The August 31, 2009 edition of "Advance for OT Practitioners" has an article on OT and home health. I must say, I hate the pictures of the OT in the article. There are 4 pictures of the OT working with a home health patient who has had a CVA; 3 of the 4 pictures show the OT doing upper extremity ROM and/or exercises for this patient.
The article states that the OT practitioner transfers the patient to the w/c. The patient's daughter states that before her mom's stroke, the patient was very active; walking to the store, going to the senior center and playing bingo. The article cites a CMS study reporting improvements in home care patients. NONE of these improvement are directly related to UE function. Also, CMS has a study of outcome measures that most home health companies target. The top 10 are: Acute Care Hospitalization Improvement in Management of Oral Medications Any Emergent Care Improvement in Pain Interfering with Activity Improvement in Ambulation/Locomotion Improvement in Dyspnea Improvement in Transferring Improvement in Status of Surgical Wounds Improvement in Urinary Incontinence Improvement in Bathing Again, none of these are directly related to UE function. And VERY few patients are on home health because of only UE dysfunction. That VAST majority of home health patients are home bound and unsafe because of mobility related issues. And yet, the OT in this advance article appears to be focusing her treatment on a w/c bound patient's upper extremity. Is it any wonder that OT is misunderstood? Is it any wonder that no one knows what we do? Does anyone see the elephant in the room? Ron ~~~ Ron Carson MHS, OT www.OTnow.com -- Options? www.otnow.com/mailman/options/otlist_otnow.com Archive? www.mail-archive.com/otlist@otnow.com
