In the last post we addressed the importance of having meaningful outcomes to assess the effectiveness of Workers’ Compensation Physical Therapy Programs. We stated that the outcomes measures need to mix functional improvement along with utilization data all while accounting for variances in patient population using risk adjusted criteria. I thought it would be beneficial to demonstrate this through the system we use at Results Physiotherapy.
Results has partnered with Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes (FOTO), which is a web based patient assessment system that provides functional status measures for patients. There is a baseline measure at patient intake; where the patient answers a series of questions based on their impairment and is assigned a functional score on a scale of 0-100. The patient’s scores are then risk adjusted based on a database of over 13 million other assessments to give a predicted outcome for the patient based on their particular demographics and co-morbidities. At the time of discharge the patient completes the assessment again to compare actual outcome versus predicted. This is otherwise known as the treatment effectiveness.
This type of data is extremely powerful when assessing the effectiveness in improving the patient’s functional outcome. The data can be sorted by therapist, clinic, organization, payer type, employer and numerous other categories to provide data as well as drive clinical quality improvement programs. It can give a comparison of how your organization performs against others; where you excel and where there are areas of opportunity.
Results is proud to partner with FOTO, and we are extremely proud of our outcomes. Our organization (114 clinics at the time of this post) is in the top 10% nationally for treatment effectiveness, which combines functional outcome with visit utilization and case duration. Our patients see a 22% greater functional outcome than the national average and we close our Workers’ Compensation claims on average 11 days shorter than predicted.
These outcomes measures translate into cost savings in the Workers’ Compensation world. As I have stated previously, cost per visit and number of visits don’t tell half of the story. In order to assess the effectiveness of Physical Therapy programs, Workers’ Compensation stakeholders have to have an understanding of the actual treatment effectiveness. Otherwise those discounted visits could signify no value at all. I would challenge all decision makers in Workers’ Compensation claims to ask their Physical Therapy providers what they use to measure functional outcomes and to explain how this differentiates them as an organization.
