Standardization of Interdisciplinary Clinical Practice and Assessment in Stroke Rehabilitation

Holy shit. You mean we've been complete guinea pigs since forever? Why are our doctors and therapists even asking us to pay them? They are still in  by guess and by golly mode.
http://www.omicsonline.org/standardization-of-interdisciplinary-clinical-practice-and-assessment-in-2329-9096.1000166.pdf
Your medical team can read the complete 7 pages.

Carolyn L Kinney, Megan C Eikenberry, Stephen F Noll, James Tompkins and Joseph Verheijde*

Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mayo Clinic, 13400 E Shea Boulevard, Scottsdale, AZ, 85259, USA

*Corresponding author:

Joseph Verheijde, Department of Physical Medicine and

Rehabilitation, Mayo Clinic, 13400 E Shea Boulevard, Scottsdale, AZ, 85259, USA

Abstract

Medical practice has increasingly focused on providing evidence-based interventions. We describe a process to

standardize the interdisciplinary assessment of patients presenting for rehabilitation after stroke in a single academic

medical center. Multiple assessment tools and outcome measures were reviewed for validity, specificity for stroke

population, ease of administration, and utility in research. Interdisciplinary participation in the review process facilitated

compliance with new documentation requirements. Measurements were incorporated into the electronic medical

record from which an interdisciplinary database was developed for research applications. Clinically, the electronic

medical record documentation is accessible to all healthcare providers in our medical system. Objective data from the

use of quantifiable outcome measures facilitates clinical decision-making, more appropriate goal setting, and provides

opportunities to optimize the value of the care delivered. It creates opportunities for best practices in the rehabilitation

of patients with stroke and contributes to the provision of cost-effective patient care. Quantifiable measures also result

in improved patient and caregiver understanding of patient impairment and progress, and as we observed, increased

patient motivation in therapies. From a research perspective, having an interdisciplinary database in place enhances

opportunities for future collaborative and integrated clinical studies. We posit that broad implementation of the care

strategy outlined, and the database resulting from it, will also facilitate multicenter clinical research opportunities which

will ultimately benefit patients with stroke.