"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, February 28, 2012
Management and Measurement of Primary Care Physical Therapy
I'm sure the BEST primary care physicians in America are consistently measuring this important clinical variable in their older patients as a predictor of mortality and a gauge for the medical necessity for certain services, such as physical therapy.
However, I'm even more sure that MOST physical therapists are using this important clinical tool.
Physical therapist managers may even use 10' Gait Velocity to improve their clinical documentation and prevent a Medicare Audit.
This television news report shows how walking speed measurement is becoming more contemporary.
The August 2009 Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy paper titled Walking Speed: The Sixth Vital Sign presents a helpful graph that I recommend every physical therapist manager include in their therapists' toolkit.
This 2001 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) paper describes how the best academic physicians are beginning to recognize the value in documenting and treating slowed gait in elderly people as a primary source of disability.
I'd like to see the 10' Gait Velocity (Walking Speed) tool used as a screening device in a primary care setting that might allow physical therapists to do the following:
assess populations of patients eligible for treatment
score their risk for a future fall or disabling condition
treat them proactively or refer them, as necessary
and lower future health care costs.
Who else thinks this is a good idea?
Management and Measurement of Primary Care Physical Therapy
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.
"Make Decisions like Doctors" Copyright 2007-2010 by Tim Richardson, PT. No reproduction without authorization.
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American Physical Therapy Association
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.
