OUTPATIENT PLANNING FOR PERSONS WITH PHYSICAL-DISABILITIES - A RANDOMIZED PROSPECTIVE TRIAL OF PHYSIATRIST ALONE VERSUS A MULTIDISCIPLINARYTEAM

The purposes of this study were to assess the effect of adding a physi atrist to the usual community management of persons with complex disab ilities, and to determine whether there were differences in decision m aking and patient outcome between evaluations by a physiatrist alone o r with a multidisciplinary team in this population, Consecutively refe rred patients with functional complaints in two of the following areas , mobility, activities of daily living, emotions and cognition, work, or social support, were randomly assigned to a multidisciplinary outpa tient team evaluation or physiatrist evaluation in an office setting, Forty persons, 21 team and 19 office, served as subjects, For the enti re group, functional assessment scores before and after evaluation wer e as follows: Barthel index 71.79 versus 76.47 (p < .008) and Frenchay Activities index 9.97 versus 11.32 (p < .05) Wilcoxon Signed Ranks te st, Patient quality of life differences were significant (p < .03 or l ess by Wilcoxon), Most differences between team and physiatrist were n ot shown to be statistically significant in this small population, Phy siatric evaluation, with or without a multidisciplinary team, can impr ove outpatient functional status and quality of life for persons livin g in the community with complex disabilities. (C) 1995 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physi cal Medicine and Rehabilitation