Hey Ron, I have had the same experience. Part of my duties has to do with therapy utilization at the home health care company I work for. OT and ST utilization were both extremely poor when I started. I have been working at it by increasing awareness, auditing charts and developing programs. What bothers me most about this in the home care setting is that OT is probably the best discipline to intervene with a home care patient. There is a definite identity crisis at work. Nursing has really no idea what OTs does. They either have developed their own ideas of OT or have received erroneous information about the UE only thing.
-----Original Message----- From: Ron Carson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 3:49 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [OTlist] Large Fl. Hospital Case Managers and OT referrals Hello: This morning, I met with one of Central Florida's largest hospital's case manager staff. I personally asked with approximately 10 case managers and asked if the refer their d/c'd patients for OT. Every one of them said something like: "not too much for OT, but quite a bit for PT". How can it be? How can a large hospital's case manager staff not refer to OT, except in rare cases? I get so frustrated with such scenarios because, in my experience, it happens all the time. It is so rare to speak with someone in the medical field that utilizes OT for clients with occupational performance issues. On those rare occasions that someone does mention OT, it has been from an orthopedic setting and they refer to OT for upper extremity issues.... YUCK! Ron P.S. Just needed to vent! *****************************��********************************** To remove yourself from the OTnow mail list, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message's *body*, put the following text: unsubscribe OTlist - List messages are archived at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] *****************************��*********************************** *****************************��********************************** To remove yourself from the OTnow mail list, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message's *body*, put the following text: unsubscribe OTlist - List messages are archived at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] *****************************��***********************************
