President’s Message
(June 3, 2020)
Dear Members,
Thank you to those who completed the survey last week pertaining to the continued impact that COVID-19 is having on your clinical practice. A number of the key findings of the survey were:
- Many clinics have reopened, but not all clinics have.
- Over 72% of clinics who are open are operating at volumes of 25-50% as compared to pre-COVID-19 times.
- Over 70% of patients who decline to attend face-to-face physical therapy sessions, do so for fear of contracting COVID-19.
The data gathered from this survey was very helpful in supporting our message to the Governor regarding the continued need for telemedicine. Currently, as long as the public health emergency is in place and the Governor does not issue another Executive Order (EO) cancelling telemedicine, telemedicine will continue to be a viable mode of care delivery. However, what is unclear at this time, is how long the public health emergency will continue to be observed.
For this reason, APTA Indiana, joined with the leadership of the associations listed below who are also providing telemedicine due to the EO, sent a letter to the Governor, as a united voice, to request the continued ability to provide care to patients and clients using telemedicine. This letter was sent to the Governor this morning.
- Indiana Association for Marriage & Family Therapy
- Indiana Counseling Association
- Indiana Occupational Therapy Association
- Indiana Speech-Language-Hearing Association
- Mental Health America of Indiana
- National Association of Social Workers, Indiana Chapter
- The Indiana Association for Addiction Professionals
As many of you are aware, APTA Indiana has many volunteers who step into leadership roles within our association, whether it be on the APTA Indiana Board of Directors, as a District leader, or involvement through one of the committees, Special Interest Groups or Task Forces. If you look at the “About Us” page on the APTA Indiana website, you can get a sense of how many volunteers are engaged and carry out the work of our Chapter. At this time, I would like to recognize one of our longest standing volunteers and champions of our profession, Dolly Phadke, PT. Dolly’s term will end on June 15 after over 30 years of dedicated service to APTA Indiana. Dolly has served in many volunteer roles for the Chapter over her tenure with her most recent as the Chair of the Practice and Payment Committee. Dolly has been a tireless advocate for better payment for physical therapy services. We will really miss Dolly and all that she has done for the Chapter over many decades.
Soon after Dolly let me know her intention of ‘retiring’, we conducted a successful search for a Practice and Payment Specialist for APTA Indiana. I am delighted to announce that Andrea Lausch, PT, DPT began this week as our first Practice and Payment Specialist. Andrea has many years of clinical practice experience in a variety of settings and has a passion for practice and payment. Get to know a little more about Andrea from her letter of introduction. Andrea will be available to answer practice and payment questions for APTA Indiana members, which is a service that is so important for us all.
Thank you all for your membership.
Emily
Emily Slaven, PT, PhD, Board-Certified Clinical Specialist in Orthopaedic Physical Therapy
President, APTA Indiana