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Category: PTs

Symptoms may or may not change

Dr. Vince Gutierrez, PT, cert. MDTLeave a Comment on Symptoms may or may not change

“It is clearly stated that the mechanisms underpinning any reductions in symptoms using the SSMP are not known”

The Shoulder Symptom Modification Procedure is studied and taught by Jeremy Lewis, out of England. I am a fan of this method because I like systems. Both systems that work and systems that tell tell the user when the system doesn’t work. I was able to watch Jeremy Lewis assess and treat patients on stage in front of a crowd of over 500 MDT trained clinicians. The patients that he treated were not just any patients off of the streets though, some of these patients were MDT trained clinicians that failed to improve with the MDT approach. When I saw that he was able to go from one patient to another and abolish symptoms over two days, I was sold!

I wanted to know what he was doing. After I got back from the conference in Austin, I emailed him to ask some questions. He was gracious enough to not only answer all of my questions, but to also send me all of his research and articles on SSMP.

I obviously read through the research and started using the format within my own MDT evaluations. I personally found that this method blends very well with MDT because aside from names, the principles were the same, but he provided additional information for treatment that wasn’t provided in the text booms or course work for MDT.

We know that patients get better. It may not necessarily matter which methods are used, but many patients improve with treatment. How they improve…we have no clue! No one can give the exact mechanism by which patients improve symptoms because there is not one mechanism alone by which symptoms are produced.

For all you reading at home, if your therapist is pompous enough to give you an answer that is an absolute, you may not need to find a new therapist, but you better watch your ears for they may be taking in false information.

“A common aim is symptom reduction,which, if achieved, allows the individual to move with less pain. How this is achieved is unknown”

For the most part, we all have the same goals. Get the patient better. Mind you, there are some that have goals clouded by $$$, but hopefully you find someone that is pure of heart.

I want my patients not only to be able to return to what they were doing prior to an injury, but to inspire them to do more. When a patient gets better, I’d love to take the credit, but I also know that Father Time is pretty good at what he does also.

In the end, the patients get better and we have to be able to say 🤷‍♂️ how it happens sometimes.

“Symptom reduction might not be possible, and attempting symptom change that does not achieve its goal may create hypervigilance or unreasonable patient expectations that ultimately become demotivating and sensitizing.”

We work in a team. We always work in a team. That team is either with the other professionals or with the patient. We can’t allow our biases to infect the patient and we must be vigilant to notice when our own preferences are frustrating the patient.

Enjoy! Any questions you can find me on FB at Dr. Vince Gutierrez.

Excerpts from here

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Ways to mitigate burnout

Dr. Vince Gutierrez, PT, cert. MDTLeave a Comment on Ways to mitigate burnout

“Burnout…is a syndrome of depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and a sense of low personal accomplishment leading to decreased effectiveness at work…primarily affected those in ‘helping’ professions”

Hey!…  Hey!…  You!… PT’s!…Are you listening?!….

Does this sound like someone you know?

“The high prevalence of burnout among physicians results in lowss of engagement and commitment…5 out of every 10 physicians affected by burnout”

Loss of engagement and commitment with patients.  Hmmm? How many therapists do you know that are “punching the clock”?

I have a problem with a lack of engagement.  It just isn’t something that I tend to do often and I have a short attention span.  Maybe not as short as the new average of 9 seconds, but pretty darn short.  I just shift the engagement to something different.

A therapist that isn’t engaged with the patient is problematic.  Patients are coming to us for our professional opinion and placing trust in us to help them along their journey of pain or functional restoration.  To have loss of engagement places that trust at risk.

Not only is trust lost between the patient and the physical therapist, but also between the patient and the profession of physical therapy.

Remember young Jedi, YOU REPRESENT THE FORCE (by force I mean the PT workforce).  Your burnout makes me look bad.  Not that it’s all about me, but really…it’s all about me.

50% of physicians are affected by burnout?!

I haven’t seen any studies on prevalence in our profession, but I hope it’s not that high.

“Many factors contribute to burnout, including high workloads; an inefficient environment; problems with work-life integration; lack of flexibility, autonomy, and control; and loss of meaning in work.”

I’ve seen research showing that treating 20 patients per day may lead to burnout.  I don’t know if it’s the 20 patients or the notes that come along with the 20 patients, but….20 patients!!! REALLY?

At my busiest time, I was only seeing about 15 per day.  This may be why I have yet to experience burnout from treating patients.

An inefficient environment.  I have experienced this multiple times.  Sometimes people and companies are just set in their ways and don’t see a good enough reason to change.

Problems with work-life integration: this is what I am struggling with right now.  Is the juice worth the squeeze?  This is a phrase that I am thinking of more and more currently.  When I think of how many hours that I am away from my kids and wife, I have to think (or my wife makes me think) about where do I want to be in life 5 years from now.  Managing a clinic takes a ton of time.  If you have never tried to build a “brand”, it takes a lot of time and work in order to get a personal brand out to the community.

Autonomy and control: I haven’t personally experienced a loss of control in the clinic,  but I hear from PT’s all over the country that their boos/manager/director almost dictates the care in order to create a “comprehensive care plan”. Now this sounds all good and nice and all, but in the end the question has to be asked…Why? Why does the boss want a comprehensive plan?

The reason is no different than any other business and it has to do with money.  Clinics make more money by doing multiple different treatments than providing one treatment that may have the best outcomes.  It’s sad…but I hear it frequently.

“Physicians who suffer from burnout are impaired and they and their organizations are at risk of having higher rates of medical errors, less professionalism, lower patient satisfaction, and lower productivity, as well as more turnover and suicidal ideation”

Does burnout sound good?

Not like the burnout that I would do on my BMX bike as a kid or in my F-150 as a teenager.

