiny and volunteers at Grace Community Bible Church in Maryland Heights, Mo. She recently became engaged to Eric Witherspoon of St. Louis.
