"Physical therapy is not a subspecialty of the medical profession and physical therapists are not medical doctors; we are a separate profession that provides a unique service that physicians are unable and untrained to provide."

Letter to the AMA from the APTA, Dec 2009

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The Functional Classification of Neck Pain

Orthopedic physical therapists need to read this clinical practice guideline from the September 2008 issue of JOSPT.

In addition to using the International Classification of Functioning as the basis for clinical physical therapy decision-making the authors describe, in one place, many of the the tests and measures used to assess cervical impairments.

Especially useful is Table 4 which links subjective and evaluation data to interventions used during treatment.

Not only is Table 4 useful for clinical decision-making but could also be used to support 2 of the 3 criteria for Bulletproof Physical Therapy Charts and Notes

  1. Medical Necessity for Physical Therapy
  2. Skilled Physical Therapy (decision-making)

Written measurements of impairments are 'evidence' for a staff physical therapist to argue their case in the event of an unfavorable Medicare audit.

I recommend using high-quality, evidence-based guidelines such as this one to support not only excellent clinical decisions but also to support your Medicare compliance program.

For more information go to BulletproofPT.com.

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Tim Richardson, PT owns a private practice at Medical Arts Rehabilitation, Inc in Palmetto, Florida. The clinic website is at MedicalArtsRehab.com.

Bulletproof Expert Systems: Clinical Decision Support for Physical Therapists in the Outpatient Setting is a manager's workbook with stories, checklists, charts, graphs, tables, and templates describing how you can use paper-based or computerized tools to improve your clinic's Medicare compliance, process adherence and patient outcomes.

Tim has implemented a computerized Clinical Decision Support (CDS) system in his clinic since 2006 that serves as a Reminder, Alerting, Prompting and Predicting CDS using evidence-based tests and measures.

Tim can be reached at
TimRichPT@BulletproofPT.com .

"Make Decisions like Doctors"


Copyright 2007-2010 by Tim Richardson, PT.
No reproduction without authorization.

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Consistent with the American Physical Therapy Association Vision Statement for Physical Therapy 2020, the American Physical Therapy Association supports exclusive physical therapist ownership and operation of physical therapy services.