KVHD physical therapist Peter Scognamillo listens to his patients

Robert Hadley – For Physical Therapy Manager Peter Scognamillo, a recent KVHD hire, the town of Lake Isabella seems a perfect fit for his career and life plans.

The San Diego transplant said in a video posted on the KVHD Facebook page that he jumped at the chance when a recruiter told him about the opening.

“I grew up in small towns in Colorado, kind of like this one,” he said in the video. “That’s what kind of attracted me to this town. I was recruited, and it just sounded like a great place.”

If the town’s main tourist draw, the annual Isabella Lake Fishing Derby, didn’t inspire him to call the place home permanently, it played a role.

“I’ve been thinking about kind of being a hermit on the lake, actually, and I’ve been thinking about that for a few years, so it just materialized,” he said.

Scognamillo earned his bachelor’s in biology from UC Santa Cruz before earning a doctorate in physical therapy from Loma Linda University.

So far, he hasn’t been disappointed by the hospitality here.

“You know, people are really, really nice. Just everybody’s been really open arms with me,” he said, “and I like to fish. So I’ve been on the river a few times and caught a few trout so far.

“And I also kind of like how it’s central to the Sierras, as I like to go and do a lot of fishing and camping,” he added.

A self-proclaimed “gym rat” when he was younger, Scognamillo said his focus on staying fit inspired his career choice.

“I really enjoy helping people achieve goals,” he said.

“I enjoy exercise, and that’s probably what brought me to really being a physical therapist in the first place. Now I just love to hike, and I take my dog for long hikes, and that’s kind of how I get my exercise a lot of times.”

Scognamillo favors an open approach to medicine, listening to his patients instead of adopting a one-size-fits-all approach.

“There’s not one way that’s the right way. There’s a lot of different ways to do something,” he said. “And I think you have to have options. So sometimes I’ve been around the block, I’ve studied exercise a long time. So, you know, you have to be open with your patients. You have to be patient with your patients, and you’ve got to try different things because not everything is going to work on the same person.”