Medical Screening and Differential Diagnosis (Smith - Online)

Course overview

All 50 states have some form of direct access to physical therapy services. In the ever-evolving healthcare environment, more focused efforts are being pursued to position therapists as first-line health providers. Data continues to demonstrate patient self-referral and direct access is proven to be safe and results in better health outcomes, more timely care, higher patient satisfaction, and lower costs. This increasing need and exposure for autonomous practices requires advanced clinical decision making skills. Advanced clinical decisions include determining whether patients presenting with musculoskeletal pain have evidence of systemic involvement or more complicated orthopedic involvement requiring referral to another healthcare provider. This course will present current evidence-based information to assist clinicians in determining the need for additional healthcare resources. Through discussion and hands-on labs*, participants will have better understanding of differential diagnosis with focus on certain anatomical regions, including their role as first-line providers. With prevalence of neck, thoracic, and shoulder pain around 26%, these conditions are commonly seen in rehabilitation practice settings. Therapy assistants will also learn how to recognize signs and symptoms that will indicate immediate communication with the supervising therapists. Hands-on labs will include evidence-based neurological and orthopedic special tests to guide clinical decision making. Medical screening tools will be presented for red flag screening to assist determination for immediate medical referral. Skills acquired in this course will enhance the participants advanced clinical decision-making abilities, which they can incorporate immediately into practice. *Hands on lab will be modified for Web based delivery formats into recorded demonstrations.