Description:

Presented by Jane Sullivan, PT, DHS

1.5 CEU Hours

As a part of improving the value of physical therapist services, the APTA has a strategic objective to reduce variation in care. A critical aspect of determining best practice is evaluating the efficacy of our interventions. Recently, a Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) on a Core Set of Outcome Measures was developed. This CPG recommends a core set of 6 measures for use across neurologic practice. The CPG is supplemented by a knowledge translation effort that provides numerous tools and strategies to facilitate implementation into clinical practice. While the CPG was intended for use across neurological practice, the core set tools are generic (not condition-specific), and thus may have utility for use in other practice areas. Inclusion of the tools in the Physical Therapy Outcomes Registry allows therapists to contribute their data on the core set measures. This pooling of data takes us a step closer to determining best practices and achieving the strategic objective of reducing variation in care. This session will trace the development of efforts across APTA from EDGE through measure core sets. The critical role of clinicians in translation of core sets into clinical practice will be discussed. Current and future data collection efforts via the Physical Therapy Outcomes Registry will be described. A vision for utilizing tools such as the CPG and Registry to achieve the best practice with reduced variation will be presented.