Physical therapy practice owners started at SCC

There is only one privately-owned physical therapy outpatient clinic in Yadkinville, and that clinic is co-owned by three partners, two of whom are alumni of the Surry Community College Physical Therapist Assistant program.

Robert Clifton and Matt Cain were employed by Yadkin Physical Therapy in 2012 and 2013, respectively, before becoming co-owners with their other partner, Dr. Kaleb Hill, doctor of physical therapy, in 2021. Before becoming physical therapist assistants (PTAs), both were interested in sports and exercise science.

Clifton was working as a contractor building houses until a motorcycle accident in 2008. After being airlifted from Martinsville, Virginia, to N.C. Baptist Hospital, now Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, he spent a month in the hospital. As a result of his accident and all the care he received while in the hospital, he became interested in doing something with physical therapy as a career. “It just seemed a good fit,” he said.

Clifton applied and was accepted into the SCC PTA program in 2010 and graduated in April 2012 in what was SCC’s second graduating class for the program. That same spring, he took the National Physical Therapy Exam, passed it, and was “hired sight unseen as the very first PTA” at Yadkin Physical Therapy in May of that same year.

One year later in 2013, Cain took his father to Yadkin Physical Therapy for therapy on his shoulder. At the time, he was attending the University of North Carolina at Greensboro working towards an exercise science degree. While assisting his dad to and from the practice, he struck up a conversation with Clifton and then Yadkin Physical Therapy owner Debbie Snyder and was quickly hired as a technician to work while he was in school. It was during his employment as a physical therapy technician that Cain decided to attend SCC and get a PTA degree.

In 2018, Snyder hired Dr. Kaleb Hill as a physical therapist. The practice was growing, and the decision was made to move the practice from the local YMCA building to its current facility on Woodlawn Drive in Yadkinville. In 2021, Snyder announced her retirement. It was at that time Clifton, Cain, and Hill decided to buy the practice. They became the official owners on Dec. 28, 2021.

Since taking over the practice as part owner, Clifton reports the practice is doing well. He said SCC’s PTA program was instrumental in helping him with this success. He feels being a PTA offers interested persons the opportunity to get heavily involved in the physical therapy field faster and more economically than going through the seven-year process to become a Doctor of Physical Therapy.

“According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, physical therapy is a healthcare field that is expected to grow faster than many other professions,” college officials said. SCC’s program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education. The program offers a program which can lead to a career and admits a maximum of 16 students each fall semester. It is located at Surry Community College’s Yadkin Center in Yadkinville.

The admission deadline for the fall 2024 cohort is May 31. To learn more contact Dr. Eileen Coleman, SCC PTA program director, at 336-386-3513 or colemanei@surry.edu.