Those are two powerful words in healthcare today -- ''accessible'' and ''affordable.'' We (healthcare providers) need to be accessible and affordable to patients in order to provide care, period. Those two words don't even begin to address quality or evidence-based care, but simply allow patients the opportunity to receive care. This concept is ...

The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), Alexandria, VA, announced in an April 30 press release that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence has signed HB 1034, granting Hoosiers direct access to evaluation and treatment by a physical therapist without a physician referral. Ensuring a patient's choice of which healthcare professional ...

An interesting article came out in the British popular press last week that states some chronic low-back pain can be cured by antibiotics. The writing is fairly clear that only certain cases would benefit from this approach and it includes links to the two scientific abstracts the article is based on: ...

Amazing what can happen in one week. In a major healthcare system of a large metropolitan area surrounded by water, we've successfully accomplished separating pediatric from adult rehabilitation in preparation for our growth as the Rehabilitation Institute of South Florida. Every day of this mission has started at 5 a.m. with communication with ...

Since I've spent a lot of time in the past 18 months making changes in my own career and developing the content of the training and orientation program for new employees at my clinic, the concept of mentors has always been on my mind. Even when I graduated PT school (which seems like an era ago), the common words of wisdom from my professors were, ...

A short break between semesters has proven to come at the best time for me. Today brings with it a major change in my facility, where one department is becoming two. Employees have been preparing for months for this change, with hopes that everything goes smoothly. In a large department where things don't always go smoothly on a regular day, we ...

Over the weekend I was reading the article for our staff journal club this week, a recent research paper investigating the effects of thoracic thrust manipulation (with non-thrust cervical mobilization) for the treatment of neck pain. As you may recall, participating in our regular journal club was one of the professional goals I wrote about ...

A most disturbing week has occurred, once again, for the citizens of our country. As I look forward to starting a new semester once again and booking a flight to attend a weekend course for the final session in the quest for my DPT, I'm shaken by the latest attack on our fellow citizens. Although acts of terrorism occur all over the world and ...

The American Physical Therapy Association, Alexandria, VA, put out a press release yesterday detailing the role that therapy professionals and students played in helping victims of the tragic bombing at the Boston Marathon. The release stated: ''A team of 70 members of APTA's Massachusetts Chapter, stationed at the Boston Marathon finish line on ...

As we move toward the formation of a major rehabilitation provider in the region, meetings, conference calls and webinars fill my schedule. My new role is quickly becoming a challenge, in that therapists are being designated as working for the adult hospital, while others for the children's hospital. Still yet, there are those who work for both ...