Gretchen Bachman is the Hand Therapy Manager at TOCA. Hand Therapists, through advanced study and
experience, specialize in treating disorders of the entire upper extremity. All
hand therapists at TOCA are Certified Hand Therapists, certified by the Hand
Therapy Certification Commission. Hand
Therapists help bridge the gap between medical management with a physician and
facilitate patients return to their daily work, leisure and life activities.
Gretchen graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree from Saginaw
Valley State University in her home state of Michigan. She became a practicing
occupational therapist in 1998, then in 2001 went on to earn her Master’s in
Business Administration in Health Care Management. In 2007 she completed her Doctorate
in Occupational Therapy in a Hand Therapy cohort. She has been working with
TOCA since 2010.
Gretchen has peer reviewed publications in the Journal of
Hand Therapy and wrote a chapter on fracture management and dislocations of the
upper extremity in the book, Advanced
Concepts of Hand Pathology and Surgery: Application to Hand Therapy Practice. She
has presented nationally and internationally on the topics of fracture
management, digital replantation, rheumatoid arthritis, custom splinting/orthosis
fabrication, and various topics related to evidenced based practice.
Nationally, Gretchen has served on the Board of Directors
for both the American Society of Hand Therapists (ASHT) and American
Association for Hand Surgery (AAHS). She has been intimately involved on
various committees, task forces, and special projects within these
associations. Gretchen has also served on the Editorial Board for HAND, the
official peer-reviewed journal for the AAHS.
Internationally, Gretchen has served on the Education
Committee for the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy
(IFSHT) since 2008. She has also served as the IFSHT Special Events Chair for
the 2010 International Meeting when hosted in Orlando, FL.
Gretchen was granted an award through the IFSHT in 2009 and organized
a multi-discipline educational conference related to disorders of the upper
extremity in Lima, Peru. The Peruvian therapist who hosted this conference won
a subsequent award and grant from the IFSHT to travel to the USA, contributing
to further educational outreach brought back to her home therapy community in
Lima.
Gretchen is passionate about a non-profit organization
called the Guatemala Healing Hands Foundation. She has been supporting and
traveling on medical mission trips with this organization since 2005. The GHHF is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to improving the quality and availability of health care in Guatemala
through education, surgery, and therapy.
There is a Venn diagram
of 3 primary areas of service: Direct
patient care, education, and community outreach. Direct service care primarily specializes
in the treatment of congenital and pediatric hand injuries.
Direct
patient Care: Following a mandatory screening day, where
upwards of 200 children are evaluated to determine their best treatment plan: surgery, therapy, or other intervention. Due to GHHF’s unique infrastructure GHHF is
able to monitor children year after year to insure they receive the best
possible consistent care. Depending on the severity and length of each case,
surgical patients are provided with both in and outpatient care with costs
covered 100% by GHHF.
Education:
Each mission, a two day educational conference is organized annually,
and integrates the Guatemalan provider community. GHHF has a unique
relationship with the Guatemala Hand Associations, and they are a trusted
teaching source and a vital American group providing cutting- edge hand
education to both the surgical and therapy communities to over 2,200 doctors,
therapists, and students to date.
Community
Outreach: The heartbreaking reality and reasons why we meet so many children with
serious hand conditions and injuries of the people in this nation cannot be
ignored and disregarded. GHHF is committed to addressing the sources behind the
problems seen. GHHF has teamed up with the village of Chichoy Alto, in the
region of Patzun, Chimaltenango, to improve sanitation, health, education, and
the overall quality of life for these 120 families. Community members of
Chichoy Alto are required to collaborate and provide a portion of the labor
necessary to implement these improvements. Within this community, GHHF has sponsored
and constructed 55+ latrines, sponsored and constructed 21 efficient ONIL
stoves, distributing crucial fertilizer needed to replenish Chichoy Alto’s
barely existent crops, distributed emergency maize to families struggling with
malnutrition, helped dig hillside trenches to lay piping to supply fresh water
throughout the village, purchased school supplies to the 100+ elementary aged
children, and have sponsored many children to attend high school and education
beyond.
In her free time, Gretchen enjoys traveling; camping,
reading, and watching her son grow. She enjoys volunteering at his elementary
school, and she and her family all recently started volunteering with the Special
Olympics, another organization Gretchen has supported for a long time.
TOCA
602-277-6211
