Just do FITT? Documenting Dosing Principles in a Pediatric Hospital Setting

The American College of Sports Medicine defines dose as frequency, intensity, time, and type (FITT). The optimal dose of physical therapy intervention needed to change function, abilities, and participation in children with various medical conditions or disabilities is generally unknown. A practice-based evidence approach offers a systematic method for gathering discrete information on therapy interventions and offers learnings at both the patient and population level. In this session, we will review the performance improvement process undertaken to redesign a hospital system's medical record using a standard framework to facilitate documentation of discrete and harvestable dosage data (i.e., FITT) and how ongoing feedback and engagement of clinicians allowed for sustaining improvements over time. We will use video and photo examples of physical therapy sessions to apply these principles. Additionally, we will present information on different pediatric patient populations and share learnings about the interventions provided. We will conclude with a discussion on how these concepts can be integrated into other pediatric settings. As a result of this presentation, physical therapists and physical therapist assistants will understand the benefits of utilizing physical therapy data to gather evidence concerning dose of intervention and the impact of specific treatments on the health and well-being of pediatric patient populations.