Optimal Physical Therapy Gym Brings High-Quality Healthcare to Underserved Communities

by Rachel Hazzard
May 29, 2024

Explore Categories

If you’ve ever suffered from chronic pain or faced a difficult road to recovery following an injury or surgery, you understand just how important a good physical therapist can be. Unfortunately, everyone does not have the same access to high-quality healthcare and Dr. Binh Nguyen, DPT, COMT, FAAOMPT made it his top priority to change that.

Optimal Physical Therapy Gym provides tailored treatments that help you get back to doing what you love to do. Whether addressing chronic pain or injury recovery, their patient-focused and holistic approach can help facilitate your body’s natural healing abilities. They treat a multitude of issues and areas while focusing on natural pain relief, balance, and re-injury prevention.

“I realized there is a huge gap between fitness and rehabilitation, and [that] physical therapy and fitness are underserved in the immigrant community. This inspired me to start Optimal Physical Therapy Gym to bridge this gap.”

Binh Nguyen, DPT, COMT, FAAOMPT
Founder & Physical Therapist of Optimal Physical Therapy Gym

Diversity and inclusion is important to Nguyen. Originally, the practice was located in Northeast Philadelphia, but it was far from the Vietnamese immigrant community, so he relocated to South Philadelphia to be closer to those he was hoping to serve. “South Philadelphia is a very diverse community with Spanish, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Laos, Napalese, Burmese, Arabic immigrants, and LGBTQ,” said Nguyen. “Optimal Physical Therapy Gym has bilingual/trilingual staff, and our staff adopts an open-minded and inclusive attitude to everyone in the community we serve regardless of belief, religions, identity, and socioeconomic status.”

When he made the decision to relocate his practice, Nguyen first went to several traditional lenders, who all turned him down. But PIDC was able to provide the financing he needed to purchase the South Philadelphia location. 

He credits PIDC with helping him grow his business. “I was the only physical therapist [when we first opened],” he said. “ We grew to four full-time physical therapists, three administrative staff,  two full-time physical therapy aides, six part-time physical therapy aides, and a second location in Olney 6043 N. 5th Street prior to COVID-19.” Like other businesses, the pandemic was a challenge, but he’s recovering and back to providing services to a community that desperately needs them. “We [currently have] three full-time physical therapists, one full-time administrative [team member], and three part-time physical therapy aides.”

As a small community-based practice, Optimal Physical Therapy Gym doesn’t have access to some of the resources hospital-based practices have. But Nguyen sees that as an advantage. “Our vision and mission have stayed the same over the decade,”  he said. “We are a community-based practice; we are involved with cultural events and organized [a] health fair prior to COVID-19.” 

Nguyen has succeeded in bringing physical therapy services to traditionally underserved communities, and PIDC is proud to help him continue this mission far into the future.

Learn more about the financing and business support offered by PIDC.

Explore Categories