Same-day physical therapy consults in an outpatient neuromuscular disease physician clinic

Abstract

BackgroundTeam-based care has been shown to offer more comprehensive benefits to patients when compared to standard physician-based care alone in clinics for chronic conditions. However, apart from grant-funded multidisciplinary clinics, there are no reports on the usage of same-day physical therapy (PT) consults within a daily outpatient neuromuscular disease (NMD) physician clinic.ObjectiveTo determine the impact of same-day PT consults at the University of Utah’s outpatient Clinical Neurosciences Center.DesignA qualitative assessment and survey of patient satisfaction.MethodsAn eight question Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant patient satisfaction survey using a 5-point Likert scale was administered. Demographic data and Press-Ganey Provider Satisfaction surveys were retrospectively collected from electronic medical records for patients receiving same-day PT encounters in the neuromuscular division over 1 year.ResultsMean (standard deviation) age was 54.22 (19.81) years for 134 patient encounters, median age was 60 years, with 76 male (57%) and 58 female (43%) patients. Mean Likert score for 61 self-reported patient satisfaction surveys for same-day PT consults was 4.87 (97.4%). Press-Ganey Provider Satisfaction scores improved from 89.9% (N=287) for the year prior to 90.8% (N=320) for the corresponding year (P=0.427). A total of 46 (75.4%) patients have either never before received PT care or never before received PT care for their NMD, 67.4% of whom were male.ConclusionSame-day PT consults in an outpatient NMD physician clinic demonstrated excellent patient satisfaction and improved access to specialty care. This model could potentially be implemented in other academic medical centers to improve access to rehabilitation services for patients with NMD.

Developing multidisciplinary clinics for neuromuscular care and research

“…This is hard to measure, but, if true, then insurers might see value in multidisciplinary clinics, particularly because for the time being, reimbursement for care delivered in a multidisciplinary clinic is no higher than traditional care. Patients likely see great value in multidisciplinary clinics . Yet, multidisciplinary care clinics are expensive to run, and the burden of these costs falls on the institution.…”

“…Patients likely see great value in multidisciplinary clinics. 9,19,20 Yet, multidisciplinary care clinics are expensive to run, 21 and the burden of these costs falls on the institution. Thus, potential cost-savings are decoupled from the additional expense, threatening the sustainability of multidisciplinary clinics.…”