When Kelsey Cutts, a born and bred Cape Codder, was offered the job as Director of Inpatient Rehabilitation at Broad Reach in the fall of 2021, it didn’t take her long to accept.

“Not only was I honored,” she says, “but I have a confession to make: This is my dream job!”

Her focus and training started at Dennis-Yarmouth High School, where she took advantage of work-based learning programs to explore opportunities in health care. Simultaneously, as a three-sport athlete injured sophomore year, she was able to get back on the soccer field only with a lot of physical therapy help.

“That PT became my hero,” she laughs. As a two-sport collegiate athlete in Vermont at Norwich University, she went on to graduate school in Rhode Island to attain a doctorate in physical therapy.

“I knew I wanted to get back to the Cape, so I completed my three student clinical rotations here, one of which was at Liberty Commons.” After graduation in 2018, that led to full-time work, and a return home.

“I’m something of a regimented, driven type of person,” she acknowledges, a trait that has helped her become a better physical therapist and suggested that she would be a strong program administrator. So when in-house promotions led to an opening, she was a natural choice to step up.

She works on staff scheduling, hiring, intraprofessional contact, and most-importantly, serving as “the bridge between therapists and other departments, keeping a pulse on everything going on, keeping us a cohesive unit.

“It’s very gratifying to help people, watch them improve, and hopefully get them home,” she says. “We work toward independence. The goal is to help people function at the highest level possible for each person.”

She maintains direct patient contact in addition to her management responsibilities; directly seeing four to five patients to ensure a good management and patient balance.

The community at Liberty Commons ranges from patients who might stay for a week or two rehabbing from a knee replacement to those who may be recovering from a stroke and benefit from as much as 100 days of gradual improvement. There are also long-term care residents. “I tend to work directly with them,” Kelsey says, which helps ensure no patient or resident slips through the cracks.

Kelsey likes to make thorough checklists, and by week’s end if something patient-related isn’t completed, she isn’t going home. But she also has a vital life beyond work; many days during basketball season she jumps in her car and races up to Nauset High School in Eastham to coach the girls’ varsity team. Maybe even more gratifying are years of “adaptive sailing” instruction to help those with disabilities access sailboats without limitations.

Work, and the unusual opportunities of life on Cape Cod, overlap in creative ways.
“Not only was I honored,” she says, “but I have a confession to make: This is my dream job!”

Her focus and training started at Dennis-Yarmouth High School, where she took advantage of work-based learning programs to explore opportunities in health care. Simultaneously, as a three-sport athlete injured sophomore year, she was able to get back on the soccer field only with a lot of physical therapy help.

“That PT became my hero,” she laughs. As a two-sport collegiate athlete in Vermont at Norwich University, she went on to graduate school in Rhode Island to attain a doctorate in physical therapy.

“I knew I wanted to get back to the Cape, so I completed my three student clinical rotations here, one of which was at Liberty Commons.” After graduation in 2018, that led to full-time work, and a return home.

“I’m something of a regimented, driven type of person,” she acknowledges, a trait that has helped her become a better physical therapist and suggested that she would be a strong program administrator. So when in-house promotions led to an opening, she was a natural choice to step up.

She works on staff scheduling, hiring, intraprofessional contact, and most-importantly, serving as “the bridge between therapists and other departments, keeping a pulse on everything going on, keeping us a cohesive unit.

“It’s very gratifying to help people, watch them improve, and hopefully get them home,” she says. “We work toward independence. The goal is to help people function at the highest level possible for each person.”

She maintains direct patient contact in addition to her management responsibilities; directly seeing four to five to ensure a good management and patient balance.

The community at Liberty Commons ranges from patients who might stay for a week or two rehabbing from a knee replacement to those who may be recovering from a stroke and benefit from as much as 100 days of gradual improvement. There are also long-term care residents. “I tend to work directly with them,” Kelsey says, which helps ensure no patient or resident slips through the cracks.

Kelsey likes to make thorough checklists, and by week’s end if something patient-related isn’t completed, she isn’t going home. But she also has a vital life beyond work; many days during basketball season she jumps in her car and races up to Nauset High School in Eastham to coach the girls’ varsity team. Maybe even more gratifying are years of “adaptive sailing” instruction to help those with disabilities access sailboats without limitations.

Work, and the unusual opportunities of life on Cape Cod, overlap in creative ways.