Rehab Select Blog

If recovery from orthopedic surgery, such as joint replacement or fracture repair, is a challenge you are facing or will soon face, you will surely be striving to get through the experience and back to normal as quickly as possible. If you have expressed that desire to your healthcare team, chances are that orthopedic rehabilitation has been suggested to you as a means of hurrying the process along. So does it really help? Can orthopedic rehabilitation speed your recovery?

If you have arthritis, whether you are newly diagnosed or a longtime sufferer, chances are good that your medical care team will refer you to orthopedic rehabilitation. The reason such referrals are so common is that good rehabilitation programs can help arthritis sufferers maintain or even improve joint function and control day-to-day symptoms of this potentially debilitating disease. So what can arthritis patients expect from orthopedic rehab?

Rehabilitative therapy is essential to successfully returning to a healthy, active lifestyle after joint replacement surgery, a very important fact to keep in mind if you'll be having one of these procedures. Exercise is the chief component of that therapy, and you'll be advised to perform a number of exercises daily—especially during the early stages of recovery from hip or knee replacement—to gradually improve balance, flexibility, muscle strength and joint function. Among the most frequently prescribed are the following 6 exercises for after joint replacement surgery.

The bundled payment model has emerged as the favored alternative to the traditional fee-for-service model in the ongoing shift towards value-based healthcare reimbursement. That status, already made plain by the rapid growth of bundled payment programs offered by private payers, including healthcare systems, insurance companies and large employers, has been cemented by the growing number of bundled payment initiatives rolled out by government payers. Perhaps the most notable of these are several bundled payment initiatives undertaken by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) that bundle payments for care provided to fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries.

Workplace injuries are a concern for every company today, given the ever-rising costs of such incidents.

These include the human costs of on-the-job injuries—pain, suffering, disability and lost income, for instance—and the financial costs employers face, including workers' comp costs, reduced workforce productivity, and the expenses associated with replacing injured workers.

Physical therapy and occupational therapy are two rather closely related fields—so closely that many people are under the impression that the terms are interchangeable. While both types of therapists may work with similar patients, injuries and conditions, there are distinct differences between the two. Here we'll go over those differences to help potential patients clear the air about these therapies, making it easier for them to pursue the most suitable treatment for their specific needs.

Much of the buzz around bundled payments has been focused on their potential for containing or reducing the overall costs of healthcare. However, as important as cost-cutting is, it is certainly not the whole story when it comes to the goals of the bundled care model. Improving the quality and efficiency of care is also a primary goal of this value-based payment model.

Occupational therapy is a rehabilitative specialty that provides therapeutic interventions that work to enhance patients' ability to participate in the meaningful activities of daily life, despite the presence of impairments in physical, mental or cognitive functioning. So who can benefit from occupational therapy? What can patients who undergo this type of therapy expect? To answer these questions and others for patients considering therapy, here is a brief guide to occupational therapy and how it works.

If you are rehabilitating from physical impairments resulting from illness or injury, physical and/or occupational therapy are likely to be recommended as part of that process. Often, patients who have been referred to these services are confused about the differences between these two similar forms of therapy. To help ease your way through your care planning efforts, here are 2 important differences between physical therapy and occupational therapy.

If you're an arthritis sufferer, occupational therapy is an important part of managing your symptoms. This is as true for the person newly diagnosed with arthritis as it is for those in its more advanced stages. That's because occupational therapy can help you learn how to minimize the impact of arthritis symptoms on your quality of life, giving you the tools you need to stay healthy and active and live life to the fullest. If you will be seeing an occupational therapist, here are 3 tips that can help you make the most of the experience.