"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, October 26, 2010

Free Falls Risk Reduction Toolkit for Physical Therapists and Patients

Get the Falling LinKS Toolkit from the Wichita State University Regional Institute of Aging
This is a very user-friendly document with clinical and personal vignettes that "paint-the-picture" for patients, payers and professionals who may not be fully aware for the risks and the resources available to help prevent falls.

The toolkit hits the "big drivers":
  • Overmedication
  • Vision deficits
  • Inadequate physical activity
  • Environmental risks in the home

The toolkit lets patient assess their own risk by checking off boxes and scoring the results simply by accumulating the total - the more "yes" answers the higher your risk.

There is an exercise section with pictures of safe techniques that are functionally-oriented (no leg raises!) with a balance component.

There are checklists to create an exercise plan, a vision plan, a medication plan and a safe home environment plan.

Implementing all of these plans will take a commitment from the whole family, the physician and the physical therapist

I have sent my dad a copy and I will help him implement these steps when we visit at Christmas.

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.

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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.