Patient satisfaction with physiotherapists is not inferior to surgeons in an arthroplasty review clinic: non-inferiority study of an expanded scope model of care.

ConclusionThe satisfaction of patients attending a physiotherapy arthroplasty review clinic is not inferior to that of patients attending traditional surgeon clinics.What is known about the topic?A substitution model of care where an advanced practice physiotherapist reviews routine postarthroplasty patients instead of surgeons originated in the UK and has been adopted in Canada and Australia to address the increasingly overloaded public out-patient health services. Evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness has been demonstrated but, to the best of the authors' knowledge, only one paper has evaluated consumer engagement, and that paper was in a Canadian population.What does this paper add?This study evaluated the satisfaction of patients in an Australian public healthcare system and was able to demonstrate that patients seen by physiotherapists were no less satisfied than those seen by surgeons in traditional clinics. The findings support those reported in the Canadian study. This is an important step in the development and acceptance of these substitution model of care innovations locally.What are the implications for practitioners?The results of this study will provide an important addition to the evidence of the clinical efficacy of this model of care: that of consumer acceptance. This will assist with planning, expansion and rollout of similar initiatives in Australia. PMID: 33342461 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Australian Health Review - Category: Hospital Management Authors: Tags: Aust Health Rev Source Type: research