We are celebrating national physical therapy month across the country with all of our partners and fellow PT’s. The APTA has recently launched a great campaign about all the reasons why some should choose PT over other options such as opioids for safe pain management. In light of this celebration and campaign we wanted to address the topic of why both patients and providers are not choosing PT in situations that where our services could be highly impactful.
I recently heard Justin Moore, CEO of the APTA, speak at the Ascend 2016 conference about policy reform and the rehab industry’s evolution in regards to payment. I tell you this because during this presentation my ears began to burn at the reality that, despite the loads of research that support PT as a conservative and cost effective way to manage musculoskeletal injury and disease, we are still consistently marginalized in regards to the role we can play in the overall health and wellbeing of our patients and the population as a whole. Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I want to walk through a few reasons why this is the reality we have created and how we, yes we, can create sustainable change for our profession. I wont be able to address everything in this one blog post so I will break it down in sections over the next three weeks. First we will discuss the situation we have created or at least allowed to be created for us, in regards to our value and scope. Second we tackle the topic of actionable change and what steps each of us within the industry can take to create a better tomorrow for both our patients and fellow professionals. Lastly I want to look at other industries and how they combated these same conditions and were either able to overcome their current position or be commoditized. Please feel free to provide feedback or ask questions as you read to tphillippi@ptpartners.com.
Have a healthy day, Taylor
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