PT & OT Connection: Continuing Education for Therapists

Falls among older adults are becoming a public health crisis and significant burden on the healthcare system.  More than 95% of hip fractures are caused by falling. Falls cost the healthcare system about $31 billion dollars annually. In fact, falls are not a normal part of aging and can be prevented with the proper assessment and management.  Rehabilitation professionals are primed to lead this initiative as part of an interdiscipl...

According to the National Institute of Health, more than one-third (35.2%) of adults in the U.S., aged 65 and over report some level of dysfunction with ADL. Some of the resulting outcomes include poor sleep, malnutrition, social isolation, depression, pain, UTIs and falls. Since nearly one-third of all seniors live alone, that means that roughly 14 million seniors have no direct access to caregiver support. But living alone does n...

Hip fractures in older adults are most often a result of low energy trauma.  Osteoporosis, impaired balance, poor vision, and hazardous living environments all contribute to injury.  Hip fracture unfortunately contributes to increased risk of mortality within one year, often for systemic or other illness.  Fracture can be preventable in some cases; in others appropriate initial and post operative management can not only restore mob...

For a patient to be eligible to receive covered home health services, they must be deemed “confined to the home” or homebound.  The time has come to demystify the two conditions, or criterion, which formulate the groundwork of the homebound status.  Magic words such as “taxing effort” do not, in and of themselves, deem one homebound. Only by exploring the physiological implications of the patient’s health status can a classificatio...

Clinicians are now charged with providing quick gains in an episode of care with complex patients, such as those with Parkinson’s disease. Funding cuts continue to require clinicians to provide shorter episodes of care, despite neurological disease progression. This one-hour podcast will provide physical therapists, physical therapy assistants, occupational therapists, and occupational therapy assistants with targeted evidence-base...

Accurate OASIS coding is essential for all home health clinicians due to the direct impact quality indicators will have on an agency’s star rating. With the CMS plan to move to a universal outcome measure for all post-acute settings, OASIS will become an important tool beyond home health. Payment through PDGM and PDPM are driven, at least in part, by improvement as measured through OASIS. This course will provide easy to use method...

This podcast will cover the current evidence on the benefits of strength training in the geriatric population.  It will discuss the differences between pre -frail, frail, and sarcopenia in relation to exercise prescription in rehab.  It will also examine how this evidence applies to rehabilitation professionals and how it can be successfully implemented in the rehab setting. 

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Recent advances in joint replacement surgeries have allowed patients to return home earlier and earlier.  This course will concentrate specifically on same day joint rehabilitation visits in the home or outpatient setting.  General guidelines with emphasis on medication management, post operative nutrition, and general incision care and staple removal will be covered.  The podcast will also cover various joint arthroplasty techniqu...

Each dementia patient healthcare practitioners treat requires a unique and personal approach requiring a profound understanding of occupational and personal history to maximize aspects of long-term and procedural memory. The challenges of isolation and routine disruptions resulted in a catastrophic adjustment to care services and caregiver burden during the COVID pandemic. Moreover, there is emerging evidence identifying the accele...