Chris and Ron, I've been monitoring your responses on the list here and I appreciate the discussion. Chris, your points on creating a culture, fostering interdisciplinary relationships, and earning respect with hard work and effective treatment are very much similar to my experience over the years.
I agree wholeheartedly and have had many many similar experiences. I the departments that I have worked the OT/PT/SLPs have all shared common treatment and office areas and we communicate, collaborate, and socialize all the time. Like you Chris I've worked hard to earn respect by being (hopefully) a good example. Giving good OT where warranted and getting out when needed. Some of the PT/OTs with less experience are into the separation and treatment turf issues but they soon warm up to the value of creative collaboration. If you look at the PPS/SNF system from a strickly business perspective (which I rarely do), you will see that the pt gets more opportunity for beneficial therapy time on a greater variety of skills and the Department gets more financial benefit from the involvement of more services i.e. RUGS category $$$. So it's win(PATIENT)-win(OT)-win(PT)-win(Administration) when teamwork is applied. You often can throw in a win(Nursing) when we involve-educated-collaborate with them. I know I sound like a PollyAnna but I know this concept to be true. The problem is often the situation when PT or OT continues to be involved when a pt really no longer progresses or benefits from the skilled service. Then...out comes the bad therapy practices we've all complained about on this list. As Breanne stated in her post, there are companies that want you to go "Create referrals through screening" or "keep the pt for a longer length of stay". It's these bad clinical decisions that create the treatment that causes such misperceptions/misunderstanding/disrespect amongst the health care community. Last time I looked there is a enough appropriate and meaningful work to be done for all of us to work together in the Rehab industry. I have had my moments of professional doubt base on the types of patients that end up in SNF (see earlier post) but I've seen a lot of good overall practice come from a well run Rehab department. Another point that often irks me in these discussions is this preoccupation (pardon the pun) with being "unique" and "understood". To me being "effective" and "relevant" is more important to the healthcare market place. As Chris alluded to about community respect and education ..a profession's impact is built one customer at a time, one session at a time. Thanks for reading, and posting, Stir the pot! Brent -- Options? www.otnow.com/mailman/options/otlist_otnow.com Archive? www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