Burnout leads to major issues at a personal and corporate level.  I wonder though if the companies care about burnout.  Turnover happens in physical therapy.  Although it costs money to train a new therapist, it may not matter since many companies see a PT as a widget instead of as an autonomous practitioner.  If one therapist can easily be swapped out for another, is burnout an issue at the corporate level?

Rhetorical questions of course.

“Organizations that make investments in leadership development experience substantially higher returns than those that do not.”

This is a great quote. Invest in your people, more so than seeing your people as an investment.

For instance, when you put money into an IRA, it sits there and you hope it grows (at least matches the 10% historical APR). You are passive in this role. Hopefully money makes money. This is what typically happens in a company. The employee is expected to go out and grow individually, which benefits the company, although the company may not take part in that individual investment.

I would like to see it more as owning a home. This is an investment also. It averages about a 2% gain per year, but the individual living in the home has to actively care for the investment in order for it to keep growing. I would love for more businesses to see employees as an investment for which they should foster care. High tides raise all ships. When the employee is successful both on an individual and business sense, everyone wins.

“Clinician engagement is empirically linked to more effective organizations, with outcomes including lower turnover rates, superior clinical outcomes, better patient experience, and superior financial performance”

Does this sound like a positive experience for clinicians and patients alike?

If the clinician is engaged in not only treating patients but also regarding the health of the business everyone wins.

Some therapists don’t see themselves as business people, which is a shame because if we don’t get the patient in the door, then we can’t help that person. We have to feel confident in attracting our customer (someone with functional complaints that may or may not relate to pain), educating our customer, selling to our customer and then accepting their money. Sales doesn’t have to be a bad thing. I have been reading Rabbi Daniel Lapin and have learned that money is just as much a show of appreciation and gratitude as it is a financial transaction.

“Physicians experience highest levels of engagement when they have a degree of control over their work environment. Engage Physicians tend to receive higher patient satisfaction ratings.”

This is an indication of autonomous practice. When a clinician gets to dictate care, instead of having care dictated to the clinician, then everyone wins again.

“Combating physician burnout is a twofold process that involves 1. mitigating the structural and functional drivers of burnout and 2. bolstering individual resiliency.”

This is the Mayo Model to try to reduce burnout in physicians. This appears useful for many other health professionals also.

Quick Link to the article here

Healthcare fraud and abuse

Dr. Vince Gutierrez, PT, cert. MDTLeave a Comment on Healthcare fraud and abuse

“During Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, the Federal Government won or negotiated over $2.4B in health care fraud judgments and settlements…$2.6B was returned to the Federal Government or paid to private persons.”

Put this into perspective.  If you were born today and started counting one…two…three…four, you would get to 2B right around retirement age.  This is of course assuming that you don’t sleep.

That’s a lot of money!

What’s important is to read that the money was returned to the government or paid to private persons.  This means that the Government is at least paying this much out to health care providers in order to recover the money at a later date.

There is a saying in health care…”it’s not about how much you make, but how much you keep that matters”.

“In FY 2017, the Department of Justice (DOJ) opened 967 new criminal health care fraud investigations…filed criminal charges in 439 cases.”

Again, I’d love to say that health care is a field full of altruistic people, we we know that some people suck!  They just suck. They take advantage of people.  They may have been bullied as a child and feel the need to get payback.  They may have been the bullies and just continue to try to take advantage of others.  It doesn’t matter the why, but they can’t be trusted to do the right thing when placed in a situation in which personal gain is an option.

“HHS-OIG also excluded 3,244 individuals and entities from participation in Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs.”

When a health care provider attempts to defraud a federally funded program, the health care provider can be excluded from seeing any patients that participate in these programs.  For instance, if I were to be a shady individual and overbill or bill for services that I didn’t actually provide, the government can then say that I am no longer allowed to see these patients.  The government could also enter into a corporate integrity agreement with the person or company and allow them to see patients, but the company would have to prove that steps are being taken in order to minimize abusing the system.

“Under the joint direction of the Attorney General and the Secretary, the Program’s (Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program) goals are:

  1. To coordinate federal, state and local law enforcement efforts relating to health care fraud and abuse with respect to health plans;
  2. To conduct investigations, audits, inspections, and evaluations relating to the delivery of and payment for health care in the United States;
  3. To facilitate enforcement of all applicable remedies for such fraud; and
  4. To provide education and guidance regarding complying with current health care law. “

Imagine that you have the full force of the Federal Government tracking you as a health care professional.  How confident are you that you are doing everything correctly? We are responsible for complying with health care laws and regulations.

It’s unfortunate, but there are many therapists that still struggle with how to bill appropriately and will just take the word of another health care provider instead of looking up the rules and regulations.

“Relators’ Payments: $262,095,000…are funds awarded to private persons who file suits on behalf of the Federal Government under the qui tam (whistleblower) provisions of the False Clams Act”

In my opinion, this is where it gets interesting.  If anyone sees an injustice of abuse or fraud and reports it to the government, the government may pay that person(s) a percentage of what is recovered from the abusing person or company.

About 10% of what was recovered was paid out to individuals and groups that reported this fraud.

Someone is hitting the lottery by doing the right thing and reporting on those that are taking advantage of the system or are ignorant of the rules of the system.

“The return on investment (ROI) of the HCFAC program over the last three years is $4.20 returned for every $1.00 expended.”

If you are the federal government, “would you put more or less money into trying to recover more money from those committing fraud or abuse?”

I don’t see these recovery attempts to slow down over the years.

“Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT)…The Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams are a key component of Heat.  The mission of Heat is:

  1. To marshal significant resources across government to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid  programs and crack down on the fraud perpetrators who are abusing the system and costing us all billions of dollars.
  2. To reduce health care costs and improve the quality of care by riding the system of perpetrators who are preying on Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.
  3. To highlight best practices by providers and public sector employees who are dedicated to ending waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare.
  4. To build upon existing partnerships between DOJ and HHS, such as our Medicare Fraud Strike force Teams, to reduce fraud and recover taxpayer dollars. “

If you are in healthcare…are you listening?!

