Making the right choices for therapy can be a crucial aspect for healthcare facilities seeking to achieve optimal patient outcomes. This blog post provides a high-level overview of OT vs. PT, as well as how healthcare facilities, such as hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and rehabilitation facilities, can match the right therapy approach to a patient’s specific needs.
In an era of expanding specialty care, knowing when to engage each discipline is crucial for improving both recovery rates and operational productivity.
What is occupational therapy (OT)?
Occupational therapy (OT) is designed to help people achieve independence in their daily lives. OT has a wide scope that goes well beyond physical recovery by focusing on activities that help a patient’s confidence and, ultimately, provide the ability to accomplish their daily routines in a meaningful way.
Occupational therapy seeks to improve day-to-day living and provide functional independence. For the healthcare facility, once they make the decision to hire occupational therapists, they often support patients who have suffered strokes, developmental delays, or mental health disorders.
Occupational therapy is a prominent part of clinical roles in long-term care centers, pediatric facilities, and behavioral health programs. Due to the vast scope, facilities typically combine occupational therapy staffing models to ensure specialized roles are filled, providing patient outcome-based care.
What is physical therapy (PT)?
Physical therapy (PT) is primarily designed for patients who need to regain physical strength, restore mobility, and manage pain resulting from an illness, injury, or surgery. This therapy is designed to rebuild physical capacity and decrease reliance on pharmacological management for pain.
When facilities need to hire physical therapist professionals, it is likely that patient needs are driven by orthopedic issues, post-surgery rehabilitation, or sports injuries. These therapists are typically located in settings such as rehabilitation facilities, outpatient clinics, and acute care hospitals.
When an organization has a heavily reliant surgical service or a high volume of inpatient admissions and discharges, it may utilize physical therapy staffing to maintain uninterrupted and consistent levels of care.
Relevant distinctions between OT and PT
Both occupational therapy and physical therapy are integral to patient recovery, but it is important for facilities to recognize the differences between OT and PT if they want to identify specialists relevant to their treatment purposes.
- Occupational therapy focuses on function, aiming to enable patients to perform daily tasks such as dressing, cooking, and managing personal care.
- Physical therapy emphasizes mobility, focusing on muscle strength, flexibility, and physical rehabilitation.
There are instances where OT vs PT overlap, as in post-stroke care, where both functional independence and rebuilding strength/mobility are important. These subtle distinctions are important so that facilities can make strategic choices when hiring therapists, ultimately refining patient outcomes within structured programs of care.
Selecting the ideal specialist for your facility
The selection of whether to hire an OT, a PT, or both will be influenced by factors such as patient demographics, the type of facility where services are provided, and the established treatment strategy. For instance, an assisted living facility may focus on OT to help residents complete their daily living tasks independently, while a hospital’s post-surgical program may require more PT services to assist patients in building physical strength.
Healthcare facilities encounter many such scenarios:
- A rehabilitation hospital focused on treating stroke survivors will typically use both OT vs PT approaches to promote independence and regain mobility.
- A nursing home may rely more on OT to help residents maintain their ability to complete ADLs and preserve their functional quality of life.
- An acute care hospital performing joint replacement surgeries will rely heavily on PT so patients can recuperate faster, shorten their return to function timeline, and reduce length of stay.
Healthcare facilities also utilize allied health staffing services to ensure they have the appropriate mix of therapy professionals while continuing to deliver quality care.
Choosing a smart platform for staffing success
The growing demand for both occupational therapy and physical therapy roles is evident throughout the U.S. No wonder! There is an increasing need for rehabilitation and therapy driven by an aging population.
Recruiters typically follow traditional steps such as using internal referrals, reaching out to healthcare colleges, or posting on free job portals. Unfortunately, these methods do not always guarantee the right fit for specialized requirements.
When traditional methods fail, many facilities turn to staffing agencies, which may provide candidates. However, if you have ever gone through the traditional staffing process, you know it can be costly, limited in talent pool, and lacking transparency, often leading to a lengthy hiring process.
To increase the chances of success with occupational therapy staffing or physical therapy staffing, consider using modern therapy staffing solutions, such as MedSquirrels, which specializes in healthcare staffing. A modern staffing platform offers faster access to vetted healthcare professionals, reliable placements, and better process efficiencies to fill both OT vs PT staffing needs.
MedSquirrels also offers structured and cost-effective staffing plans for facilities of all sizes:
- The Purple Plan: Manage HR, payroll, and benefits for clinicians you source.
- The Orange Plan: Recruitment is managed by MedSquirrels, while your facility manages HR and payroll.
- The Blue Plan: This plan handles the full-time recruitment process.
Facilities can choose the plan that fits their needs. Ultimately, these modern staffing platforms help facilities maintain qualitative staffing, reduce recruitment hurdles, and improve the patient experience
Lynn Martelli is an editor at Readability. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University and has worked as an editor for over 10 years. Lynn has edited a wide variety of books, including fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and more. In her free time, Lynn enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with her family and friends.
