Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System: Identifying Barriers, Facilitators, and Strategies for Implementation in Research, Education, and Clinical Care.
Jarrad H Van Stan, Jain Holmes, Lauren Wengerd and 5 others
PMID 36306923WHAT IT FOUND
Clinicians wanting to use the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System (RTSS) mostly lack time and accessible examples.
They need concrete, discipline-specific templates integrated into electronic health records, not just theoretical manuals, to make the system usable in daily practice.
Key findings
01Clinicians reported that a lack of institutional resources and access to knowledge were the most frequent barriers to using the RTSS, specifically citing insufficient time and educational materials.
02All user groups (clinicians, educators, researchers) requested more concrete, applied examples showing how to adapt the RTSS to specific disciplines and conditions.
03Clinicians specifically requested that the RTSS be integrated into their electronic medical or health records to facilitate use.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is a needs assessment, not an efficacy trial; it reports what users want, not whether the RTSS improves patient outcomes. Most respondents were in the early stages of using the RTSS, so reported facilitators were mostly hypothetical "wants" rather than experienced successes. Barriers were identified by frequency rather than relative importance, so the most critical issue for any individual clinician may not be the most commonly reported one. The survey relied on open-ended responses retrofitted to implementation frameworks, which may have missed specific nuances or concepts not initially considered by respondents.
Declared interests
Two authors (Jarrad Van Stan and John Whyte) are copyright holders for the Manual for Rehabilitation Treatment Specification, the intervention being studied for implementation. Other authors declared no competing interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these findings as evidence that the RTSS improves patient care. This is a survey of user preferences and barriers. While it highlights that clinicians need better tools and examples, it does not demonstrate that using the RTSS leads to better clinical outcomes.