Does this sound personal?

This is to crack down on perpetrators costing us billions of Dollars.

“DOJ and HHS have expanded data sharing and improved information sharing procedures in order to get critical data and information into the hands of law enforcement to track patterns of fraud an database and increase efficiency in investigating and prosecuting complex health care fraud cases…enables the DOJ and HHS to efficiently identify and target the worst actors in the system.”

As a therapist, you should be shaking in your boots…if you are breaking the rules.  When the DOJ gets involved, it gets serious.

If you aren’t sure if you are one of the “worst actors in the system” you should check out the statistics.

Scary statistics for some

“In January and February 2017, 4 defendants pled guilty…conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering…submit false claims to Medicare and Medicaid for among other things, fraudulent physical and occupational therapy services…patients received medically unnecessary services that were later falsely billed to Medicare and Medicaid…totaling over $55 million were submitted to Medicare and Medicaid in connection with the scheme”

This may be more than most people can perceive regarding fraud, but it doesn’t always start this way.  I’ve heard that it starts with overcharging by a couple of minutes and when a person doesn’t get caught, then the billing becomes more and more unethical.  Before you know it, the person is billing for thousands of dollars of services that weren’t actually performed.

“In March 2017, an owner of several physical and occupational therapy clinics in the Central District of California was sentenced to 5 years and 3 months in prison after pleading guilty to health care fraud conspiracy…ordered to pay more than $2.4 million in restitution to Medicare…instructed therapists and others to bill Medicare for physical and occupational therapy services that were medically unnecessary and not provided”

This is unfortunately all to common.  I received calls just in the past year from PT;s in Minneapolis, Houston, NYC, and San Diego describing similar situations.  This is happening all across the country, but very few people are saying anything about it.  It is much easier to ask opinions of others that have no vested interest in the topic than it is to actually call the compliance officer for the company or call the office of inspector general.

“In July 2017…a 2-count indictment against 5 high-billing medical professionals who worked at a network of Brooklyn-area clinics where patients were paid illegal kickbacks in return for subjecting themselves to purported physical and occupational therapy, diagnostic testing and other medical services.”

Kickbacks are illegal.  Kickbacks come in many forms.  Money is the easy one, but there are others.  I’ve heard of free sports tickets, free trips to medical conferences, paying patients to show up for sessions, waiving co-pays for all patients in order to keep them in the clinic, etc. etc. etc.

If you are a patient, this is illegal and needs to be reported.  If you are a therapist, this is illegal and needs to be reported.

“In October 2016, the owner and medical director of Christian Home Health Agency in New Orleans were sentenced to 8 years and 6 years in prison, respectively, after being convicted of health care fraud for billing Medicare for home health services that were not medically necessary or were not provided.”

People go to prison.  Some worry about whether they will be shunned by their job, so they don’t report the wrongs noted in the clinic.  Some people worry about whether they will lose their job, so they don’t report it.  People are going to prison.  Jobs come and go, but time served isn’t something that one can just walk away from.  Walk away from a negative situation while you still have time…or you may find yourself doing time.

To see the report in whole click here

To learn more click here.

Burnout in Canadian physios

Dr. Vince Gutierrez, PT, cert. MDT3 Comments on Burnout in Canadian physios

This post may be the most important post that I have done in the past year.  This topic has piqued my interest since a person on a PT FaceBook page wrote about regretting becoming a PT.

My passion for this profession has grown in the 11 years since starting the profession.  I never…ever…thought that I would be able to impact people from all over the world with my content, but it is happening.  I never thought that I would be voted among the most influential therapists, but it is happening.  I laughed the first time that someone told me that they follow my content, but it is happening more and more.

This profession is awesome…if you let it be.  This profession can be very destructive to those in the profession…if you let it be.

Today’s post will cover burnout and will take quotes from the paper “Burnout Among Alberta Physiotherapists”.

“Burnout is defines as ‘…a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who work with people in some capacity.'”

Is this the healthcare practitioner that you want as a patient?

Is this the healthcare practitioner that you signed up to be when you graduated from PT school?

No?  Well then what are you going to do about it?

If you don’t make a change in your life situation, then life situations won’t change around you.

I have more zeal for my profession now than I did 10 years ago, 5 years ago and even 2 months ago.  I am meeting new people on social media and engaging in meaningful conversations with the “big dawgs” of the profession.  You know what…so can you!  You just have to take that first step from behind the keyboard or phone and just reach out.  Everyone that I have interacted with, from across the world, has been very awesome to talk to and at no point did I ever feel like I was a burden or a vampire on their energy or time.

These relationships help to prevent emotional exhaustion for me.

I love people! Really, I do…most of the time at least.  I don’t understand the depersonalization portion of burnout, because we signed up for working with people.  This is an inherent part of the job.

Reduced personal accomplishment….hmmm…what do I say about this?

This is inherent.  I don’t understand how an external force can allow for reduced personal accomplishment.  Each day we have choices to make.  One choice could be to stay in the situation that you are in, but another could be to just make a different decision.  I have worked with many people that weren’t satisfied with their job or their career, but when asking them why don’t do something different, the answer was always the same…I can’t afford to.

When the money becomes to good to leave, there is a problem.  When the money over rides personal accomplishment and satisfaction, there is a problem.  The problem is that the person may no longer recognize the person looking back at him in the mirror.  I’ve made 6 figures in this profession.  I took a major pay cut and essentially started over.  I have to work multiple jobs in order to try to accomplish a goal of being my own boss and creating an army of PT’s that have similar goals and wants in the profession.  I will try to keep this dream alive as long as possible.  This is what I am trying to accomplish.

