Sharon Health Center
Contact us12 Shippee Lane Sharon, VT 05065 Phone (802) 763-8000 Fax (802) 763-8090 Our providers Hank Glass, DC Office hours Monday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For emergency care after office hours, please call Gifford Medical Center at (802) 728-7000. |
The Sharon Health Center just off Route 14 is home to Gifford's bustling and expert Sports Medicine Clinic. This includes the care of podiatrics, a chiropractor, a sports medicine provider and an athletic trainer. Sharon is also home to physical therapy and an impressive gym space. For the convenience of patients, the quaint and modern health center also has X-ray technology and MRI from a visiting mobile unit on site. The health center is lastly home to a new treatment option known as PRP.
***
Learn more about our story
The Sharon Health Center:
Renowned for sports medicine
The Sharon Health Center is best known for a unique specialty it provides – sports medicine, a bustling practice at that.
People come from other states, and even other countries, to receive care from the center’s expert sports medicine providers – podiatrists Dr. Rob Rinaldi and Dr. Paul Smith, chiropractor Dr. Hank Glass and general sports medicine physician Dr. Peter Loescher.
Some patients are amateur athletes, or “weekend warriors;” others are triathletes; a U.S. Olympian; and many college athletes. On the day we visited some time back, Dartmouth College cross-country and track and field runners Alexi Pappa of California and Amy Schuman of New Hampshire let us sit in on their appointment with Dr. Rinaldi.
The duo was there so they could, as Alexi explained it, “run without pain.”
In one visit, they had X-rays done onsite, ran on a treadmill as Dr. Rinaldi observed and filmed their gait, and had casts done of their feet so that customized shoe inserts, or orthotics, could be crafted in time for the start of their upcoming running season.
The breadth of services the young athletes received was thanks in part to a 2008 addition to the Sharon Health Center.
Originally built in 2005, the small, red clapboard-encased Route 14 health center nearly doubled in size in 2008; an X-ray machine and other diagnostic technology was added; a “phenomenal” new gym built for physical therapists, and new staff was welcomed. Since staff has once again grown, MRI from a visiting mobile unit has been added and a newer, promising treatment called platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy is now popular among patients with joint pain.
They are all changes that enhance care and please Sharon’s providers.
“This has always been my vision. I’m elated that Gifford has made the dream come true,” Dr. Rinaldi says.
“I feel our standard of care has increased significantly. This is a level of patient care that makes me very pleased. We’re able to get results here,” says chiropractor Dr. Hank Glass.
The providers describe a collaborative approach, where they confer over patients’ X-rays; refer patients to one another based on the patient’s needs; and where getting athletes back on the move and community members healthy is the primary focus.
It’s a formula that seems to work well. Patient numbers have climbed significantly since the Sharon Health Center first opened in 2005.
And if workplace satisfaction is an indicator of success, the Sharon Health Center is doing extremely well.
“I don’t work Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. By Tuesday, I’m chomping at the bit to get back to work,” says Dr. Rinaldi, who works part time.
“I enjoy coming to work. How many people in the United States can say that?” adds Dr. Glass.
Sports medicine at its best
The Sharon Sports Medicine Clinic is committed to providing athletes of all abilities – whether a professional, Olympian, amateur or novice – specialized care for injuries and illnesses. It also strives to prevent future injuries and promotes lifelong fitness and wellness. Founded on a belief that the human body was created to move and be active, the clinic works to maximize patients’ enjoyment of activities and minimize time away from athletics due to injury or illness. This is accomplished through treatment programs tailored to the needs of each patient; the use of diagnostic imaging and therapies to aid in diagnosis and recovery; consultations with appropriate area specialists, other health-care providers and with coaches and school personnel; and through the expertise, experience and collaboration of the clinic’s team of providers. |
The team includes specialists in sports medicine, podiatry, chiropractics, physical therapy, general medicine and nursing
Read one athlete's story ____________________________________________________________________________ Josh KahanPRP, and the Sharon clinic, had this Ironman running again Hanover resident Josh Kahan was competing in an Ironman triathlon in Louisville when he ruptured two tendons in one of his ankles.
It was about 95 degrees in the Kentucky sun. Josh had already swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles and was 23 miles into the marathon run – and about 10 hours into his race – when he stepped down and immediately knew something had gone drastically wrong. “I heard a noise,” said the computer company owner, “and immediately I almost fell down.” He walked the remaining three miles of the marathon to the finish line and, upon returning to New England, called his sports medicine provider – the Sharon Health Center off Route 14. An MRI confirmed the injury and Sharon Health Center podiatrist Dr. Rob Rinaldi explained to Josh his options. Normally, surgery would be the solution, but “‘we’re getting into this new thing called PRP,’” Josh recalls the doctor saying. “I was all game for anything that involved non-surgery,” said Josh, who was the health center’s first patient to receive PRP, or platelet-rich plasma, therapy. PRP therapy uses the body’s own healing process to regenerate damaged tendons or ligaments. It is really little more than injections of a patient’s own blood – specifically blood plasma that has been concentrated to contain platelets rich in connective tissue “growth factors,” or bioactive proteins, that initiate healing. Josh had two PRP injections and was back to competing when the summer season rolled around. He did two half-Ironmans and two full Ironmans that year – pain-free. He estimates he saved eight weeks of missed training by avoiding surgery. “I’m ecstatic,” he says of his PRP results. “To me, it’s been an incredibly positive experience. It saved my season.” ____________________________________________________________________________ |
