title: Same-day physical therapy consults in an outpatient neuromuscular disease physician clinic.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Team-based care has been shown to offer more comprehensive benefits to patients when compared to standard physician-based care alone in clinics for chronic conditions. However, apart from grant-funded multidisciplinary clinics, there are no reports on the usage of same-day physical therapy (PT) consults within a daily outpatient neuromuscular disease (NMD) physician clinic.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the impact of same-day PT consults at the University of Utah's outpatient Clinical Neurosciences Center.
  
  
  METHODS
  A qualitative assessment and survey of patient satisfaction.
  
  
  METHODS
  An eight question Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant patient satisfaction survey using a 5-point Likert scale was administered. Demographic data and Press-Ganey Provider Satisfaction surveys were retrospectively collected from electronic medical records for patients receiving same-day PT encounters in the neuromuscular division over 1 year.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean (standard deviation) age was 54.22 (19.81) years for 134 patient encounters, median age was 60 years, with 76 male (57%) and 58 female (43%) patients. Mean Likert score for 61 self-reported patient satisfaction surveys for same-day PT consults was 4.87 (97.4%). Press-Ganey Provider Satisfaction scores improved from 89.9% (N=287) for the year prior to 90.8% (N=320) for the corresponding year (P=0.427). A total of 46 (75.4%) patients have either never before received PT care or never before received PT care for their NMD, 67.4% of whom were male.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Same-day PT consults in an outpatient NMD physician clinic demonstrated excellent patient satisfaction and improved access to specialty care. This model could potentially be implemented in other academic medical centers to improve access to rehabilitation services for patients with NMD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Evan M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Pucillo
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Christensen-Mayer
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.
authors.forename: Shelly D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Poole
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.
authors.forename: Denise M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Whitten
authors.affiliation: Outpatient Neurology, University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.affiliation: Business Support, University of Utah Information Technology, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
authors.forename: Blake R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Bohe
authors.affiliation: Outpatient Neurology, University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics.
authors.forename: Brandon R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Swensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, School of Medicine.
authors.forename: A Gordon
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Nicholas E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Johnson
keywords: neuromuscular care; neuromuscular therapy; patient satisfaction; physical therapy consults; physician clinics; same-day physical therapy; team-based health care