First, Ron, I'm sorry you are going through this. I worked in home
health years ago and had to fight the productivity expectations.
Fortunately, I had a very compassionate and understanding supervisor
who just got it. She got the whole idea of what OT was and why our
visit numbers were often lower. She attributed this to OT visits and
treatment plans taking longer than a typical PT visit because of the
complexity. Interestingly, she was a PT. She is also the one who told
me that she thought the reason OT was not allowed to open a home
health case on their own is because you could legitimately find a
reason for almost every patient to have an OT eval if not a full
treatment course. It was an interesting and refreshing experience! I
will actually email her and ask her if she can identify what gave her
the somewhat unique perspective.
I haven't posted in a while, but as a reminder I am an independent
practitioner and ATP specializing in rehab wheelchair evaluations. I
find it interesting that the wheelchair world (including therapists,
suppliers, and manufacturers) are facing the same battles regarding
clarifying our role in the industry and to CMS and other funding
sources. Now this includes the need to show the importance of being
ethical in today's world and identifying what is and is not ethical
behavior. It also includes the need to explain why a clinician with
experience in high end equipment should be involved in that type of
evaluation.
I would imagine that in today's overall economic and professional
environment, there are many professions and specialties are having to
explain and justify what they do and why they need to keep doing it!
Too early to think any more!
Happy Friday all!
Mary Alice
Mary Alice Cafiero, MSOTR, ATP
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
972-757-3733
Fax 888-708-8683
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On Oct 16, 2008, at 8:35 PM, Marie Henderson wrote:
So the question arises....what are we going to do about it? What
actions need to be taken to promote quality, awareness, and
ethics..............
--- On Thu, 10/16/08, pat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: pat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [OTlist] Lost My Home Health Job Today...
To: [email protected]
Date: Thursday, October 16, 2008, 6:10 PM
I agree Ron.... when I made the decision to become an OT, I never
imagined
how much time I would spend explaining and defending our
occupation! I
might have chosen differently had I known. Fortunately, I fell
into a
position that I love... I just don't get why we can't make people
understand what we do, AND the value of it!
Pat
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