"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

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Measurements Equals Value for Medicare

Medicare wants measurable data for a compliant physical therapy chart?

Fine.

Here's a new way to measure the strength of the external rotator of the shoulder using the common goniometer.

Get Bulletproof PT Notes!


This measure is easy, quick and reliable (reliability data not published).

It works better than Manual Muscle Testing.

I use this measurement every day in my clinic to document the treat ment of Medicare shoulder impingement patients.

The measurements lend themselves to long term goal setting for the physical therapy chart.

I measure shoulder dysfunction in patients that some physicians don't recognize.

The measurements are accurate enough to gauge the progress of the patient.

This technique will segue to a home exercise program in a heartbeat.

I can diagnose shoulder joint stiffness.

I can diagnose shoulder muscle (ER) weakness.

You can, too.

See more simple measurement techniques at www.simplescore.com

Sign up for the free course - 'Bulletproof Physical Therapy Charts and Notes'.

Free Tutorial

Get free stuff at BulletproofPT.com

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.

Share PTD with your Peers!

American Physical Therapy Association

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.