The Board at its July meeting developed updates to APTA's Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan, last updated in July 2011, outlines goals, objectives, strategies, and metrics for the next 1-3 years that will support achievement of Vision 2020. The plan includes a number of key decisions made by the House of Delegates in June 2012.

Final wording of the 4 outcomes and their supporting objectives is in process and will be shared with members once the Strategic Plan has been adopted by the Board in December. The 4 outcomes are in the areas of:

• Effectiveness of care to improve quality of life;
• Patient- and client-centered care across the lifespan;
• Professional growth and development; and
• Value and accountability.

Through small-group exploration, generative discussion, and prioritizing, the Board and key APTA staff identified several focused objectives that APTA can target for budgeting resources over the next 1-3 years.

Key to the planning process was consideration of 2012 House decisions such as Physical Therapist Responsibility and Accountability for the Delivery of Care (RC2-12) and Feasibility Study for Transitioning to an Entry-Level Baccalaureate Physical Therapist Assistant Degree (RC20-12).

Updates from the APTA strategic planning process will be posted to APTA.org, at www.apta.org/StrategicPlan, as they become available.

The Board of Directors, in an effort to improve the services provided to components, engaged in a discussion at its July meeting about APTA's association management services (AMS) to sections, chapters, and assemblies. APTA provides paid services to components with AMS such as membership management, meeting planning, and publishing.

The presentation and discussion focused on the history and trends of components’ use of the services. It also proposed business model options that APTA could consider. A model that would make services through AMS available to as many components as requested service was deemed most desirable. The financial objective of this model would be to break even.

Components seeking information about APTA's AMS program can contact Catherine Langley, director of association management services, at catherinelangley@apta.org.

Users now can personalize the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's National Quality Measures Clearinghouse (NQMC) to accommodate specific interests and receive alerts on new and updated content. Through "My NQMC" recently searched terms and measure summaries will appear on the home page directly below the main search box. Users who save favorite measure summaries and organizations have the option to receive weekly e-mail alerts when favorite summaries have been updated or withdrawn from the site, or summaries associated with a favorite organization have been published, updated, or withdrawn from the site.

Instructions on personalizing NQMC and setting up e-mail alerts are available on this FAQ page.

As part of APTA's strategic objective to reduce unwarranted variation in care, 32 association members representing 11 sections participated in a clinical practice guidelines (CPG) workshop on July 25-27 with the goal of developing a process to successfully complete and publish CPG. Joe Godges, PT, DPT, MA, OCS, and Sandra Kaplan, PT, PhD, facilitated the workshop, which included a presentation of a CPG development methodology and interactive discussion on how to apply the methodology to successfully develop CPG for the physical therapist profession.    

Workshop participates were chosen following a call to sections in April to submit nominations for a guideline lead and, if indicated, key team member(s) who had defined a key clinical question or topic they would like to address with CPG. Through the call, 13 topics were identified for CPG. They include falls, deep vein thrombosis, vestibular neuritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, lymphedema and pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and determining a review process for the current Orthopaedic Section guidelines.

CPG development is part of APTA's evidence-based documents initiative, which stems from motions from APTA's Board of Directors. The initiative aims to provide structure, process, and resources for the development of evidence-based documents that facilitate the translation of research findings into physical therapist practice. In addition to CPG, the initiative supports the development of position statements, clinical summaries, technical summaries, critical appraisal summaries, and guidance statements.    

Sandra Kaplan, PT, PhD (left), and Joe Godges, PT, DPT, MA, OCS (seated on right), facilitated APTA's first workshop on developing clinical practice guidelines.  

New evidence shows that there is a significant opportunity for continued improvement in communication and care coordination in hospitals' efforts to reduce readmissions. According to authors of a study published July 18 in Journal of American College of Cardiology, the linking of inpatient and postdischarge (eg, outpatient, home care, or skilled nursing facility) providers and information is "central to effective continuity of care."   

Physical therapists (PTs) serve an important role in patient care transitions and care coordination and can help reduce readmissions by providing recommendations for the most appropriate level of care to the health care team prior to and during care transitions. Additionally, APTA's position Physical Therapist of Record and "Hand Off" Communication supports communication practices that improve patient/client safety. For more information on the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, which begins in 2013, and to find clinical practice and patient education resources to reduce readmissions, visit APTA's Hospital Readmissions webpage. 

Free full-text of Contemporary Evidence about Hospital Strategies for Reducing 30-Day Readmissions is available in Journal of American College of Cardiology. Highlights of the study are available from the Commonwealth Fund.  

A new partnership among the federal government, state officials, leading private health insurance organizations, and other health care antifraud groups will share information and best practices in order to improve detection and prevent payment of fraudulent health care billings.

The partnership will enable those on the front lines of industry antifraud efforts to share their insights more easily with investigators, prosecutors, policymakers, and other stakeholders. It will help law enforcement officials to more effectively identify and prevent suspicious activities, better protect patients' confidential information, and use the full range of tools and authorities provided by the Affordable Care Act and other essential statutes to combat and prosecute illegal actions.

One innovative objective of the partnership is to share information on specific schemes, such as frequently used billing codes and geographical fraud hotspots, so that action can be taken to prevent losses to both government and private health plans before they occur. Another potential goal of the partnership is the ability to spot and stop payments billed to different insurers for care delivered to the same patient on the same day in 2 different cities. A potential long-range goal of the partnership is to use sophisticated technology and analytics on industry-wide health care data to predict and detect health care fraud schemes. 

Visit APTA's Compliance webpage for information and resources to help keep compliant with federal requirements.