Due to budget cuts, the Vaden physical therapy unit will temporarily close its doors, beginning today, and will reopen in the fall under the control of an outside company. This decision has sparked negative reactions among some of Vaden’s patients, who are now forced to seek treatment elsewhere until the unit reopens.

At the height of the University’s financial crisis last year, Vaden, in addition to other departments on campus, was asked to look for ways to reduce its expenses, said Ira Friedman, the director of Vaden Health Center. Administrators decided that because the campus health service fee did not cover the physical therapy unit, the University would no longer financially support it.

“It was a very serious and deliberative process,” Friedman wrote in an e-mail to The Daily. “We looked for savings in all of the units at Vaden. In physical therapy, we needed to end the University’s financial support and rely entirely on insurance billing.”

“We decided, after a lot of study, that to have the physical therapy unit be self-sustaining, we needed to bring in an outside company to manage it,” he added.

In order to easily transition control of the unit into outside hands, Vaden, which services 700 students a year, made the decision to close its doors temporarily, effective today.

“We are actively working to select the new company as quickly as possible,” Friedman said, adding that the firm has not yet been chosen and that the decision would be announced as soon as it is made. “The transition will take place over the remaining summer months.”

The decision to shut the unit down until fall quarter has also forced its four employees to find work elsewhere for the time being.

“We are very concerned about our current staff,” Friedman said. “They have been encouraged to apply for positions with the new physical therapy company, when it is chosen.”

Tim Bowman, Vaden’s chief physical therapist and a 26-year employee, could not be reached for comment.

Friedman added that he is concerned for the students who use the physical therapy unit and that Vaden is trying to make the transition for them as easy as possible.

“There are a number of highly regarded physical therapy offices located in the nearby community,” Friedman said. “Vaden’s Insurance and Referral Office is helping our current patients transfer their care while the physical therapy unit is temporarily closed.”

“When the unit reopens in the fall, students will continue to have the same high quality and convenient access to physical therapy services inside the Vaden facility,” he added.

For one of those transitioning students, law student Emma Channing, the closure is an extreme inconvenience that couldn’t have come at a worse time.

“Currently, I’m studying for the bar exam, which leaves me very little time to leave campus and go to somewhere like Palo Alto for treatment,” she said.

Channing, who has been treated at Vaden for bike-related injuries, also said that she was given little advance notice about the closure.

“When I was sent to the physical therapists at Vaden, they warned me they would only be open for two more weeks, yet they haven’t helped me find anywhere else to go,” she said. “It’s completely arbitrary and insane.”

Although Channing feels that Vaden has not made this transition easy for its patients, she believes they have helped her a lot during her time as a patient there.

“I don’t think I will get the same standard of care as I’ve received at Vaden at another clinic,” she said. “The two physical therapists in the unit have been wonderful. They use heat and compression, which has been amazing, and I don’t know if I can find that anywhere else.”