“The concept of work engagement is also relevant and is considered the opposite of burnout. Individuals may demonstrate a high degree of burnout if they report high levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and low levels of personal achievement.”

here is so much that I struggle with in these papers.  I come from a blue collar family.  My dad served as a Medic in the 101st Airborne during the Vietnam War.  When he returned home, he went to work as a laborer putting in water and sewer lines.  He nearly died multiple times at his job and he showed up he next day.  He had multiple broken bones from accidents and he showed up the next day.  Work ethic seems to be a lost trait.  For years, I just put my head down and worked.  I made my first boss look good.  I made my second boss look good.  At not time did I ever worry about making myself look good.  I always assumed that if I made the organization look good that I would reap the benefits.

I had to leave my last job because there was too much of a gap between the highest producer and the lowest producer not only in terms of productivity, but also in terms of patient satisfaction and outcomes.  That’s when I realized that I could no longer continue to work for the same company and decided it was time to put my work ethic to use for my family and my community.

This is work engagement.  When I realized that I needed to shift places of employment, I really learned about professional engagement.  In the year of deciding to leave the comfort of a fairly high paying hospital, I since became one of the most influential people of 2017, simply by putting my head down and working.  I am hosting my first CEU course in the next month and I have found a way to piece together enough hours through other opportunities to cover the lost income from leaving the high paying cushy job.  I will continue to put my head down and work.   I feel like I am accomplishing more at this point in my career than I did during the previous decade.

“Research has demonstrated that burnout and work engagement are negatively correlated”

This is not earth shattering information, but serves to demonstrate that loving your job and actively engaging your work can combat depersonalization and emotional exhaustion.  My previous cushy job had me working from 9:30-6 M-F without any forced weekends or need for overtime.  I was paid higher than the median salary, but I realized that the company as a whole was full of donkeys.  This is a Dave Ramsey reference.  Don’t get me wrong, my immediate team had some thoroughbreds, but they were definitely outnumbered by… you guessed it!

I saw myself climbing the ladder at this location and when I got near the top rung, there was no place left to grab onto.  Some of the people that had the position that I was gunning for had no intention of retiring.  At that point, I knew that if I stayed it would only have been for the $$$$$.

“37.3% of survey respondents were estimated to demonstrate a high degree of burnout based on thier EE (emotional exhaustion) subscale sore.”

Overall, the scores for burnout were average to low, but there were some aspects of the survey that demonstrated high burnout levels.  Being emotionally exhausted is a topic that was recently discussed in a FB post.  One PT posted that he was emotionally drained from the treatment of patients.  This is an issue and should throw up a flag for some employers.  When looking at work engagement and burnout being negatively correlated, there is research that states that high burnout rates may lead to compromised care.  Hopefully, this is actually a concern, but in reality I’ve learned that many corporate based therapy clinics care more about the Benjamins than patient outcomes.

“Respondents 61 years of age and older reported statistically significantly lower mean EE (emotional exhaustion) scores than respondents in other age categories…there was a decreasing trend in depersonalization scores with increasing experience”

There is a light at the end of the tunnel…and it’s not an oncoming train! If you can make it in this field for at least 30 years, then you will no longer let it get to you.  (I’m trying to make a funny).  Why should we have to wait until almost retirement age before we experience less emotional exhaustion and depersonalization.  I have personally seen this in practice, but from my experience, it is due to the therapist just not caring as much.  It’s like some of them have started counting down the days to retirement.  I’ve seen therapists that are more focused on the upcoming vacation than they are on the patient in the present.  They anticipate the vacation for weeks and then leave for a week or two and when they return they talk about it for two months until they start to anticipate the next vacation.  Work is just a way to pass the time while waiting for vacation.  Nothing wrong with that if it’s your style, but that’s not the Doctor that I want treating me!

We have to do better, otherwise the newbies in the profession won’t last until they can reach the age in which they can stop caring about the stresses of the profession.

There were some flow sheets from the paper that I will put in at the end.  I highly recommend reading this paper as a whole if you are interested in burnout.

“The most commonly reported symptoms of burnout related to fatigue and exhaustion”

It’s not uncommon to hear that therapists are staying after hours to complete documentation.  If you are a patient and you have read this far…kudos to you.  After your visit with a PT, the note may take anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes to complete.  If the therapist is spending 100% of the time with you, then the note will have to be completed after you leave.  If the therapist is seeing 12 patients per day, then there could be as much as 2-3 hours of paperwork left at the end of the day.  In many places, this time is unpaid since it is part of the salary.  If it is paid, then it may count against the therapist because the time is “unproductive”, which means that the company is not making any money although they are paying a therapist to work for that time period.  This is a no-win for the therapist…unless they are over 61 years-old, of course.

“Respondents identified many perceived work-related causes of burnout including work overload, unrealistic expectations, lack of recognition from management and client demands.”

Ours is a profession that is consistently ranked in the top 10 professions in the country.  Why would there be people feeling burned out?

We get into this profession with dreams of helping people and fixing the world.  Those dreams are quickly crushed when corporate greed takes precedence over patient care.  It’s not uncommon to see a therapist trying to manage the circus of “treating” (I use that term loosely here) multiple patients at once.  I have talked to therapist that take pride in “treating” 30 patients per day.  I don’t know how much “treatment” actually gets accomplished when there are three patients in the clinic at the same time.  They actually wear it like a  badge of honor.  sometimes these therapists don’t understand that specific insurance companies require that a patient be treated one-on-one.  This means that the therapist is legally required to only charge the patient for the time that the therapist is actually working with the patient.  We are not allowed to charge insurance companies for having a technician (usually a high school or college that wants to be a therapist).

Patients: If you are unsure if the person treating you should be treating you, simply ask if the person has a license

Therapists: if you are allowing technicians to treat patients…why? Does it benefit you, corporate PT or the patient? If you can answer the patient, I follow with one more question…Is there ever a time in which you believe that the patient is in better hands with an unlicensed professional than with you?

