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FOTO Healthcare Database Featured in New Research: Impact of Risk-Adjustment on Quality of Physical Therapy Care
[February 21, 2018]

FOTO Healthcare Database Featured in New Research: Impact of Risk-Adjustment on Quality of Physical Therapy Care


Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes, Inc. (FOTO) today announced that a new research study led by Dr. Daniel Deutscher, PT, PhD has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy (www.jospt.org). Dr. Deutscher's research utilizes FOTO's comprehensive database of rehabilitation outcomes housing 21 million patient assessments.

The research study, titled Impact of risk-adjustment on provider ranking for patients with low back pain receiving physical therapy, evaluated 414,125 patients, treated for lower back pain by 12,569 clinicians from 3,048 outpatient physical therapy clinics, from all US States, between 2014-2016.

The authors' analyses of the data focused on the impact of risk-adjustment on quality scores reflecting improvement in patients' functional abilities. The study concluded that 70% of clinics were incorrectly ranked on quality levels for their patient care due to lack of risk-adjusted profiling of functional outcomes.

"Dr. Deutscher's research on risk-adjustment is important because quality of healthcare, as measured by outcomes measures rathe than numbers of procedures, has become a central focus for improving today's health care system," said Al Amato, PT, MBA, President of FOTO. "Risk-adjusted clinic ranking systems are now recommended by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to meaningfully assess the quality of rehabilitation therapy services and help consumers choose the best provider for their healthcare needs. Statistical methods for developing accurate clinical ranking are required for the foundation of a fair value-based payment program and have become an important area for research."



Co-authors of the research study include: Mark W. Werneke, PT, MS, Dip. MDT; Deanna Hayes, PT, DPT, MS; Jerome E. Mioduski, MS; Karon F. Cook, PhD; Julie Fritz, PT, PhD; Linda J. Woodhouse, PT, PhD; and Paul W. Stratford, PT, MS.

FOTO offers the only predictive risk adjustment modeling for rehabilitation services based on rigorous outcomes data and scientific methods. FOTO maintains the largest healthcare database for rehabilitation outcomes with 21 million patient assessments. More than 100 studies using FOTO data have been published in peer-reviewed journals.


Links:

https://www.fotoinc.com/press-releases/foto-deutscher-research-abstract-impact-risk-adjustment-provider-rankings
https://www.fotoinc.com/science-of-foto/citations-for-foto-database

About FOTO

Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes, Inc. (FOTO) has been continuously improving solutions to efficiently measure and reliably report patient functional outcomes for the rehabilitation therapy industry for over 26 years. FOTO's web-based measurement solutions are used by rehabilitation clinicians to determine fair and accurate risk-adjusted predictions of improvement in patients' functional health.

Visit www.FOTOinc.com for more information.


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