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Developing Rapport with Primary Care Staff & Strategies to Increase Clinic Referrals to Primary Care PT

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Primary Care physical therapy offers many challenges and opportunities for physical therapists.  This course offers recommendations to help develop rapport with Primary Care staff as well as ways to increase the Primary Care PTs caseload.


Learning Objectives:

  1. Analyze the most common communication options in Primary Care.
  2. Share examples of a musculoskeletal review class that can be shared with Primary Care staff.
  3. Discuss the benefits of discussing injuries with staff in Primary Care.
  4. Highlight the benefits of Primary Care staff/students observing the PT in Primary Care.
  5. Provide example handouts that may be used in Primary Care to build rapport with staff.
  6. Discuss beneficial Primary Care meetings for the PT to attend.
  7. Highlight ten strategies to increase Primary Care caseload.
  8. Review the importance of issuing durable medical equipment (DME) in Primary Care.
  9. Review sample case scenarios highlighting strategies to build rapport with staff.

Brandon I. Peterson, DPT, Cert. MDT, ATC

DPT, Cert. MDT, ATC

Dr. Brandon Peterson has practiced physical therapy at the Sioux Falls VA Healthcare system since 2013.  He created a Primary Care (PACT – Patient Aligned Care Team) physical therapy program at the Sioux Falls VA in 2016 and has since worked in Primary Care full time.  In 2017, he was appointed the Chair of Embedding Physical Therapists into Primary Care across VISN 23 (Veterans Integrated Services Network).  Due to the success of this program, Dr. Peterson and other members of VISN 23 submitted the Primary Care PT program into the VA Shark Tank competition.  In 2020, the program was awarded a promising practice and later a national diffusion project.  Dr. Peterson currently serves as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the Primary Care Physical Therapy National Diffusion project through the VA Diffusion of Excellence.   The goal of the project is for every VA or CBOC (Community Based Outreach Clinic) to embed physical therapists into their PACT team by 2025.

Course Instructions

  1. Click on the Contents tab to watch the course recording.
  2. Click the Take Quiz button to complete the assessment. Learners will have 3 attempts to pass and must answer at least 70% of questions correctly.
  3. Click Fill Out Survey under the Evaluation listing to provide valuable course feedback. Scroll down on all questions as there may be answer options that expand past the size of the window.
  4. Click the View/Print Your Certificate button under the Certificate listing. You can view/print your certificate at any time by visiting the APTA Learning Center and clicking the CEU Certificate/Transcript link on the left-hand side of the page. 

Need Assistance?

For assistance logging in, accessing activities, claiming credit, or for other questions or concerns, please e-mail learningcenter@apta.org. 

Key:

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Video
Open to view video.
Open to view video.
Assessment
15 Questions  |  3 attempts  |  11/15 points to pass
15 Questions  |  3 attempts  |  11/15 points to pass Please complete the post-course assessment with a score of 70% or better. You have 3 attempts to obtain a passing score.
Evaluation
12 Questions
12 Questions Your comments are important to use! Submit your feedback about the course through this course evaluation.
CEU Certificate
Up to 0.10 contact hours available  |  Certificate available
Up to 0.10 contact hours available  |  Certificate available Please download and save certificate for future use.