Unrealistic expectations? Never!

I’ve seen therapist that are expected to do their paperwork at home for 2-3 hours per night.  I used to be one of those therapists.  You essentially are working 60 hour weeks for 40 hour pay.

If a patient is doing well and is ready for discharge, good luck with that.  There is pressure from some supervisors to keep patients longer than they need to be in therapy.  This too is illegal, but I hear about it on a monthly basis from therapists all over the country.

Client demands! The client is the boss.  There are very few demands from the client that we shouldn’t attempt to accommodate. The chief demand is accessibility.  Patients want access to therapists essentially around the clock.  This is to be expected in a social driven by social media and access to news/information and advice.

“…burnout prevention…maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and the importance of social relationships.  Within the work environment, flexible hours, career change, positive workplace relationships and continuing education were perceived to help prevent burnout”

All you new grads………

Re-read that paragraph!

Get out there an move! Be an example that your patients can follow.  It will not only give you more authority with your patients, but it may save you from burning out in the long term.

Flexible hours are a plus, but the positive workplace relationships is what kept me in a position for 10 years.  I was able to work with the thoroughbreds for a majority of my career.  I started at that location taking a pay cut from the previous job because I was impressed with some of the people with whom I would be working side-by-side.

Recommendations for employers:

identify burnout early

improve communitcation

address flexible work hours

provide recognition

provide professional development

These are paraphrased from the article and I find some of them overkill.  Zig Ziglar repeatedly stated that people would quit jobs because they were underappreciated.  I have never felt this way in my over a decade long career.  I have always been the work horse in the company, whichever company I worked for, and have never felt unappreciated.

Work hours are important for family and life balance, but goals have to be determined.  If work-life balance is the chief goal, then the flexible hours are extremely beneficial.  If work and learning your craft is important then so be it and make your choice from there.

This is by far and away the most important post that I have done in the previous 2 years of posting.

I hope that all those that read this learn from this and don’t allow themselves to get eaten up by this profession and fall to the wayside due to burnout.

Excerpts from:

Bainbridge L, Davidson K, Loranger L. Burnout Among Alberta Physiotherapists: A White Paper. Physiotherapy Alberta. 2017:

It’s how winning is done!

Dr. Vince Gutierrez, PT, cert. MDTLeave a Comment on It’s how winning is done!

“…distress among clinicians had been understood primarily through psychological concepts such as stress and burnout, which, although relevant, were not sufficient.”

Part of the reason that burnout is not purely psychological is because this model dictates that the person doesn’t have the tolerance for the mental aspect of the game that is being played.

My game of choice is physical therapy.  Burnout is happening in this profession and it still baffles me at times, but I am starting to have a more thorough understanding of it as I apply research from other sectors to our profession.  For instance, there are therapists that pride themselves on treating multiple patients per hour.  Some therapists are able to handle the load of multiple patients, but once they understand the purpose of treating multiple patients at once, said therapist may no longer feel proud of doing this.  Some clinics need to treat multiple patients per hour to keep the doors open, which is noble for the therapist to feel like he/she is greatly helping the clinic, whereas others are doing it only to fatten a pocketbook.

“shortages of resources, such as shortages of time and staff, led to dispiritedness, a lack of respect, and an absence of recognition for both patients and staff, all of which severely diminished the ability of staff to provide high-quality care.”

In healthcare, it’s all about how much work can be done in a specific time period.  This is measured by patients seen/hour or units billed/hour or dollars made/day.  We are always being asked to do more with less.  Guess what? Us and almost every other industry out there.  This is not just healthcare, but in a limited scope its what we focus on here.  Because of this, some may feel unappreciated and believe that the big bosses (administration) don’t see our struggles.  We can either play the victim or we can take action.

I don’t know if I agree with the last part of the statement “diminished the ability” etc.  The ability has not changed.  The skills have not changed.  The personal drive should not have changed.  I have worked in environments where morale was down because of this exact scenario and still never understood it.

We make choices everyday.  We made a choice when entering this profession that we would place the patient’s needs above all else.  I made that choice.  I have to live with that choice and can’t allow other outside influences to impede the decision that I made.

I think that more in the healthcare profession need to go back and examine their personal mission. Mine is short and sweet.

“The consequences of moral distress for nurses and other health care providers include feelings of anger, frustration, guilt, and powerlessness.”

I’ve seen this firsthand.  People stop caring.  It’s sad to walk around in an environment where the employees don’t feel heard.  If things in an specific environment always remain the same, then where is the impetus for change? Are you a flea?

“…moral distress can also occur when clinicians internalize external constraints to such a point that their own moral values begin to shift, causing them to disengage morally, compromise their integrity, and possibly engage in harmful practice.”

I have had conversations with those that enforce the rules (read that as members of the department of justice) and there was something said that has stuck with me all these years. To paraphrase: people don’t start out with the intention to deceive, but they may slightly overbill every once in a while.  If they don’t get caught, then there is no external pressure not to do it and then other vices take over such as greed.

Understand the why behind actions and it is easier to understand the actions.

“…moral resilience, which can be understood as ‘the capacity of an individual to sustain or restore [his or her] integrity in response to moral complexity, confusion, distress, or setbacks.'”

Some people are just stronger.  That’s not wrong to say.  It holds true in many aspects of life.  I am a bigger guy, so I am in the bottom half of runners.  I’m just not a strong runner.  I have seen people get shot.  I’ve had friends killed.  I’ve had family in prison.  I’ve seen bad stuff.  I have a stronger resilience to bad stuff than others and I don’t tend to panic quickly.  I know…I know… “I have a high pain tolerance.”  I hear it all the time from patients, but I believe that my moral compass is on point because of my experiences.  I don’t believe that there are many in healthcare with my experiences.

