Improving Physical Therapy
Let’s include Accountability, Accessibility, and Patient Advocacy moving forward to improve PT for everyone
By Stephanie Nicholson MPT ATC ATRIC TPI-CGFI (Co-Founder and Chief Wellness Officer of In Hand Health, LLC)
What are you looking for when you seek healthcare or experience a healthcare crisis?
What if:
- You could quickly message your doctor or healthcare professional to find out what to do next.
- There was an easy-to-use solution that saved you time and copays or other out-of-pocket costs.
- You had direct access to the experts instead of waiting on hold to leave a message that gets returned several hours or days later.
We wondered the same things. Thus, In Hand Health was born.
Expect Accountability and Accessibility
We envisioned a healthcare environment where all people get access to the experts and where the experts can collaborate with their peers. We imagined a healthcare environment where patients are held accountable to follow healthcare plans but also have a voice to express needs and progress. Finally, we also wanted an environment where healthcare providers empower patients and patients in turn feel empowered.
With In Hand Health technology, these visions begin to meet reality. Patients directly access their healthcare providers (physical therapists in the case of our initial product offerings) and are supported through the totality of their physical recovery from injury to full restoration and beyond. In our system, accountability and accessibility is the expectation and not the exception.
Empowering Patient Advocacy
In Hand Health also needed to happen because the current environment of healthcare is requiring patients to become their own advocate.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to get an appointment with a healthcare provider when a patient really needs it. We believe the expectation should be that a healthcare provider is accessible and will also spend the time educating and guiding a patient and holding them accountable. Access and actions such as these enable patients to evolve and improve their quality of life. Suffering, stress, and the anxiety of the unknown are greatly reduced.
A Roadmap for Better PT Data
Specific to the physical therapy market, In Hand Health has a future vision to develop consistency in exercise prescription and protocols and, therefore, consistent outcomes within the profession.
Over time, we plan to aggregate data (with all patient information removed for security) to show what exercises improve symptoms such as pain and function related to specific diagnoses. The data can be used to improve evidence based exercise prescription and enhance consistency in diagnosis specific treatment plans. The information should also be applicable in training physical therapy students and supporting research-based projects within the profession.
Our future plans also include a community where physical therapists worldwide can share data and perhaps make referrals or collaborate on progressive treatment planning and differential diagnosis.
Meeting the Challenges of Today’s PT Market
For the near term, we are excited for our initial product offering that covers the bases in offering video-based home exercise programs, HIPAA-compliant patient-therapist messaging, and real-time compliance monitoring. Altogether, we believe it succeeds in building long-lasting patient-therapist relationships and helping patients heal better faster through the use of web and mobile technology.
Most agree, the physical therapy market is also facing significant challenges with reduced margins, lowered paid visits, and other issues in the ever-changing healthcare insurance landscape. We help your clinic address this through our Continuing Care subscription, which enables physical therapists to easily deliver their expertise and services on a subscription basis that leads to longer lasting patients and eventually better outcomes while generating additional revenue.
Originally published at www.inhandhealth.com.
