There are some injuries a bag of ice can’t fix. Now, it’s going to be much easier to get a physical therapist to check out your knee.
Before passage of the House Bill 4643, patients in Illinois would be required to see a physician, who would then determine if they needed to be referred to a physical therapist. Now, these patients will have direct access.
This is good news for students studying physical therapy, which is also Bradley’s only doctoral program. According to Steven Tippett, professor and the chair of the physical therapy department, the students were active in lobbying for the passage of this bill.
“[The department] has been to Springfield in the last couple of years,” Tippett said. “Faculty members like Brenda Pratt have been very active and instrumental in organizing that. They met with the legislators and impressed upon them the importance of that. We’ve been front and center, and [students] in the program understand they’ve been fighting for it.”
Tippett said the passage of this bill is something the department has prepared students for, as it will instill a greater sense of responsibility in the profession.
“[Students] really have to be an autonomous practitioner,” Tippett said. “Prior to this act, it was the physician who you could assume has done everything to make sure this patient is in the scope of PT practice. The curriculum for the doctorate program is advanced, and we continue to show we teach the material at that appropriate level.”
The bill leaves the patient’s treatment at the discretion of the physical therapist, meaning they now have the task of identifying whether or not the patient needs treatment they cannot provide. Before, they simply received the physician’s determination.
“Physical therapists will now have the responsibility to stay aware of one’s own skills, one’s own area of expertise, our practice act, and with that in mind, to care for and if it’s beyond our scope of practice, to not be so cavalier and egotistical to get them out to a physician,” said Tippett.
House Bill 4643 takes some of the workload away from physicians, which, as Tippett explains, is why the bill has faced so much opposition.
“The state association of orthopedic surgeons argue frankly from a financial standpoint,” Tippett said. “There are a lot of local orthopedic surgeons that work really well with PT’s and know exactly what they do and see that as a way to boost their business.”
Working 17 years in clinical work before teaching, Tippett has long supported this change.
“I can speak from personal experience. I know a lot of our students and colleagues have done it where they flesh out a lot of problems the physicians miss,” Tippett said. “Often times, [a physician’s] ability to diagnose pans on examinations. The PT’s are just as good, and many times better.”
The bill will benefit both physicians and physical therapists, but requires more collaborative efforts from both parties.
“The physician’s also able to order tests, mostly imaging tests like X-rays, MRI’s, and PT’s aren’t allowed to do that, we shouldn’t. We have not been trained to interpret them,” said Tippett.
The House Bill 4643 will revolutionize the healthcare industry in Illinois, and give physical therapists and current students in the doctoral program more responsibility as well as freedoms.