Question of the day:

Do you have moral resilience?  This means can you stand up for what you believe in or are you going to get knocked down and not have the ability to stand up for yourself again?

 

Excerpts take from:

Rodney PA. WHat We Know About Moral Distress: Looking over three decades of research and exploring ways to move the concept forward. AJN. 2017;117(2):S7-S10.

 

 

Moral Distress and Moral Resilience

Dr. Vince Gutierrez, PT, cert. MDTLeave a Comment on Moral Distress and Moral Resilience

“At the individual level moral distress may cause burnout, lack of empathy, and job dissatisfaction, while at the organizational level it may lead to reduced quality of care, increased staff turnover, and poor patient outcomes.”

Moral distress is essentially knowing the right action to take, but being unable to take that action due to external conflicts.  For instance, in therapy we may believe that a patient only requires one visit per week, but the corporation may place pressure on the therapist to see the patient more often during the week.  Again, this decision may be due to corporate pressures to make more $$$.  If you are the therapist, you are now in the middle of doing the right thing by the patient (at least what the therapist believes to be the right thing) and doing the right thing by the company.

You can see a quick link here speaking to some of the pressures felt by staff PT’s to keep patients longer than “needed”, in the therapist opinion.

When employees feel this pressure, they start to believe that the initial reason for getting into healthcare, “to help people”, becomes trumped by the need to make more money for the company.  This difference of personal moral code and corporate code has been shown to lead to moral conflict.

Can you see how this could lead to staff turnover? Of course, when the therapist’s personal mission is not in alignment with corporate mission, it may cause the therapist to find a new job that best matches personal mission.  It has been said that Millenials are very concerned about a corporate mission matching a personal mission.

One can logically make the jump from a lack of empathy (not listening or understanding the patient’s position) and job dissatisfaction to worsening clinical outcomes.  All of this makes sense to me.

“Generally, resilience refers to ‘the ability to recover or healthfully adapt to challenges, stress, adversity, or trauma'”

I love using this when talking to patients about tissue ability to absorb force and unexpected events.  When talking about moral issues, it has to do with a person or therapist’s ability to absorb stress without significant setbacks in emotional or physical well-being.

The article went on to create recommendations for addressing moral distress and moral resilience.

“Institution leaders need to value and create a culture of ethical practice and commit resources to support individuals in cultivating moral resilience”

Many statements can sound great, but creating a culture of ethical practice may be near impossible in all practices.  From the top there is a culture that leaks downwards onto the worker bees.  This company will assume the “culture” of the owner, if not in whole, at least an iteration of the owner.  This is where I believe that having a thorough understanding of one’s own personal mission is vital because otherwise one may assume another’s mission and waste years or decades on a mission that one doesn’t own.

“Encourage accreditation bodies to mandate that curricula for all health care professions include content addressing ethics, moral distress, and moral resilience”

I fully disagree!  Whaaat?!

I don’t think that the curricula should include ethical content, but ethics has to be embedded within all of the curricula. Here’s my rendition of an ideal program set-up.  The ideas on the periphery can always change, but they must center around creating an ethical professional.

ethical curriculum

The ethical issues that are noted across the lifespan will differ and the ethical issues noted in business are a completely different animal.  Because of this, it is important that topics are brought to the students attention so that they have some background from which to make a decision.

I also don’t think that this should be taught by the professors at the universities.  In terms of treating in the trenches, most of academia that I come in contact with haven’t practiced full time in a clinic in a long time or ever.  Because of that, there is a lack of “street cred”.  It’s hard to discuss and own a topic if there is no experience in the topic.

We had a teacher in PT school that would always say refer to Reese and Bandy (authors of a book), whenever we brought a question.  At first, I thought that she wanted us to obtain the answers for ourselves, but over time I learned that the professors (plural) teaching that class 1. didn’t know what was in the book and 2. couldn’t rationalize the ideas that were in the book.  They had me refer to a different teacher altogether in order to have him explain the concepts in the book that were contradictory.

Ethics has to be taught from experience…in my opinion.

Excerpts from:

Rushton CH, Schoonover-Shoffner K, Kennedy SM. Executive Summary: Transforming Moral Distress into Moral Resilience in Nursing. AJN. 2017;117(2):52-56.

Why Rush

Dr. Vince Gutierrez, PT, cert. MDTLeave a Comment on Why Rush

I came across this quote today in Black Belt Magazine. (Read topics from other fields because you will expand your knowledge and may find information that applies to your mastery).

This quote is perfect for the profession of physical therapy.

Are you in this profession for the long term?

If so, study every day. Learn a little bit every day. Master a topic every day. You have time to reach that mastery. You have you’re entire career to become a master at physical therapy.

If this is a stepping stone to something else (I ain’t gonna hate ya for it), then why bother to master anything at all?

If your goal is to go into the business of owning a clinic, teaching courses, becoming a professor, then it doesn’t matter if you “master the profession”. It only matters that you master that which is your goal.

Happy thought for the day.

Moral Distress

Dr. Vince Gutierrez, PT, cert. MDTLeave a Comment on Moral Distress

“Unfortunately, information about moral distress and its consequences is often inadequate in healthcare provider education.”

This topic of moral distress was never spoken of in our physical therapy program, but I am unsure if this has changed with time.  Moral distress occurs when someone knows the morally right thing to do for that person, but the individual feels like they are unable to do the right thing for one of many reasons.

These are topics that are not addressed well enough in PT school.  If a person doesn’t have strong moral resolve, then the person may work to appease the reason that he/she feels constrained instead of fulfilling his/her own moral code.

 

“Moral distress as ‘psychological response to morally challenging situations such as those of moral constraint or moral conflict or both’…experience moral distress and burnout in situations such as patients receiving non-beneficial treatment, patient suffering, care not consistent with patients’ preferences, lack of administrative support, perceived powerlessness, and competing obligations.”

