Physical Therapy Accreditation - Term Paper Example

Physical Therapy Accreditation Report Abstract Physical therapists are now considered as professionals. While there is no clear delineation if physical therapy is a branch of medicine, historical facts seem to indicate so because, allegedly, ancient but highly intellectual physicians Hippocrates and Galenus were among the first physical therapy practitioners who advanced massage, hydrotherapy and other manual therapy techniques as early as about five hundred years before Christ was born. (What You Should Expect? Physical Therapy Alpharetta.). Still, there is no hard evidence to prove that the practice of physical therapy has any scientific basis although it is admitted that the discipline is sometimes collaborated with rehabilitation science. (MISSION STATEMENT. PHYSICAL THERAPY AND REHABILITATION SCIENCE. University of Iowa HEALTH CARE.). Before one can engage in the professional practice of physical therapy, he or she has to pass the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE) as required by federal law (Salisian, 2010). NPTE is developed and administered by the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy. (Welcome to the FSBPT Website.). A degree in physical therapy or equivalent education is a requisite before taking the NPTE. On top of those, there is the accreditation process for schools, training institutions or program executors where prospective physical therapists train or study. The said accreditation process is supervised by the Commission on Accreditation of Physical Therapy Education (or CAPTE) which, in turn, is appointed by the American Physical Therapy Association or APTA. CAPTE claims to be the only agency duly accredited by the Department of Education of the United States of America. (CAPTE. APTA). APTA, on the other hand, is a national professional organization of physical therapists. (About APTA. APTA American Physical Therapy Association.). Curiously enough, this critique is using the suggested modes of discipline of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in analyzing the accreditation reports of the CAPTE. The IOM is a non-profit non-governmental group which aims to provide advice and information to the public in an un-biased though authoritative fashion. (About the IOM.). Every state has its own regulations overseeing the physical therapy profession. Physical Therapy Accreditation Report The Purpose of this Critique Accreditation means approval. If a training institution, a school, or a program executor desires to be accredited by an office or agency or by any third party, it is to be understood that the accrediting office, agency or third party has standards or processes to observe and follow in deciding on the application for accreditation. Once the applicant passes those standards and processes, the accrediting office, agency or third party approves the application for accreditation. Approval will then mean that the training institution, school or program executor becomes accredited. In the present analysis, the accreditation process pertains to applications coming from the field of physical therapy. The one giving the accreditation, for the purpose of this paper, is the Commission on Accreditation of Physical Therapy Education or CAPTE. It has to be therefore presumed that CAPTE has sufficient qualifications, capabilities and credentials to be in a position to determine whether the applicant deserves to be approved or accredited as a qualified training institution, school or program executor. CAPTE has its own sets of rules, procedures, steps and methods in how to accredit a training institution, school or program executor. The purpose of this paper is to see if CAPTE’s rules, procedures, steps and methods are in accord with the three of the ten rules for redesigning health care suggested by the Institute of Medicine. The Accrediting Agency CAPTE has the self-imposed mission to serve the public. The service is geared to establish and apply standards for the assurance of quality and consistent enhancement in preparing physical therapists. Those standards must include education, research and practice, which are admittedly evolutionary. For its scope, CAPTE accredits professional programs in the U. S, for physical therapist at the master’s and doctoral levels and programs for physical therapist assistant at the associate degree level. CAPTE also accredits two physical therapist programs in Canada and one in Scotland. CAPTE meets twice a year, that is, one meeting in April and another in October. It appears that CAPTE is not exclusive to the American public. It is also accredits programs outside of the United States. This does not seem to be in consonance with public service in a strict sense and from the purview of the United States people. Fundamentally, CAPTE was a creation of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA for short). CAPTE functions independently of APTA although the board of directors of APTA appoints CAPTE. In sum, APTA is a seemingly institutionalized group of physical therapists within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States of America. It created CAPTE, which the board of directors of APTA appoints as its accrediting arm, that is, for the purpose of accrediting (a) institutions, which train physical therapists, (b) schools for physical therapists, and (c) any other entity, which undertakes programs for physical therapists. It is to be thus understood that the primary role of CAPTE is to improve the training, education and programs for physical therapists in the United States of America, which it does purportedly by accrediting under it (CAPTE) those training institutions, schools and program executors. In line with that, CAPTE is likewise supposed to have the indirect duty to see to it that these physical therapists are properly and adequately trained, schooled and prepared to become good, qualified and trusted physical therapists. As a matter of course, it must also be deemed that these physical therapists can then join the APTA roster although it appears that membership in the APTA is not mandatory in order that a physical therapist can exercise the profession. The circumstances mentioned above indicate that CAPTE is basically a business enterprise and not a public service agency. This characteristic becomes more evident in that it accredits not only training institutions, schools or program executors in the United States of America. Its accrediting authority transcends beyond the territory of the U. S. A. It is not therefore exclusively confined within the scope of the people of the United States of America. Hence, CAPTE is not focused to the public or the people of the United States of America. Considering this complex structure of CAPTE, there are serious doubts if it can adequately attend to the accreditation processes for schools, training institutions and program executors within the ambit of the authority of the United States federal government. In view of these primordial factors, it is with more reason to strongly suggest that there is a great need to review, check, audit and monitor the accreditation powers of CAPTE. The responsibilities to oversee, regulate and investigate CAPTE may well be assigned to the Institute of Medicine, which is part of the National Academies. While