JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Patients undergoing evaluation for musculoskeletal (MSK) concerns are often seen by a physician and physical therapist in the in-person setting in a sequential manner. This process typically delays the onset of physical therapy treatment and creates the risk of inadequate clinical collaboration between physician and physical therapist. To address these issues, we redesigned our initial patient evaluation to a group visit with both a specialty trained musculoskeletal physician and physical therapist together with the patient in the virtual encounter (“MD+ PT visit”).

Objective:

To gain insights from patients on their experience with this innovative virtual MD + PT visit format for initial evaluation of musculoskeletal concerns.

Methods:

An electronic 7-question survey was sent to 750 patients who completed an MD+PT visit asking them to comment on prior MSK evaluations and their experience with the MD+PT format.

Results:

195 patients (26%) responded to the survey. Most patients had prior MSK experience with a physician or nurse practitioner (88%) or physical therapist (76%) with nearly all such encounters in the in-person setting. Only 3% reported a prior MD+PT visit. Patients agreed that the MD+PT virtual evaluation saved them time (93%) and permitted them to promptly start their treatment plan (91%). Overall, 87.5% rated the MD+PT visit as enjoyable and 92% responded that it increased their confidence with understanding their medical condition and how to start treating it, namely in their health literacy related to their MSK condition.

Conclusions:

Our early experience with evaluation of MSK patients by both a MSK-specialty trained physician and physical therapist is the same virtual visit resulted in patients reporting a very positive experience and high health literacy related to their MSK condition.