For those that are new grads reading this…WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF HEALTH CARE!

Burnout is a topic that has apparently been taboo to talk about in previous years or there hasn’t been a platform in which healthcare practitioners felt comfortable releasing their thoughts.  I can’t remember in my career, albeit only 11 years, in which burnout has been such a large topic as it has been in recent months.

Moral conflict can happen from providing care that is not beneficial.  WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD ANYONE EVER GIVE THIS TYPE OF CARE?!

Enter Shane McMahon

Unfortunately, there have been many therapists that I have spoken to across the country that are performing treatments that they do not personally believe to help the patient, but are trying to stay out of trouble with higher-ups in the company that they are employed.

 

If you are a patient reading this, close your eyes for this and skip to the next paragraph…Companies are trying to get their hands in your pockets.  (YOU WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO READ THAT!)

“Poor work environments…associated with a higher frequency of nurse-reported healthcare-associated infections. Persistent moral distress can progress to burnout, which is also associated with increased incidence of hospital-acquired infections.”

So…who do you want treating you? Do you want to be treated in an environment that increases your likelihood of developing an infection?

If not…pay attention to your surroundings.  Are your healthcare professionals happy, energized, empowered and fulfilled?  If so, you are probably in a good spot.

“Nurse leaders provided insights on risk factors that increase the possibility of moral distress. System-level factors such as work environment, lack of strong ethics resources, and heavy workloads prevailed.”

If you are practicing in healthcare, does this sound familiar.  A lack of ethical resources and heavy workloads describes most institutions in which I have worked and hear from others in the field of PT.  At no time should money trump patient care, but it happens all too frequently.

I get it…I am trying to run a business.  I have heard the phrases that we need to keep the lights on.  We need to make sure that we are making a small profit.  I get it, but at no point in time should we allow greed to take precedence over patient care.

Seek it out

Understand it

Pay attention to workplace climate

Promote receptive environment and engagement

Open opportunity for dialogue

Reflect, Evaluate, Revise

Transform Environment

Link to article

Thanks for taking the time to read this synopsis.  It would mean a lot to me if you would share this for others to see the state of healthcare in today’s environment.

Burnout

Dr. Vince Gutierrez, PT, cert. MDTLeave a Comment on Burnout

“The interest of this project is assessing the prevalence of BOS (Burnout Syndrome) among physiotherapists who work in the Estremadura region (Spain)”

 

I can already hear the arguments from other PT’s, “Why are you reading research from Spain?” and the answer is because we don’t have enough research from America.  We will have to try to extrapolate some of the information from this article to see if it applies to our work environment.  In the end, people are people and no one article will apply to everyone, but maybe some bits of knowledge can come out of this article to help many.

 

Let’s start with burnout.  It exists in healthcare and this sector has one of the highest rates of burnout among sectors (think like education, healthcare, transportation, law enforcement etc).

 

From the other research articles that I am reading, burnout is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and low professional (sense of) accomplishment.

 

“LPA (low professional accomplishment) is clearly higher in the case of split shift working day as well as in private practice”

 

A split shift, in this study is defined as just that, a shift that is non-consecutive. For instance, there was one job that I was interested in that would take a two-hour lunch in order for the people working there to go to the gym next door.  As much as I was in favor of it, it would have meant another hour away from my family…so I politely turned it down.

 

Private practice is private practice.  We have this here in the states.  Private practice is traditionally seen as a capitalistic venture, in which the owners are trying to make as much money as possible.

 

“…more than 40 hours of direct attention (patient contact) is linked to higher scores in EE (emotional exhaustion), and that more than 20 patients treated per day is associated with higher scored in both EE and Dp (depersonalization)”

 

Are you surprised?

 

We treat sick people day in and day out.  We treat people in pain day in and day out.  We are constantly taking the burden of others in trying to help these folks.  It can be exhausting.  The other option that could happen when a person becomes emotionally exhausted is to just “shut it down” and then depersonalize work and simply “go through the motions.”

 

Is this what you want in a health care provider?

Be on the lookout when you go to therapy to see if the therapist is seeing one patient at a time or more than one patient at a time because it can start to give you insight into the PT’s mindset.

“Physiotherapists included in our study had a moderate level of BOS (burnout syndrome) in its three dimensions: EE (emotional exhaustion), Dp (depersonalization) and LPA (low professional accomplishment).”

Although I don’t believe that I fit into this category, it is becoming more obvious from talking to other PT’s in the profession that this is a major problem that will have to be addressed in the not-so-distant future.  Think about it! The population is becoming older, we have a shortage of PT’s and there will be a higher demand for our services.  There are only so many of us to go around and if the PT works for a company that values $$$ over quality, then the PT’s will be asked to see more and more patients per day.  This appears to be leading the charge for burnout, based on the conversations that I have with other PT’s.

 

I did an informal survey on FB to determine the primary cause of burnout among the professionals and the primary answer was productivity demands.  For those of you that aren’t in healthcare, this means how many patients are you billing per hour.  WE DON’T MAKE WIDGETS!!!! We can’t treat people like WIDGETS!  It makes sense that some PT’s are getting their ethical buttons pushed and start to depersonalize.  One PT that I spoke to literally said that he was exhausted from TREATING PATIENTS!

 

Are you kidding me?!

 

It’s only getting worse out there.  As a patient you need to know what’s happening in the profession and choose a PT that is giving you undivided attention when you are in the clinic (THAT’S WHAT YOU ARE PAYING FOR!) and as a PT, you have a choice to work in a place that is asking more from you than you can deliver or you can leave and find something different.

 

“…the age of physiotherapists does not seem to have any influence in the syndrome. However, there is an adjustment period, at the beginning of the physiotherapist’s professional development, where they are especially vulnerable to the development of BOS (burnout syndrome).”