the National Academies is likewise not a public office, it was chartered under then United States President Abraham Lincoln and is tasked to perform the unparalleled public service or duty to give advice to the federal government of the United States of America and the public or people of the United States of America on matter appurtenant to science, engineering and medicine. (Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering and Medicine. THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES.). The accreditation process of CAPTE as defined in the preface portion of its accreditation handbook is too general and vague. The five steps which CAPTE enumerates are: (a) establish the standards or criteria that will be used to evaluate the institution or program, (b) the institution or program shall evaluate or study itself in preparation of the actual site visit by CAPTE, (c) a competent authority will evaluate the institution or program in order to verify if it meets the established standards or criteria, (d) a current list of institutions or programs which meet the established standards or criteria shall be published, and (e) the institution or educational program shall be periodically re-evaluated to verify whether it is consistent in complying with the established standards or criteria. Procedures outlined by CAPTE for the accreditation process as enumerated above are too broad and will just allow loose controls over applications for accreditation filed by the concerned training institutions, schools and program executors. Furthermore, the said five steps given by CAPTE can be abused or will be subject to the wide latitude of discretion of the persons or parties who will have charge over the accreditation process. In conclusion, and for the best interests of the public and federal government of the United States of America, it is the poignant recommendation of this paper that any training institution, school or program executor must comply with the three conditions defined by the Institute of Medicine mentioned earlier for purposes of accreditation. It is further strongly suggested that the accreditation process shall be handled by the United States Department of Education through its extension offices in the individual states. Private accreditation entities must be stopped being given recognition by any federal government office. Such a function will be too wide and too vast to handle. Instead, such kind of recognitions may instead be endorsed to the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy for its study and consideration. At any rate, recognition of a private accreditation entity does not have any legal binding effect. As a matter of fact, it can only sow confusion rather than clarification. Institute of Medicine In lieu of the CAPTE criteria, it is propositioned that the three principles laid down by the Institute of Medicine be supported and adopted by the physical therapy industry. The same will be briefly elucidated hereunder. For the purpose of this discussion, the training institution, school or program executor shall be likewise hereinafter referred to as the “applicant”. Evidence-based Decision Making The applicant has to demonstrate that its graduates have actually accomplished or achieved professionally in the field of physical therapy. This can be substantiated and validated by patient testimonials under oath. At this point, it may be worth to note that it was once generally thought of that physical therapy was a common sense physical treatment and needed no justification or explanation. However, recent perceptions have become different. Through gradual accumulation of knowledge in the training environment and in the actual engagement of the vocation in the field, positive results have been attained. That is public knowledge, which has won the trust of the public in relying on physical therapy as some kind of alternative treatment. Safety as a System Property The safety of the patients must always be the controlling factor. The applicant has to therefore prove that its trainings are focused such that the health of the patients is first protected. There can be no exploration of any physical therapy method, which has remained unproven as to its safety and effectiveness. This can be established by the applicant again via the submission of sworn statements from treated customers serviced by its graduates. Transparency of Available Information The applicant must indicate in its intention to be accredited that it has always mandated the policy of transparency to its students, trainees or program participants who have already completed their respective courses. This will mean that for every handled patient, there will be a memorandum of agreement whereby the method and performance of the therapy to be applied is stated together with the declaration that such method and performance have already been applied to a specified prior patient with the same predicament and that the said method and performance were safe and effective. Any tools, equipment or whatever paraphernalia used in the therapeutic methodologies must also have been stipulated. Competencies for the 21st Century Physical therapy has not yet been fully propagated and extensively instilled in the people’s mind as a profession. This is maybe due to the fact that it has quasi characteristics. It cannot be a totally medical undertaking. In the same manner, it cannot also be classified as a simple masseur vocation. Since physical therapists must be viewed and perceived as health professionals, their required competencies along with the guidelines for this relatively innovative career have to be identified and distinguished in duly deliberated legislation. References About APTA. APTA American Physical Therapy Association. Accessed March 11, 2010. Available at: http://www.apta.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=About_APTA&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=41&ContentID=23725 About the IOM. INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES. Accessed March 11, 2010. Available at: http://www.iom.edu/About-IOM.aspx/ Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering and Medicine. THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES. Accessed March 12, 2010. Available at: http://www.nationalacademies.org/about/ CAPTE. APTA. Accessed March 11, 2010. Available at: http://www.apta.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=CAPTE3&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=65&ContentID=49490. MISSION STATEMENT. PHYSICAL THERAPY AND REHABILITATION SCIENCE. University of Iowa HEALTH CARE. Accessed March 11, 2010. Available at: http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/physicaltherapy/ Salisian, Robin. (2010). How Do You Become a Pediatric Physical Therapist? Obtaining a Graduate Degree and Passing the National Physical Therapy Examination Are Steps to Becoming a Pediatric Physical Therapist. Accessed March 11, 2010. Available at: http://pdf.employmentcrossing.com/physicaltherapy/930001.pdf Welcome to the FSBPT Web Site. Accessed March 11, 2010. Available at: https://www.fsbpt.org/index.asp What You Should Expect? Physical Therapy Alpharetta. Accessed March 18, 2010. Available at: http://www.physicaltherapyalpharetta.com/physical-therapy-alpharetta-what-you-should-expect/ Read More