Alexandra  Wilson Pecci, for HealthLeaders Media How well-meaning and clinically important actions can make or break the patient experience, and how leaders at Cleveland Clinic and Mount Sinai Health System are refocusing efforts. During her hospital’s monthly executive leadership rounds, Cleveland Clinic’s executive chief nursing officer, K. Kelly Hancock, MSN, RN, NE-BC, met a patient … Continued

By Susan Carr

This year’s annual conference of the American Physical Therapy Association’s Massachusetts chapter (APTAMA) focused on a microcosm of issues in healthcare improvement: value, collaboration, measurement, and spread. After hearing Alan M. Jette, PT, PhD, FAPTA, deliver the keynote address, “System Thinking to Thrive in a Changing Health Care Environment,” I participated on a panel that included Jette in a discussion of the issues he raised.

Leaders in physical therapy are working hard to inspire practicing physical therapists (PT) to pursue improvement efforts within their profession, in healthcare more broadly, and with consumers directly. Leaders such as Jette and Mary Duffy Zupkus, PT, MPA, president of the APTAMA (and—full disclosure—my PT), believe that physical therapy offers unique opportunities to advance healthcare delivery and must reposition itself as a profession in order to survive the new demands of the healthcare marketplace. The enthusiasm and savvy of those who attended the conference, presented on the panel, and asked insightful questions were reminders that important stakeholders continue to join the improvement movement.