APTA's Outpatient Physical Therapy Improvement in Movement Assessment Log (OPTIMAL) is an instrument that measures difficulty and self-confidence in performing 21 movements that a patient/client needs to accomplish in order to do various functional activities.
In response to changes to the Medicare outpatient therapy cap exceptions process and documentation requirements for 2007, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recommended OPTIMAL as a measurement instrument to document objective, measurable physical function of beneficiaries.
Permissions
Clinicians are encouraged to use OPTIMAL to document that a patient qualifies for an automatic exception to the outpatient therapy cap. In addition, OPTIMAL is included in LOINC, the Regenstrief Institute Inc's Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes database that provides a definitive standard for identifying clinical information in electronic reports.
As of December 15, 2011, APTA no longer requires entities to request permission for using OPTIMAL. This applies to (1) clinicians within their facilities for patient care, (2) education institutions using material for in-classroom use, (3) entities conducting research, and (4) entities wishing to use it in commercial products or services, including other publications, courses, or software programs.
Note, however, that OPTIMAL remains the copyrighted intellectual property of Physical Therapy (PTJ), and the following citation must be included in all uses:
Copyright ©2005 American Physical Therapy Association. All rights reserved.
Forms
Baseline Form (.pdf)
Follow-up Form (.pdf)
Scoring Instructions (.pdf)
OPTIMAL Development
Physical Therapy (PJT) Research Report (June 2005)