Podiatry with Physiotherapy

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This question was posed by Sabina in the Introductions forum. I have the same question as I am considering the possibility of a multidisciplinary foot clinic. My question is: How, in your experiences, do the practitioners work together? Do they simply have their own separate practices working in the same office and refer to each other? Or do some collaborate on services another way (i.e. offer services together)?

Thanks in advance for your information.

 

I run my practice out of a physiotherapy practice. The two practices run seperately but we inter-refer where necessary and also consult with each other regarding individual patient treatment issues.

Practicing sagittal plane facilitation biomechanics i ind a direct liason with the physio's I work with is vital and stimulating.

Graham

 

I work within a multidisciplinary clinic - essentially a physiotherpay and podiatry service under the one roof. Rather than officially refer to each other it has more of a 'share patients' feel to it, with joint sessions quite often - and constant interaction and feedback. Patients seem to love it, and from a clinician point of view it makes managing 'sports people' much easier.

Ian

 

Thanks for the replies. Could you please elaborate on how your clinics work. Maybe some examples would help me to get a better idea of things run. Ian, I am especially interested in what you may have to say. Your practice sounds very interesting. Could you also give some information on how you bill etc. with "joint sessions". BTW, I am a physiotherapist.

 

Footphysio,

All of our consulting rooms are all next to each other, and we have a large gym space which they all 'look onto' and which we all share. Heres a couple of examples of how it might work:

(1) An athlete who is self funding
-Books in with me for Podiatry assesssment/video gait analysis.
-Following analysis we discuss the benefit of concurrent physiotherapy (e.g. for tissue normalisation, proximal control etc)
-If a physio is available at the end of my session I will take the patient and personally introduce them - maybe with a very brief handover type discussion.
-They can then have a 20minute complimentary with the physio to have a more in depth chat about things if they wish. Alternatively it tends to act more like a 'name to a face' and they can book in for a full assessment at reception on their way out.
-At various points during their course of physio I will block out my diary and go and join the session as necessary (this is usually just billed to the patient as a physio session)

(2) Pt referred to physiotherapy by Consultant and has Private Medical Insurance (PMI)
-Physio decides podiatry input required and explains this to patient
-If physio has patient on the treadmill in the gym and I'm in the gym they will introduce me and ask my initial thoughts (or often call me into their room and ask me to quickly assess (often just a few tests such as determination of STJ axis deviation/Lunge/Supination Resistance etc) - Again only billed for the one session with the physio for this.
-If we agree more formal analysis required pt booked in with myself. [They can either self fund this or the physio can write back to the Consultant and then he/she can officially refer to me for gait analysis - silly hoop that PMI make us jump through]
-Alot of the time the physio will block out their diary and sit in with me and their patient during the podiatry session (Patient/PMI only billed for Podiatry session)

Hope that makes things more clear? Essentially if we a sharing a patient and we are both free then we join together for the appointment - the patient (or their PMI) only ever get billed for one clinician (whichever appointment they were booked in for). The patients like it and as I said previously it make our lives so much easier. Often I can be in the gym with one of my patients on the treadmill, and a few of the physios are also in there with their patients taking them through various rehab programmes - it has a really nice buzz to the place.

It has also been massively beneficial for me in understanding more proximal issues (and hopefully vice versa with the phyios and pathological foot mechanics). We often have time blocked out the diary for case conferences etc, and each take turns to do the in-house CPD to the rest of the team.

Ian