Last Updated Feb 2012
Recently experts from the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, the largest non-profit home health organization in the U.S., sought to determine whether or not provider continuity—seeing the same healthcare provider for a period of time—is beneficial for patients receiving home-based physical therapy services. They published the results of their study in this month’s issue of Physical Therapy.
Following an in-depth review of clinical and administrative records for a population of adult patients that received PT services from a “large, urban, non-for-profit certified home health care agency” in 2009, lead author David Russell and his team discovered the following:
- Patients with higher levels of provider continuity had a notably lower risk of being hospitalized as well as better overall odds of improved physical activity between the beginning and the end of the home health incident.
- In contrast, patients that experienced less provider continuity were hospitalized mor
e often, and their chances of improvement were decreased.
Findings from the VNSNY study corroborate existing evidence that suggests continuity in the patient-provider relationship is an “important determinant” with regard to how patients recover and should be taken into account by physical therapy providers.
To learn more about best practices and proven-effective treatment methods for therapy patients, visit PutMeBackTogether.com’s comprehensive online Physical Therapy CE Library today, and keep up to date on the latest advancements in therapy and rehabilitative care.
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