Moving toward a brighter future together

I was working in a private practice clinic in Saskatoon and many of my rehab patients were having to travel for hours to see me. When I realized there was no local access in Lloydminster, my hometown, I recognized the huge need and in 2000 I opened a practice there. As we grew and expanded, the clinic relocated to Lloydminster's landmark sporting facility, the Servus Sports Centre when it was built. By 2019 my business, Alta-Sask Wellness, had branched out from one clinic to three, with nearly 40 staff providing care to a population catchment of 120,000 people.

I was ready to explore opportunities to take the business to the next level. I wanted to be part of changing the face of healthcare in Canada, but I knew I couldn’t do it on my own. Lifemark really listened to our unique situation to find out what we wanted to do and were open to different options, different structures, different ideas. That type of flexibility made me want to move forward. I partnered with Lifemark in August 2019. Lifemark brought the contracts, the referral base, the back-office resources, and a national network of partners that has allowed the clinic to continue to grow and me to focus on making a difference in other ways.

Partnering with Lifemark has reduced the stress and pressure of being an independent small business owner. I have a better work/life balance now and my family and friends tell me I’m back to being the person that I used to be. I love going to work now knowing that I have a larger organization behind me, and I love doing the work that I do.

I opened my first clinic in Aurora in 1994, expanded to Keswick in 1998, to Sutton in 2016 and then opened a second Keswick location in 2021. Lifemark reached out in 2018 to see if I was interested in partnering but the timing wasn’t right.  We agreed to keep in touch and built a great relationship. Right from the beginning I could see that their culture and values spoke to mine.  There was no pretension, everybody was so real.

In 2023, with my kids through university, I was ready for the next steps. I wanted to partner with an organization who respected me, that had strong clinical, HR, IT, financial and legal expertise and would support me. The transition to Lifemark has presented a few challenges for the admin team as they learn new systems and processes, but that the positive relationship with the Lifemark Transition team continues to be evident. When I have any sort of issue they’re there. I get support from every department at Lifemark. I feel 1000 lbs lighter. 

Other independent clinic owners ask me if they should partner with Lifemark.  I say 100%.  What are you waiting for?  Think about your team, think about your community and think about your legacy.  Lifemark is building a healthcare model that will deliver more access for patients.  They are a Canadian company that is here to stay.

We’ve been caring for patients for more than thirty years and opened our own clinic in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia in 2013.  With our network, team, experience and skills, we hit the ground running. We started to realize back in 2017 that things were changing, and contracts were being awarded to clinics that could provide national coverage in terms of services.  We had a great reputation, but we realized we could only grow our clinic so far. To take it to the next level we needed to explore our options.

Talking with Lifemark helped us to consider those options and our succession plans.  We started asking ourselves the questions that needed to be asked.  Were we going to retire? Was there another clinician who wanted to buy our business?  We already knew the local Lifemark team and negotiation meetings with the National Office only confirmed that we all shared the same values.

When Lifemark acquired CORE in 2017, we stayed on as CORE’s Clinical Co-Directors.  We kept caring for our patients with their best interests in mind.  Lifemark gave us the clinical autonomy to continue the way we were already working. We definitely benefitted from their new systems, and they helped us through process changes at our own pace. It felt very collaborative, and as a result, we had no staff turnover.

When people ask us about the benefits of partnering with Lifemark we tell them it has allowed us to be part of a solid Canadian company who really is looking to improve the quality of healthcare to Canadians across the country. Who wouldn’t want to be part of that?

I’m always focussed on quality – the quality of our team, the quality of the mentorship and workplace we provide, and the quality of care we deliver to our clients. So, when Lifemark’s Acquisition Team reached out in 2022 asking if Resolution was for sale, it was all about maintaining that quality.

There were a lot of conversations about how to preserve the quality of my clinic when it was no longer mine. It was crucial to me that the culture and the community that we've built over the years continued to be supported.  I consistently received, and have continued to receive, feedback from Lifemark that they respect our identity as a clinic, and they respect the model of what our clinic represents.

I chose to partner with Lifemark because I was confident they would support me both as a therapist and as a Clinic Director. I partnered with them knowing that I could continue to make my own decisions, not focussed on finances, but on quality. I don't have sleepless nights worrying about the day-to-day running of the clinic anymore because I know that there's someone else who's keeping an eye on things. Our team is heavily supported by Lifemark’s admin organization to the point where I have been able to step back from the day-to-day administration and focus more on mentorship, teaching and caring for my clients.

Given Lifemark’s extensive clinic network and significant influence in the healthcare industry, I am excited about the opportunity to work with Lifemark toward their goal of supporting and encouraging the growth of thousands of Physiotherapists across Canada, as well as advancing the Physiotherapy profession as a whole. I am very happy with our decision to sell to Lifemark and look forward to contributing as a member of their team with this goal in mind.