Physiatrists Can Provide Huge Value

As the healthcare industry looks to become more efficient in its use of resources and more effective in its treatment of patients, there has never been a more critical time to seek out fresh ways to make the system work better for everyone. One such way is expanding the recognition and practice of physiatrists.

A physician who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation, a physiatrist’s goal is to restore optimal function to people with injuries to the muscles, bones, tissues, or nervous system, such as stroke victims.

Physiatrists have a unique and thorough understanding of how the body works—which translates into a definite advantage for many patients. Part of this understanding is looking at the whole picture and making the important connection on how medical issues fully impact the patient’s mobility and the effectiveness of the patient’s therapy program.

The job of a physiatrist is to restore as much function and independence as possible—to put the pieces of people’s lives back together. They do this through the development of a treatment plan that can be carried out with the help of a medical team that might include other physicians and health professionals such as neurologists, orthopedic surgeons, and physical occupational and speech therapists. 

The specialty of physical medicine and rehabilitation, or physiatry, is approximately 60 years old; and today there are more than 8,000 physicians practicing in the field. But the importance of this specialty, and its potential for positive impact on the industry and society, has never been greater. Here’s why:

• As we enter an era of accountable care, success is measured by the ACOs ability to manage the patient’s – or population’s – health. A physiatrist can greatly aid in this journey through treating disabling conditions throughout a person’s lifetime. Physiatry can also often help people avoid surgery, and that not only helps the patient but saves money and resources for the entire system.

• As economic realities and consumer choice encourage the industry to push more and more care out of the expensive acute setting, healthcare is witnessing a proliferation of post-acute rehab centers creating more lower-cost, effective solutions.  A physiatrist can and should be a central part of those facilities’ medical teams. Not designed to take the place of a primary care physician, the physiatrist can consult with an individual resident’s personal physician, particularly in those cases where patients have special needs due to such occurrences as stroke or neurological disease, which might complicate the patient’s ability to achieve desired results during the rehabilitation process.

• As baby boomers enter their senior years and people live longer than ever before, America will see an increasing number of citizens experience the usual episodes that accompany aging. Again, physiatry is needed not only to help address those episodes but to help patients stay as active as possible at any age. Toward that end the physiatrist can prescribe a host of assistive devices and adaptive equipment including gait and mobility aids, environmental control devices, communication aids, and various other tools to allow greater independence, optimal safety and decreased energy expenditure in activities of daily living.

• The shortage of primary care physicians is forcing our industry to look for other healthcare providers to fill that void. One such place to look is physical, occupational and speech therapists – but these professionals often need guidance to optimally do their job. Physiatrists are best equipped to provide that coordination. At a post-acute rehab facility, for example, the physiatrist can make and manage medical diagnoses and prescribe the therapies that physical therapists will subsequently perform. These may include specific exercise programs for maintaining and increasing range of motion, strengthening muscles, muscle relaxation and aerobic fitness.

No problem is ever too big or too small for a physiatrist. Let’s embrace all this profession and this field of medicine has to offer.

Eric Watson, M.D., is therapy program director at the Post Acute Rehab Center (PARC) at Victoria Care in Ventura.