Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Sara Rimes.
Hi Dr. Rimes, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am a Northeast Ohio native! I grew up in Kirtland and graduated from NDCL and BGSU. While in undergrad, I knew I wanted to work in healthcare and work with people, and I loved the idea of helping people without drugs or surgery. Having experienced chiropractic care from a young age, I was familiar with the idea that chiropractors were able to help people using just their hands. And I loved that!! It became something that really resonated with me, and I wanted to pursue it, so I went on to Logan College of Chiropractic in St. Louis and did my 3.5 years of year-round schooling to graduate at 25 years old as a Doctor of Chiropractic. I always knew I wanted to come back home after chiropractic school and open up my own business, and I did just that! I graduated in December of 2018 and opened the doors of Chiro CLE in June of 2019. 8 month later, COVID hit. Fortunately, I was able to keep my doors open as chiropractic was considered essential, so I worked every day! The timing was a blessing since I was so new in business, so I really only had one bad month before just continuing to grow and grow. I did it all myself for 3.5 years until finally hiring front desk help towards the end of 2022. And thank goodness for her! Now, I don’t have nearly as many late nights at the office having to call back patients, insurance companies, etc. Fast forward, and Chiro CLE is coming up on 5 years open this summer! Currently, I’m in the middle of an office renovation, building 4 new rooms so I can bring on another chiropractor, massage therapist, etc. My vision was to always have more people in here than just me, and slowly but surely, I gained the courage to finally take the leap!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I decided during my preceptorship (which is when you shadow and learn from a practicing chiropractor the last semester of school) that I wanted to open up a practice on my own. That’s great, but I didn’t realize how much I didn’t get the chance to learn like I would have if I had worked for someone for a couple years before opening up on my own. Most people take that route to learn as much as possible, but I didn’t! I decided to take the risk and leap of faith to open up and figure it out on my own. So it definitely wasn’t a smooth road doing it all by myself the first couple of years needless to say!
I am the first person in the family in this line of work, however, I am very thankful that my dad and brother are also business owners. However, I am very thankful that my dad and brother are also business owners. Though what they do is in a very different field, they were still able to give me a lot of advice and point me in the right direction to get my business opened up and off the ground. And of course, I had some guidance from my preceptor chiropractor as well, but he was full-time in practice with kids, and I’m sure he wouldn’t have had time to hash out every single question I had daily! It’s a very lonely feeling being in your office alone with a million questions and nobody I could count on to turn to for every answer. So I had to go out and find the answers.
Countless hours were spent my first couple years in practice on the phone, searching online, looking for answers. They sure did not prepare us in school for the headache that is dealing with insurance companies. And I totally understand why- they can’t teach you too much on how to deal with them because every state, every insurance company, and every insurance plan is different.
Years went on, and eventually, I started to get the hang of it all. Mind you, I have never hired a business coach or a billing company. Possibly not the smartest decision, but I wanted to be able to do it without the higher overhead. Don’t get me wrong, to this day a patient still will walk in with an insurance company or plan that I have never seen, and I smile to myself and realize I will never know it all. I just have to constantly be learning and adapting. And now, thankfully, I am able to lean on my office coordinator to search for and find answers to these insurance questions during the workday. Almost 5 years in, and it has definitely gotten easier, but by no means is it easy! I’ve learned to be thankful for the challenge because otherwise, it would be boring, right?!?
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
At Chiro CLE, we treat the body using a functional approach with patient-centered care. This means that we focus on the unique needs of each patient and tailor treatment to meet those needs. Our mission is to correct the function of patients through chiropractic adjustments and rehabilitation while also igniting a sense of personal responsibility for attaining health goals through continued self-care outside of the office. To do this, we offer more than just the standard chiropractic adjustments! We use functional rehab, dry needling, cupping, and soft tissue work to help reach and correct the root of the problem. Then, we send you home with specific exercises to do on your own to help speed up the process. There are a lot of hours in the day, and getting better quickly is about what you’re doing the other 23.5 hours a day/7 days a week! So that is why we give you great exercises to add to your daily routine because creating that habit will make a lasting difference.
When people come to Chiro CLE, one of the things that stand out to them is the quality of care. This comes from her well-rounded approach to treatment – one treatment definitely does not fit all! It also includes the time spent with each patient. Dr. Sara does not rush her time with anyone; she is with each patient for 20-30 minutes on average. This is because her goal is to get you back to doing what you love, pain-free, and functioning better than ever – in as little time as possible! It has always been a team effort at Chiro CLE to reach your goals! We are here to meet you wherever you are on your health journey.
Who do we treat? Anyone with a spine. That includes babies and kiddos! If you’re interested to know more, I urge you to go check out our blog ‘Babies and Chiropractic’ and ‘Kids and Chiropractic’ on our website chiro-cle.com/blog.
We’re also very passionate about treating pregnant and postpartum women! Chiropractic can really help ease a lot of pregnancy aches and pains, and it gives baby the best environment possible before delivery. After delivery, we love helping our new moms minimize their brand-new set of aches and pains they may experience from caring for their newborn. At all stages, we find it so important to help women strengthen their core and pelvic floor muscles correctly, so they go into delivery as strong as possible and help them bounce back with ideal function after delivery.
I have a passion for working out, and therefore, I’m very well-versed in that world and all the things that can come with it. I genuinely understand the certain lift you’re talking about or the movement you did at the gym that caused X pain. Therefore I love working with athletes to not only get out of pain but to fix the function so that you can continue with your sport pain-free going forward.
We’re accepting new patients of all ages – from pediatric patients, to kids in school, to weekend warriors, to athletes, to pregnant and postpartum mamas, to senior citizens.
You can reach us at 440-497-0780 or through our website, www.chiro-cle.com.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I see chiropractic becoming more and more mainstream as the years go on. Although I am still baffled by the number of people who have never seen a chiropractor, the number grows every day. I think that is because people these days aren’t completely satisfied with the medical system. They do not just want to take a pill or get a shot to mask the pain, and they definitely don’t jump to being cut open. People are searching for more holistic and non-invasive treatments as their first line of defense to pain before jumping into Western medicine. I think this is obviously a great thing for the profession because first, chiropractic is wildly affordable compared to more invasive approaches. Second, chiropractors deserve the recognition that our treatments work for a lot of people and a lot of different conditions. This is not limited to just the low back like a lot of people think – we treat the neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee, ankle, etc. The more chiropractic treatment is part of research, the more medical doctors will hopefully acknowledge what it can do and refer when necessary.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.chiro-cle.com
- Instagram: @chirocle
- Facebook: facebook.com/chiroclewilloughby
Image Credits
Ashlee Hawkins
Angela McGuffin
