Home Health PT questions from a foreign trained PT

[TatsPT]

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Hi, Im a foreign trained PT and is about to start my career in home health PT in the US (Texas) this next few months. I was wondering a a few things and hope you can help me out. All my questions are On Average, since there are different situation and different factors to consider. Just a rough estimate would be fine.

1. How many patients do you treat in home health? I have a quota of 26 patients a week, im not sure if this is high or low.

2. How long does a usual treatment last?

3. I would be supervising PT assistants. Does that mean I should be there to oversee their entire treatment? or would I just be checking their patients out a few times? or do i have to visit them during treatment then observe for a whilethen go? Can you please provide a website or info that would help me understand on how a PT and PTA work in a HH setting.

4. How do I sign my name on documents. i think my company still uses papers. Do I sign it as "John smith, PT" only or do i need to indicate my license number below?

Any info you could give me would be a great help! Thanks in advance.

 

[jblil]

How many patients do you treat in home health?
Usually between 25 and 30 visits per week. Some visits will take longer (eval, start-of-care), some will be shorter (discharge).

How long does a usual treatment last?
45 mins on average. Some patients who are deeply deconditioned or who just got out of chemo may not be able to tolerate more than 30 mins.

Supervising PTAs
I do a "supervisory visit" once a month where I see the patient whom the PTA has been seeing. I ask the patients if the PTA has been attentive to their needs, etc. If you have good PTAs, this is a non-issue.

Signing documents
Just sign your name "John Smith, PT" unless your company requires otherwise.

A few things to watch out for:
- If you use a company car, do not exceed the speed limit. Those cars are often equipped with a bug that tracks your location and speed. Companies hate it when they get sued because you went over the speed limit, had an accident and killed somebody.
- If you see Medicare patients, log and report your time accurately. A colleague of mine made a false claim (claiming she was seeing a patient, while she wasn't) and got fired. Defrauding Medicare is serious stuff. Companies care less about the patients than about being sued.