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SYRACUSE - Ask James Howard Smith whether 2003 was a good year for his company.- Fitness Forum Services, LLC - and he'll rattle off percentages.
There are 32 percent more facilities in the company now than in 2002.
Then there's 30 percent more people working at the company.
And there's that 1 percent: "In the past two years, we've worked with a firm called Press Ganey to track and measure our patient and member satisfaction," Smith says. "As of Dec. 31, 2003, we were in their top I percent of companies in regards to overall satisfaction. We are obviously very proud of this, as we've spent a lot of 'time tying to create long-term relationships."
Smith's background lies in both physical fitness and physical therapy, and he's been in the physical-fitness field since 1981. He says he wanted to combine the benefits of both and, in 1989, he formed Fitness Forum. His first clinic opened in 1993, and while Smith himself isn't a physical therapist, 93 physical therapists report to him.
"The idea was to bring the two [ideas - physical fitness and physical, therapy]...