 

Old and young alike feel stress.  We all have ethical buttons.  Some that have swam the waters of this profession for years have learned to live with it, but those coming out are facing challenges that are considered taboo to speak of in school.  It’s only due to social media that these topics are becoming more mainstream for students to learn about.

 

“…physiotherapists who work split shifts and more than 38.5 hours per week are those who present the highest level of BOS (burnout).”

 

I don’t know any PT’s, minus those that don’t choose to work full-time, that are consistently putting in less than 39 hours per week.  I am personally putting in a ton of hours per week of direct patient care and indirect care through notes, blogging and doing videos.

 

“Burnout syndrome reaches its highest levels in those who dedicate more than 40 hours per week of direct attention to patients…”

 

Should we even bring up student loan debt?

 

If you want a comfortable/stable life, then you will work more than 40 hours per week.  Otherwise, you will pay your student loans off over decades.  That ball and chain will always be there.  Click  here to learn more about the ball and chain.

 

I personally receive income from three different companies, which I wished that I did sooner instead of waiting almost 10 years to work multiple jobs.  On the flip side though, had I done this sooner, then I may have experienced burnout and not be in the position that I am in today.

 

“…more than 20 patients per day have the highest levels of EE (emotional exhaustion), Dp (depersonalization) and BOS (burnout)”

 

PTs: Does this fit the description of the person and therapist that you want to be? If so, go forth and treat 2+ patients per hour.  Just know that you are making that decision and there is no sympathy for you in the end.

 

Patients: Does this describe the person that you want treating you? Emotionally exhausted, depersonalized and burnt out? If not, look around.  How many patients are there per therapists.

 

YOU ARE NOT A WIDGET!

 

Excerpts from:

Gonzalez-Sanchez B, Lopez-Arza MVG, Montanero-Fernandez J et al. Burnout syndrome prevalence in physiotherapists. Rev Assoc Med Bras. 2017;63(4):361-365

You got a choice: right or not so right

Dr. Vince Gutierrez, PT, cert. MDTLeave a Comment on You got a choice: right or not so right

As a father and husband, the topic of ethics and morals has a deeper meaning for me.  I need to make choices that will allow me to sleep at night.  I can’t afford to be passive in my profession because I have multiple sets of eyes watching my every move.  The best way to influence the future is through decisions that I am making today.  My wife may not like that I am posting this picture, but it’s done with love so that should override all.

Enjoy today’s article.

Moral Distress is knowing the right thing to do but being unable to do them because of internal and external constraints.

Flood gates are opening now. This profession is full of good people that want to do what is right, but are torn between collecting a paycheck or doing what is right for the patients.  This is a huge deal!  I hear from therapists all over the country that after long conversations just shrug their shoulders and say, “what can you do?”

 

What you can do is stand up for what is right.  In print, it doesn’t come across as well, but either stand up for what you believe in or bend over and take it.  If you chose to bend over, just know that you have a choice! You are not forced to make the decisions that you are making! There are other places that offer a paycheck!

 

I walked out on a job at lunch, albeit not the most professional thing to do but the right thing for me, because I could never wrap myself around to performing the acts that the corporation wanted me to perform.

 

The meek shall inherit the land…don’t take this literally.  Stand up for what is right for the patients! Stand up for what is right for the patients! Stand up for what is right for the patients!

 

The profession of physical therapy has the potential to be a great career choice, but unfortunately so many are experiencing burnout, helplessness, and exhaustion because of this moral distress.   Can we stop doing this to ourselves?

33% of nurses will consider leaving their profession because of moral distress

I’ve already read about PT’s leaving the profession and spoke with PT’s that left because of this issue.  I don’t feel bad for them.  They stood up and walked out.  That was right for them.  I feel sorry for the people that don’t have the ability or internal strength to make that decision, but instead struggle in silence.

“When students encounter microethical dilemmas, the risk for moral distress is present because they are confronted with making a decision between two choices: speak up and advocate for quality patient care or remain quiet and permit the substandard practice to occur.”

I left this in as a quote because it goes well beyond schooling. If you are a member of the public and reading this…I apologize for what I will say.  If you are in healthcare, you already know this.  Shady stuff is happening in healthcare.  People are asked to do things that aren’t ethical.

example 1

example 2

example 3

I got tired of copying and pasting, but I could do this all day

Those choices never go away.  If anything, the chasm between the choices grows with each decision made.  For instance, standing up for one thing, in my opinion, will allow you to find your voice and draw your line in the sand.  It will be easier to draw that line and that line will become deeper each time it is drawn.  You learn more about yourself from standing up, which makes your ethical radar stronger over time.  It will become more apparent when your ethical button gets pushed and again you will have to make a decision.  Long story short, it never gets easier.

Top two reasons for having ethical dilemmas among nursing students was 1. I wasn’t in charge and 2. I didn’t have enough information

Unless you are the founder or an executive, I got news for you   YOU AIN’T IN CHARGE! This feeling of being subordinate never goes away until you reach the top of the mountain and there is only so much room at the top.

I get that some people don’t want to make decisions because they feel that they don’t have enough information, but there is a solution to that…go get the information needed in order to make a decision.

It’s not hard people…it takes a little more work.  As a PT, we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to enter this profession.  We study for 7 years to become doctors.  No one is afraid of work.  We may be afraid of learning the information because then it will force us to make a decision that makes us uncomfortable.

It’s my opinion, based on multiple conversations with other professionals, that there are a lot of PT’s that are comfortable.  Unfortunately, those that are comfortable also have a lot to complain about.

Thanks for reading.  I appreciate that you took time out of your day to read my rants and hear my thoughts.

 

Excerpts for this blog were taken from:

Krautsched L, DeMeester DA, Orton V et al. Moral distress and Associated Factors Among Baccalaureate Nursing Students: A Multisite Descriptive Study. Nursing Education Perspectives. 2017;38(6):313-319.