Meet the 2023 Home Health Award Recipients

Dr. Ganson has been an active member of the IPTA-Illinois Physical Therapy Association and APTA-American Physical Therapy Association on a local and national basis since 1995.  She has seen our profession change and grow as the health care industry has changed.  She is an enthusiastic and focused professional with a strong-drive to learn and succeed.  She is a professional with empathy and compassion for others.  She has had the opportunity to work in the acute care, outpatient, neurology, acute inpatient rehab, orthopedic and home health settings since graduating from Physical Therapy school.  Dr. Ganson has been in her current role as a clinician and management for the last 20 years.  She strives to live out her philosophy of servant leadership as she helps colleagues identify their strengths and find ways, they can use them well in their role within the hospital setting they work.  In 2018, she began undergoing LAMP certification through HPA-Health Policy and Administration the Catalyst Section of the APTA.  She successfully completed the standardized and evidence-based curriculum in Leadership Development.  She completed the ACHH-Advanced Competency in Home Health through APTA Home Health on March 6, 2018-March 31, 2023.  She recently renewed her ACHH certification by taking the relevant advanced competency education required.  She believes this has helped keep her clinical skills current and practicing at the highest level of her PT licensure within the Home Health setting.   

Dr. Ganson became an Illinois Homecare & Hospice Council (IHHC) member in 2002 and an IHHC Board Member in 2020, an IHHC Western District Director, and an IHHC Co-Chair of the Rehab. Committee. She was recognized at one of the annual IHHC Conferences as a top responder to advocacy in the state of Illinois for IHHC.  She has assisted for the last several years on the IHHC Rehab Committee and helped to develop an Annual Rehab Symposium for therapists and a whole re-boot for the Rehab Committee within the IHHC.  Dr. Ganson has brought the former APTA HH Section President, Cindy Krafft, PT whose has spoken nationally, and to CMS, to present at the Rehab Symposium, as well as, at the Annual IHHC Conference to try to help advocate for our profession by giving our therapist the most current and relevant subject matter from a national known speaker about the physical therapy profession.   

Dr. Ganson received her Executive Master’s in Business Administration in Leadership from Bradley University Foster College of Business Administration in 2004.  She is a Credential Clinical Instructor through the APTA since 2012.  She takes DPT and PTA students annually from various colleges and universities throughout Illinois and the surrounding states. She has attended numerous Illinois Critical Access Hospital Networking (ICAHN) Conferences and Ancillary Meetings since 2002 constantly advocating for the physical therapy profession, Home Health and our Home Health therapists.  She has attended our National Association of Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) Annual Conference to seek out the most current and up to date information to share with my Rehabilitation Services Department team members in regards to Review Choice Demonstration-RCD, Pre-Claim Review-PCR, Patient Driven Groupings Model-PDGM, and now Value-Based Purchasing-VBP. Remember, she lives in Illinois.  

Assisted ICAHN and IHHC since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic with a webinar and a lunch and learn on reviewing the most current and up-to-date literature and research at the time on Assessing and Treating Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection related to fatigue.  The topic included summarizing the current clinical guidance, discussing the role of the physical therapy provider along with a multidisciplinary collaborative approach with PASC fatigue treatment, and discussing the future directions in assessing and treating PASC-related fatigue and cognitive issues.  Dr. Ganson is also currently assisting ICAHN with recent educational activities regarding (PASC)-Post Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 COVID Long Haulers and as an ICAHN Recovery Program Committee member.  Several of the committee members were tasked with coming up with a list of questions for our providers.  They are working on an educational activity for providers in our rural Critical Access Hospital-CAH (possibly after the new year).  They are wanting to get some baseline information from the providers to see what all they may need.  Many of the ICAHN Recovery Program Committee members were going to gather the list of questions to share and get them out to our local CEO’s and providers who can share with medical staff in the Illinois Rural Community Care Organization-IRRCO hospitals.  IRRCO is a group of physicians, hospitals, and clinics who voluntarily work together with Medicare to provide high-quality of services and care through the Medicare Shared Savings Program-MSSP.

Dr. Suzanne Havrilla, PT, DPT
Suzanne Havrilla, PT, DPT, Board Certified in Geriatric Physical Therapy, is the Acting Interim Director of Home Support (private duty division) and the Assistant Director of Home Health Services (adult home health) for the Johns Hopkins Home-Based services division (Johns Hopkins Home Care Group). She has been with Johns Hopkins for 18 years, 15 of those years in a management role. She has received her Geriatric Clinical Specialist certificate from the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialists and has over 25 years of experience treating geriatric patients in home care and managing a multi-disciplinary home health team. She also received her OASIS Certification in 2012, 2015. She manages 2 research into practice programs- CAPABLE and a Memory Care Program modeled after the MIND at Home model. A member of the APTA since 1981, Suzanne believes in the important role physical therapy plays in the lives of the elderly in the community. She stays active on the Home Health section listserv, is involved in a rehab managers group across Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) and keeps home health rehab represented at all levels across JHM. For the past 6 years, Suzanne has served on the Board for the PTA program at Howard County Community College (HCCC). She was instrumental in starting student programs between Johns Hopkins Home Care and HCCC as well as, PT students from University of Maryland, OTA students from CCBC and OT students from Towson University. Suzanne has been married for 33 years and has 2 children. She volunteers with her church’s Social Justice Committee, specifically on the Meals that Heal sub-committee (taking meals to shut-in members of the church). Suzanne has been part of the local United Way Women's Leadership circle for the past 5 years. She and her family also support the Howard County’s Bridge to Housing Program, helping homeless families in the area. 

Dr. Andrew Morgan, PT, DPT, MBA, COS-C
Andrew Morgan, PT, DPT, MBA, COS-C is a physical therapist with over 20 years of clinical experience. He earned his Bachelor of Science of Education from Baylor University in 1999 and his Masters and Doctorate degrees in Physical Therapy from UT Health San Antonio in 2002 and 2013 respectively. Andrew also holds a Master of Business Administration from UT San Antonio. Andrew works for Homecare Dimensions under the WellMed and United Health Group corporate umbrellas as the alternate administrator over Texas and the director of therapy services over Texas and Florida. He is a regular contributor to WellMed radio and presents at WellMed senior centers in Texas, discussing such topics as fall risk reduction in the elderly population and the importance of geriatric strength training. Andrew is a dynamic instructor who teaches multiple continuing education courses for Summit professional education. In 2022, he ran a successful fundraising campaign, becoming the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society South Texas Man of the Year. In his free time, Andrew enjoys officiating middle and high school football. He is also a passionate home cook, having won on a 2016 episode of Food Network’s Cooks vs. Cons.  

Kandy Ortgies, PTA
Kandy Ortgies, PTA received her AAS from the physical therapist assistant program at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1996. She worked for St Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for 15 years in acute care and inpatient and outpatient rehab. From 2011 to 2019 she was a PTA for UnityPoint at Home - Home Care. She has been an instructor for the PTA program at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa 2003 to 2019 teaching Intro to PTA, Rehab for Medical Conditions and Fundamentals for PTA. Kandy earned her Certificate of Advanced Competency in Home Health in September of 2018. She served as faculty for the Certificate of Advanced Competency in Home Health for the PTA from 2018 to 2021. Since May of 2019 she has been the Home Care Consultant for St Luke’s Hospital. Seeing the worry melt from her acute care patient’s faces as she tells them she will arrange home care services to enable them to stay in their homes as long as possible, is a bright spot in her day.