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laptma -> are we overtreating (August 9, 2007 7:39:48 AM)
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SBJ alerted me to the fact that there may be a better forum for this post which was posted on open forum, so I am posting it here as well:
hi all,
warning, vent coming!
The company that I work for (Outpatient) recently had a meeting where we discussed productivity and the like. Nothing new there, but I've been noticing what I think is a disturbing trend, and from this I ask, are we overtreating?
Company wide expectations for productivity are, among other things, that our average units billed be 3.5-4.5 and that our average visits per patient increase to 9.5. There are other expectations as well, as in any other business, but these bother me the most because in order to meet them they lend themselves to overtreating. According to the company, this is the trend all over the country!
I've heard in-patient therapists say the same type of thing "we're slow so lets keep on people longer”, or “bump them up in category”, etc.
Are we changing our treatment plan in exchange for interventions that would allow for double booking? Are we forgoing “hands on” treatments to meet productivity goals?
Do we truly have our pts best interest in mind?
I thought part of our goal is to keep health costs down, i.e. get people better in a shortest amount of time possible! This seems to go against that.
Our professional organization keeps going forward with wanting to get us autonomy, but we don't seem to be able to get that with in our own practice setting! In order to meet those goals, PT's often have to have a tech "walk through an exercise program". Is this really skilled if a PT/PTA does not have to be the one doing it? Was that not originally the purpose of the PTA to do these things.
Frequently I hear DC's get killed on this site for "seeing people forever". Is this not the same premise, seeing pts that don't need to be seen!
MD's that I know may be expected to see a certain amount of pt's per day, but I don't know any MD's that are told to see pt's more often, or perform more expensive procedures. They may do so, being more thorough out of fear of litigation, but not to pad the bill.
We all have productivity goals, but when you get to "how often" or "how long", shouldn't that be up to the individual therapist? Isn’t it why we went 6-7years to school for?
I'm sure there are those here who'll say "suck it up", and that’s fine, but I am really curious to see what others feel about this.
Does this bother anyone else?
I'm not talking just about the legality, but also the ethics of it.
Is this an ethical issue, or should I "just get over it"?
Really interested to see what others think.
Thanks for the input.
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