"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

Monday, February 2, 2009

Is your physical therapy 'cookie cutter'?

I appears that a 'cookie cutter' approach to therapy services is not a unique problem to physical therapists.

This post by Kori E. Carson Dean, Ed.S states the problem of the 'one-size-fits-all' approach to therapy services as it applies to special education.

Apparently, Occuptional Therapy (OT) and special education services have 'rules, laws practices' that adhere to the philosophy of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

These professionals also seem to approach professional autonomy in the same way that physical therapists approach the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT):
"The therapist is correct that a (medical) doctor cannot dictate the amount of service time the therapist is required to provide."
Since much of current physical therapy research is focusing on the question of classification and treatment group assignment I am inclined to ask:
"At what point do standardized 'treatment groups' become a 'cookie-cutter' approach?"

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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"


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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.