Inter-professional agreement and collaboration between extended scope physiotherapists and orthopaedic surgeons in an orthopaedic outpatient shoulder clinic - a mixed methods study

Advanced practice physiotherapy surgical triage and management of adults with spinal disorders referred to specialized spine medical care: a retrospective observational study

INTRODUCTION

In this novel advanced practice physiotherapy (APP) model of care, advanced practice physiotherapists (APPTs) assess, triage, and manage adults with spinal disorders to alleviate the growing demands in specialized spine medical care.

OBJECTIVES

To describe this APP model of care, to assess change in disability 3 months after rehabilitation care and to assess surgical triage and diagnostic concordance between APPTs and spine surgeons.

METHODS

In this retrospective observational study, consecutive patients who completed the 3-month follow-up data were analyzed. Sociodemographic, clinical characteristics, and self-reported disabilities including the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Neck Disability Index (NDI) at baseline and 3 months were extracted. Paired t-tests were used to assess changes in disability. Surgical triage and diagnostic concordance between APPTs and surgeons were measured with raw agreement, Cohen's Kappa, and PABAK.

RESULTS

In this model, trained APPTs triaged surgical candidates and provided rehabilitation care including education and exercises to patients with spinal disorders. The APPTs referred only 18/46 participants to spine surgeons. Surgical triage and diagnostic concordance were high with raw agreement of 94% and 89%. At the 3-month follow-up, significant improvements in disability were observed among nonsurgical candidates with back (mean difference (MD): -13.0/100 [95%CI: -19.8 to -6.3], n = 23) or neck disorders (MD: -16.0/100 [95%CI: -29.6 to -2.4], n = 5), but not among surgical candidates referred by APPTs to spine surgeons.

CONCLUSION

In this limited sample, adults with spinal disorders that were initially referred to a spine surgeon by family physicians were effectively assessed, triaged, and managed by an APPT.

Advanced practice physiotherapists can diagnose and triage patients with musculoskeletal disorders while providing effective care: a systematic review

QUESTIONS

What is the diagnostic and surgical triage concordance between advanced practice physiotherapists (APPTs) and physicians? What is the clinical efficacy of advanced practice physiotherapy care compared with usual medical care?

DESIGN

Systematic review with meta-analyses.

LITERATURE SEARCH

Medline, Embase, Cochrane CENTRAL and CINAHL were searched up to March 2022.

STUDY SELECTION CRITERIA

Concordance studies on diagnostic or surgical triage between APPTs and physicians and randomised controlled trials comparing the clinical efficacy of an advanced practice physiotherapy (APP) model of care compared with usual medical care for participants with musculoskeletal disorders.

DATA SYNTHESIS

Meta-analyses were performed for concordance and clinical outcomes. Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) was used to evaluate the certainty of evidence.

RESULTS

Nineteen concordance studies (n = 1,745) and six randomised trials (n = 1,960) were included. Based on moderate-certainty evidence, the pooled Kappa for diagnostic concordance between APPTs and physicians was 0.76 (95% CI 0.68 to 0.85, n = 1,108). Based on high-certainty evidence, the pooled Kappa for surgical triage concordance was 0.71 (95% CI 0.63 to 0.78, n = 1,128). Based on moderate-certainty evidence, APP care resulted in a comparable or greater reduction in pain (MD -0.92 out of 10, 95% CI -1.75 to -0.10, n = 494) when compared with usual medical care at medium-term follow-up. Based on low-certainty evidence, APP care resulted in a comparable or greater reduction in disability (SMD -0.31, 95% CI -0.67 to 0.04, n = 535) when compared with usual medical care at medium-term follow-up.

CONCLUSION

Concordance between APPTs and physicians is probably good to very good for diagnosis and good to very good for surgical triage of musculoskeletal disorders. Patients with musculoskeletal disorders managed in an APP model of care probably report comparable or greater pain and disability reductions when compared with usual medical care.

REGISTRATION

CRD42022320950.

Comparison of Digital Versus Conventional Documentation of Ward Round in Terms of Staff Satisfaction, Effect on Education, and Adherence to British Orthopaedic Association Guidelines

Objective

To compare the role of paper-based versus digital record keeping in the orthopaedic ward in terms of staff satisfaction, education of staff, and adherence to British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) guidelines.

Materials and methods

Forty-four participants including nurses, senior house officers, foundation year trainees, and consultants completed a questionnaire. The first survey was done to introduce electronic records keeping to the participants and the second survey was conducted to review the collected record. Three parameters were assessed, which were adherence to BOA guidelines, staff satisfaction, and effect of education for both paper-based and electronic records. Comparison between two methods of record keeping was done by independent t-test for continuous data and chi-square test for categorical.

 Results

For all four questions about staff satisfaction, the score of the electronic method was higher than paperwork statistically. The score for ‘opportunity to learn images in ward round’ was higher in electronic (3.9±0.8) than paperwork (2.6±1.3) statistically (p<0.001). Comparable results were found for ‘educational usefulness of ward round’ and ‘typing time affecting learning time’. For adherence to guidelines, the electronic record keeping was more effective in storing the patient’s ID and name (p=0.05), details of documenting clinician (p<0.001), time of ward round ((p=0.005), whom to contact in case of concern (p=0.050), and grade of ward round clinician (<0.001).

Conclusion

Electronic records in the orthopaedic ward were deemed better than paperwork in terms of staff satisfaction, positive effect on the education of doctors, and adherence to BOA guidelines.

Patient gender does not influence referral to an orthopaedic surgeon by advanced practice orthopaedic providers: a prospective observational study in Canada

Background

The role of an advanced practice physiotherapist has been introduced in many countries to improve access to care for patients with hip and knee arthritis. Traditional models of care have shown a gender bias, with women less often referred and recommended for surgery than men. This study sought to understand if patient gender affects access to care in the clinical encounter with the advanced practice provider. Our objectives were: (1) To determine if a gender difference exists in the clinical decision to offer a consultation with a surgeon; (2) To determine if a gender difference exists in patients’ decisions to accept a consultation with a surgeon among those patients to whom it is offered; and, (3) To describe patients’ reasons for not accepting a consultation with a surgeon.

Methods

This was a prospective study of 815 patients presenting to a tertiary care centre for assessment of hip and knee arthritis, with referral onward to an orthopaedic surgeon when indicated. We performed a multiple logistic regression analysis adjusting for severity to address the first objective and a simple logistic regression analysis to answer the second objective. Reasons for not accepting a surgical consultation were obtained by questionnaire.

Results

Eight hundred and fifteen patients (511 women, 304 men) fulfilled study eligibility criteria. There was no difference in the probability of being referred to a surgeon for men and women (difference adjusted for severity = − 0.02, 95% CI: − 0.07, 0.02). Neither was there a difference in the acceptance of a referral for men and women (difference = − 0.05, 95% CI: − 0.09, 0.00). Of the 14 reasons for declining a surgical consultation, 5 showed a difference with more women than men indicating a preference for non-surgical treatment along with fears/concerns about surgery.

Conclusions

There is no strong evidence to suggest there is a difference in proportion of males and females proceeding to surgical consultation in the model of care that utilizes advanced practice orthopaedic providers in triage. This study adds to the evidence that supports the use of suitably trained alternate providers in roles that reduce wait times to care and add value in contexts where health human resources are limited. The care model is a viable strategy to assist in managing the growing backlog in orthopaedic care, recently exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-06965-5.