The impact of COVID-19 on hand therapy practice.
Cynthia C Ivy, Sarah Doerrer, Nancy Naughton and 1 others
PMID 33820708WHAT IT FOUND
Hand therapists reported more stress, smaller caseloads, and sudden telehealth use during the early pandemic period.
They described PPE, reduced in-person care, and uncertainty about future. This is a self-report survey, not patient outcome evidence.
Key findings
0186% of therapists reported feeling more stress than before the pandemic.
0298% of therapists reported caseloads decreasing during the pandemic.
03Only 28 therapists reported using telehealth before the pandemic, while 305 reported providing telehealth in the past two weeks during the pandemic.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The survey had technical errors: two questions did not allow all intended answers, so 158 responses were discarded, and two questions had zero responses because of coding errors. Not all ASHT members responded, so the results may not represent all hand therapists. Stress was not defined, and the authors assumed that higher stress would be negative. Open-ended answers were grouped by similarity, but this was not a full qualitative study with codes and themes. Most respondents were from the US, and responses from other countries were too few to analyze. It was a self-report survey during April 14, 2020 to May 4, 2020, not a patient outcome study.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the rise in telehealth use as proof that telehealth is effective or preferred. The survey only counted how many therapists used it during the early pandemic period, and it did not compare patient outcomes.