Our Lady of Victory Basilica has stood at South Park Avenue and Ridge Road since 1926, and that corner is also a stop on NFTA Metro’s Route 16 South Park. Many of the 16’s trips continue north as far as the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, which puts physical therapy for Lackawanna, NY residents one bus ride from our neighborhood. Our clinic is on Virginia Street, where Allentown meets the Medical Campus, and by car it’s about 13 minutes from the middle of the city when traffic is light.
West on Ridge Road, then over the Skyway
Driving, the usual path runs west on Ridge Road to Route 5, over the Skyway into downtown, then up Franklin Street toward Virginia Street, a little under 7 miles in all. Budget more time at rush hour. Street parking is nearby when you arrive.
Two more NFTA routes help if you don’t drive:
- Route 14 Abbott stops at Abbott and Ridge, and some of its trips finish at the Medical Campus.
- Route 42 Lackawanna links Southgate Plaza with downtown by way of Ridge Road and Route 5. From there, a northbound Metro Rail train stops at Allen/Medical Campus, and the walk to Virginia Street takes about 4 minutes.
Run your trip through NFTA’s trip planner the day before your first visit, since schedules shift.
Physical therapy for Lackawanna, NY workers on the old steel site
Lackawanna grew up around the Lackawanna Steel Company’s plant on the lakeshore, which Bethlehem Steel bought in 1922. Steelmaking is long gone, and part of the land just off Route 5 is now Renaissance Commerce Park, where new manufacturing plants and warehouse buildings have opened in recent years.
The jobs have changed, but many are still physical: lifting, carrying, reaching overhead and standing on concrete through a shift. Those demands can show up as low back pain, a sore shoulder or achy knees. Therapy looks at the specific tasks your work asks of you, then builds the strength and movement to handle them; the back pain and spine care section of our site explains how we approach a back that’s been lifting all day. Shift workers can come early: from Tuesday through Friday, we’re seeing patients by 7 AM. The two owners treat patients one-on-one, Dr. Ryan Mitchell, PT, DPT, alongside Dr. Will Tso, PT, DPT.
Workers’ Compensation works differently from most insurance. You’ll need the provider handling your work injury to refer you, and therapy has to come from a Board-authorized physical therapist; our Workers’ Compensation guide covers the details. For the first visit, bring that referral, your WCB case number and the carrier’s claim number if you have them, plus your employer’s name and the date you were hurt. If you can’t bear weight, a joint looks deformed, or numbness and weakness are spreading, see a physician before therapy.
Steelers on new fields, adults in the city leagues
Lackawanna High School’s Steelers have new sports fields next to the middle/high school on Martin Road, and the city’s recreation department keeps adults playing with coed softball and kickball schedules.
Football and slow-pitch softball hurt people in different ways: a knee twisted at the bottom of a pile, a hamstring that grabs while running out a ground ball, a throwing shoulder that hasn’t thrown since last summer. In sports physical therapy, we first sort out which tissue is hurt and how much load it tolerates today, then bring back speed, cutting and throwing in stages, checking each before moving on.
Off the field, Erie County funded and completed a public bike path at Renaissance Commerce Park in 2019, and the county’s development agency says relocating a rail yard there will allow a future extension of the Shoreline Trail. A path like that is a handy place for the walking or easy cycling a home program may call for.
Martin Road seniors, Medicare and staying strong after discharge
The Lackawanna Senior Center at 230 Martin Road runs a resistance band exercise class. If you already use bands there, mention it at your evaluation, since a home program built around equipment you know is easier to stick with.
Original Medicare, like most plans, doesn’t make you get a referral first. Once we’ve evaluated you, the plan of care needs a signature from your physician, NP or PA, which Medicare generally expects within 30 days, while some Medicare Advantage plans insist on prior authorization before treatment. Our Medicare guide walks through it.
Once therapy wraps up, the Keep It Going program keeps our clinic open to you for continued exercise, at $10 each time you come or $70 for an unlimited month, paid out of pocket. To join, ask the doctor who sent you to therapy in the first place to prescribe maintenance exercise, get your family physician’s sign-off clearing you to exercise, and sign the waiver we’ll give you. Started therapy through direct access instead? Ask before discharge and we’ll sort out the paperwork with you.
From the Basilica corner, the trip is short. Reach our front desk at (716) 332-4838. Prefer typing to talking? Request a time online. Most plans won’t require a referral, though a work injury does.