Edward
Hospital’s OT and PT Patients Get Better, FASTER!
by Maureen Coyle Windmoeller, PT
One
of the biggest challenges occupational and physical therapists face is answering
questions from our patients and our payers:
“How
long will the patient be in therapy?”
“How
do you know you are providing high quality services?”
“What
is the value and cost-effectiveness of your service?”
“How
does your quality and value compare to other providers?”
Edward
Rehabilitation Services knows these answers!
To
measure our overall quality and the value of our therapy services, Edward has
participated in Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes since 2001.
Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes (FOTO®) is the country’s largest,
risk-adjusted rehabilitation outcomes database of more than 600 providers.
Benchmarking
and managing our patient base against an objective, external data reporting
system has enabled Edward to improve both the quality and cost-effectiveness of
therapy. Over the past four
years, we have used our FOTO data to guide our performance improvement
initiatives, plan our continuing education offerings and to provide
individualized feedback to each of our clinicians.
Patients
access the FOTO survey through touch screen computers located in our clinics’
waiting areas. They answer specific
questions about how they are functioning. A
few times during the course of treatment, the patients redo the survey, and at
the conclusion of their care, they answer the survey once again.
Each quarter, Edward’s OTs and PTs receive an individualized report, summarizing their results with patients over the preceding year, and comparing their outcomes to the national database. Just for fun, we give an “award” each quarter, recognizing the individual clinician with the highest patient outcomes. We present the “golden bone” (an old model of a humerus spray-painted gold) to that individual!
|
The
“golden bone” has been residing on the desk of M. Ruth Atto, PT for
the past year. Ruth has truly
embraced the outcomes tool, and uses the data to plan her patients’
care.
“FOTO generates a report that I review as I am evaluating my
patients,” states this skilled clinician who is currently pursuing a
certification in the Maitland approach to manual therapy.
“I like using the report to guide my treatments.
It helps me see where my patient wants to go.” |
Focusing
on Quality and Value Really Pays Off!
Edward’s
most recent FOTO report for the 12 months which ended in June 2005 shows Edward
Rehabilitation Services has demonstrated a significantly greater increase in
function for our patients than the national and local averages.
How
Can You Get More “Bang for Your Rehab Buck”?
The
FOTO report shows that we do it more efficiently, as well!
FOTO’s utilization index measures the average functional change per
therapy visit. Edward exceeds the
region and the nation in this area as well.
We are proud to see our outcomes and efficiency soaring because we know
that the biggest beneficiary to these high marks is the patient!
We
want people in our community to think of Edward first when it comes to
Rehabilitation Services. With
results like ours, why would they want to go anywhere else?
