For Physicians

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Physical therapists are experts in movement and function. The primary goal of physical therapy is to treat people who have suffered injury or illness and maximize function. Physical therapists do this by developing specialized treatment programs to help restore mobility, reduce pain, increase fitness levels, prevent injury, or slow the progression of irreversible medical conditions.
To achieve these goals physical therapists employ the following interventions:

• Therapeutic Exercise – both on land and in water
• Aquatic Therapy
• Manual Treatment Methods including joint mobilization and elements of massage/soft tissue mobilization
• Physical Agents: heat, cold, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, infrared and traction
• Patient Education including postural advice, ergonomic instruction, home exercise, energy conservation, fitness information and more…

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What diagnoses are treated by physical therapy?

A: Specifically, we treat the following conditions:

• General Orthopedic Injuries:
• Sprains, Strains, Fractures, Nerve entrapments
• Post-operative Rehabilitation
• Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction
• Carpel Tunnel Syndrome
• Arthritis
• Back & Neck Pain
• Headache
• Posture problems, including scoliosis
• Osteoporosis
• Rehabilitation after a serious injury (e.g. work-related, auto accidents, sports)
• Amputations
• Balance or coordination problems / Fall Prevention
• Vestibular Rehabilitation
• Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy
• Lymphedema and post-cancer conditioning/rehabilitation
• Women’s Health Issues
• Prenatal and post-partum issues – low back pain, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Incontinence and Pelvic Pain

Q: How often should I refer a patient, i.e. what frequency and duration is appropriate for therapy care?

A: In general, most patients with musculoskeletal conditions attend physical therapy 2-3x/week on non-consecutive days. Length or duration of care is dependent on many variables including patient age, diagnosis, fitness level, severity of injury, just to name a few. On average, patients are seen in therapy for 3-6 weeks. If you are unsure of the most appropriate frequency and duration, the physical therapist can make a recommendation based on their evaluation findings. You can also put an initial frequency and duration on the prescription and if the therapist feels more or less therapy is indicated this can be communicated via physical therapy progress reports faxed to your office.

Q: What should I write on the physical therapy prescription?

A: Most physicians list the diagnosis as well as the statement “evaluate and treat.” This phrase lets the physical therapist know that the physician is requesting that they evaluate and treat the patient for the condition listed on the prescription. The therapist will complete this evaluation and fax over a copy of the report to the physician office.

If you ever have questions regarding appropriate referral to physical therapy, please do not hesitate to contact one of our therapists.

Click on any of the following PIER documents to view. Adobe Reader is required for viewing.
	Exercise Instruction	Exercise Instruction Summary
	Knee and Hip Osteoarthritis	Knee and Hip Osteoarthritis Summary
	Low Back Pain	Low Back Pain Summary
	Neck Pain and Cervicogenic Headache	Neck Pain and Cervicogenic Headache Summary
	Shoulder Pain	Shoulder Pain Summary
	Whiplash	Whiplash Summary

Evidence Based Medicine or Evidence Based Practice (EBP) is increasingly relied upon in this era of medical cost-cutting as the standard for clinical practice.¹ Evidence Based Practice is defined as the “conscientious, judicious, and explicit use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients“. At its highest level, current best evidence for treatment consists of randomized clinical trials and systematic reviews of those trials published in peer reviewed journals.²

Although EBP is increasingly turned to as the standard for the medical community, keeping-up and incorporating current best evidence has likewise become increasingly difficult for a clinician already being run ragged in a busy practice. For example, every few years the medical literature at least doubles in size³ and only 10 % of articles published in core medical journals are both high quality and clinically relevant.⁴ Needless to say, staying abreast of developments in one’s own area of interest appears to be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

The regional leader in providing evidence-based rehabilitation, Delta Physical Therapy is pleased to present you with Delta Physical Therapy PIER, a series of research summaries designed to help you keep abreast of the current best evidence with regard to physical therapy intervention for patients with musculoskeletal disorders.

Delta Physical Therapy PIER represents a recognized EBP tool (preprocessed evidence) that is presented in a concise, fun, and user-friendly format to help you stay up-to-date with the current best evidence in rehabilitation science and provide you with information for decision making. For example, Delta Physical Therapy PIER can assist referral sources in knowing which patients are likely to benefit from physical therapy referral. They can also be used internally by physical therapists to improve their ability to provide evidence-based care in the management of their patients with musculoskeletal conditions.

For a given problem, (eg. Low Back Pain), interventions are identified based on evidence related to that problem along with categorizing which patients would benefit from referral. This is done in an information dense, bulleted format that can be read in less than 2 minutes along with more detailed information attachment for those with further interest. Each Delta Physical Therapy PIER summary is written by Drs. Robert Wainner and John Childs, both of whom hold a Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Science from the University of Pittsburgh and have extensive clinical research publication records, including leading medical journals such as Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Spine, and Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation to name a few.

We at Delta Physical Therapy look forward to serving you and your patients by providing evidence-based physical therapy services and collaborating closely with our referring providers.  Please let us know how we can be of assistance.

Regards,

Kelly Sanders, PT, DPT, OCS, ATC

References

1. Simel DL, Dujardin B. The clinical examination: An agenda to make it more rational. JAMA 1997;
   277:572-574.
2. Guyatt GH, Rennie D. Users’ Guides to the Medical Literature: Essentials in Evidenced Based Clinical
   Practice.: JAMA, 2001.
3. Durack DT. The weight of medical knowledge. N Engl J Med 1978; 298:773-775.
4. Sackett DL, Straus SE, Richardson WS, Rosenberg W, Haynes RB. Evidence-Based Medicine: How to
   Practice and Teach EBM. London: Churchhill Livingstone, 2000.