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Missed opportunities: physical therapists and firearm injury recovery
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J
DOI：10.1093/ptj/pzag043.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
In a new PTJ article, Barnett and colleagues1 raise an important question for the profession: are survivors of firearm injury receiving physical therapy at rates that reflect rehabilitation needs? Using novel linkages between internal hospital system data and a state all-payer claims database, their analysis suggests that physical therapy may be underused among survivors of gun violence. The patients included in the analysis were medically complex and had several risk factors for development of a new functional limitation, including an average hospital stay of 8 days, a 30% rate of mechanical ventilation, and high Injury Severity Scale scores in 57% of cases. Notably, only 1 in 5 survivors of firearm injuries received physical therapy, and those with firearm injuries received 21% fewer rehabilitation visits than comparable patients without firearm injuries, providing circumstantial evidence that the original mechanism of injury contributes to disparities in rehabilitation use among survivors of trauma. Although limitations of the underlying data made it difficult to determine patients’ exact rehabilitation needs or whether lower use reflected lack of referral versus lower uptake of recommended services, the overall findings are difficult to ignore and point to missed opportunities for physical therapists to take an active role in management of firearm injury.
Keywords:
firearm injury
physical therapy
rehabilitation
trauma recovery
healthcare disparities
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