Stacey Ozias Joins TCMH Physical Therapy Department

Stacey Ozias, PT

There’s a new face in the Texas County Memorial Hospital physical therapy department—Stacey Ozias, a physical therapist, is the newest member of the PT team.

The first week on the new TCMH job, Ozias was parking on the Houston Walmart Supercenter parking lot and trekking over to the hospital each morning.  The second week on the job, she got a call that her car, now parked on the hospital’s new front parking lot, had been hit by a skid loader from one of the construction crews.

“My first thought was, ‘Is it drivable?’” Ozias said.   Currently commuting each day from West Plains, a drivable car is a crucial part of her job.

“It just left a dent in my bumper,” Ozias, said, smiling and making a dinner plate sized shape with her hands.

Regardless of the accident, Ozias’ sense of humor remained with her, and her co-workers shared a chuckle with Ozias regarding her unusual “welcome to TCMH” just one week into the job.

Camaraderie with a small, close-knit physical therapy group and the opportunity to learn and to practice more PT modalities is the reason Ozias chose to make a job change for the TCMH physical therapist opportunity.

Ozias has been a physical therapist in South Central Missouri since 2009 when she graduated with her doctorate of physical therapy from Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar.  She found her first job with a different South Central Missouri hospital where she did physical therapy with inpatients and outpatients in addition to working at a hospital-owned clinic in Mountain Grove and contracting with Kabul Nursing Home in Cabool to provide physical therapy to the nursing home patients.

“I have always enjoyed working in a smaller hospital with inpatients and outpatients,” Ozias explained.

Wound care, lymphedema wrapping and massage and aquatic therapy are three of the things that Ozias  plans to practice more in her position at TCMH.

“I received training in all aspects of physical therapy, but I haven’t been able to practice all of them,” Ozias said, explaining that at TCMH she plans to grow her experience as a generalist in physical therapy.

Ozias noted that in the past she has recommended patients for aquatic therapy, but she didn’t actually do the therapy with the patients.

“I’m really excited about getting to work with patients in this pool,” Ozias said, adding that she believes her practice at TCMH will allow her “a little more time to work with people”.

Although Ozias has undergraduate training in music, she has found her niche in physical therapy.

“I thought I wanted to be a music teacher, but I always had an interest in human anatomy,” Ozias said.  Ozias had a friend in physical therapy school that encouraged her to consider the profession.

“I only had to take a couple of additional classes to be able to get in to the PT program at SBU,” Ozais explained.  Ozias was part of the second doctorate of physical therapy program to graduate from SBU, and she hasn’t looked back.

“I love working with people,” Ozias said, “It makes me feel so good when my patients say, ‘That doesn’t hurt anymore’ or ‘I can do this again.’”

As a physical therapist, Ozias enjoys seeing patients of all ages, and she especially likes practicing in a small town.

Ozias grew up in Topeka, KS where most of her family is today.  Ozias currently makes a home in West Plains where she has two cats and two goldfish.  In her free time, she enjoys practicing martial arts.

Ozias admits to enjoying the quiet aspects of smaller towns where the traffic is less hectic.

“The people are different in a smaller town, too,” Ozias said, adding, “They are more pleasant.”