Guest guest Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 Amy, We do maintain consistency as much as possible. A patient is typically treated by a team of 1 PT and PTA. The PT " controls " what skill mix is needed but the vast majority of our patients see both PT and PTA- we introduce the team treatment approach at the first visit so they know what to expect. Another thing that has been very helpful is that we have an option for initial evals where the patient spends the first 30 minutes with the therapist for an evaluation and discussion of overall treatment plan and the PTA is introduced for the 2nd 30 minutes to perform treatment, HEP education etc. We all get to meet each other the very first visit and it is only 30 minutes of a therapist's schedule which leaves room for more new patients. It's worked quite well for us. Mike Heilig PT OCS Mission Hospitals Asheville, NC Outpatient Clinics There has been a lot of talk about OP Therapy productivity but I was wonder how often each therapist gets to see " their own patients " in the clinic? This is a constant complaint with our OP Therapists. What is happening is we have many new patients coming in everyday. The new evals, of course, require the PT to do the evaluation so we need to utilized the PTAs to do treatments. How are other clinics handling this scheduling issue? Does each therapist only see " their own patients " ? Thanks in advance to the information. Amy Gray, OTR Director of Therapy St. ph Rehab Center Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 Our solution to the issue you describe below was to convert some of our PTA positions to PT positions when the PTA's left. Out of 14.5 outpatient PT/PTA positions, 13.5 of those positions are held by PT's and 1 by a PTA. We had very few PTA positions in the past anyway, and as I wrote above, over the last three years if/when a PTA left we replaced those positions with PT's. We did this for the reasons listed below: 1. It has been very difficult (essentially impossible) to recruit PTA's to our facility (we are a suburban hospital southwest of Kansas City). My assumption is that the salaries being offered in local nursing homes, of which there are many, are higher. Again, that is an assumption on my part. 2. It was getting harder to squeeze in the PT evals on already tight PT schedules, and having PTA's made the PT's schedules even tighter. Replacing PTA positions with PT's, while more expensive, gave us more slots in which to place new evals spread over the whole staff rather than piling 4-6 new evals per day on one therapist's schedule. 3. Therapists wanted more continuity with their patients, and given the two issues above, we were able to grant that request by reducing the number of PTA positions and increasing PT positions. The net effect was the same number of FTE's, but with a different staffing mix (and of course, a different expense ratio). This seems to be aiding in our PT retention as we have not lost a part-time or full-time PT since March 2001, and that PT left because her husband was transferred to a different state. In relation to our productivity and clinic expenses, our productivity is still matching up with the median of our benchmark peer group and our overall salary expenses (not just therapists but ALL staff) still fall under the median of our benchmark peer group (which are our goals). Mark Dwyer, PT, MHA markdwyer87@... Outpatient Clinics There has been a lot of talk about OP Therapy productivity but I was wonder how often each therapist gets to see " their own patients " in the clinic? This is a constant complaint with our OP Therapists. What is happening is we have many new patients coming in everyday. The new evals, of course, require the PT to do the evaluation so we need to utilized the PTAs to do treatments. How are other clinics handling this scheduling issue? Does each therapist only see " their own patients " ? Thanks in advance to the information. Amy Gray, OTR Director of Therapy St. ph Rehab Center Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 28, 2005 Report Share Posted June 28, 2005 We schedule every 30 mintes, the first 30 minutes of each patients treatment time is for the therapist and then the therapists " hands the patient off " to a PTA or technician, as appropriate. We have 9 PTs and 2-3 PTAs and 4 technicians on a MWF. It seems to work fine. Outpatient Clinics There has been a lot of talk about OP Therapy productivity but I was wonder how often each therapist gets to see " their own patients " in the clinic? This is a constant complaint with our OP Therapists. What is happening is we have many new patients coming in everyday. The new evals, of course, require the PT to do the evaluation so we need to utilized the PTAs to do treatments. How are other clinics handling this scheduling issue? Does each therapist only see " their own patients " ? Thanks in advance to the information. Amy Gray, OTR Director of Therapy St. ph Rehab Center Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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