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Eén jaar directe toegang fysiotherapie.

Swinkels, I.C.S., Leemrijse, C., Veenhof, C. Eén jaar directe toegang fysiotherapie. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Fysiotherapie: 2007, 117(5), p. 158.
Objective: Since january 2006, patients have direct access to physiotherapy in the Netherlands and no longer require referral by a doctor. The aim of the current study was to inverstigate 1) which patient groups made use, and how often, of direct access to a physiotherapist in 2006. 2) whether the treatments and outcomes differed among direct access and referred patients; and 3) whether the composition and size of the patient population changed in 2006 compared to 2005. Methods: data provided by 94 primary-care physiotherapists who participated in the National Inofrmation Service for Allied Health Care were analysed. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to investigate which patient populations used direct access. Differences in the number of visits between users of direct access and referred patients were investigated with linear regression analyses. X2-tests were used for testing whether there were differences in interventions and outcomes, and for testing whether the composition of the patient population differed in 2005 and 2006. Differences in the size of the patient population were tested with a paired student's t-test. Results: In 2006, 28% of the patients visited a physiotherapist directly, without referral by a doctor. Younger patients, patients with a high educational level, patients with acute complaints, patients with recurrent complaints, patients who had had physiotherapy before, and patients with (low) back pain or neck pain made more than average use of direct access to a physiotherapist. Ten percent of the direct-access patients visited the physioterapist only ondec. This percentage was some what higher for men, younger patients, and patients with acute symptoms. On average, direct-access patients had fewer treatment sesseions and other intervention techniques were applied. No differeces were found in the size of the total patient population after the introduction of direct access, and only minor differences werre found in the composition of the total patient population. Conclusions: Direct access in used more often than expected and apparently fulfils the need for more freedom of choice by patients. Opponenests of direct access feared that physiotherapists would be overwhelmed by the number of patines wanting treatment, but the current study shows that this hsa not happened. Indeed, 10% of the direct-access patients visited the physiotherapist only once. Future research should inverstigate whether physiotherapy has replaced general practitioner care. (aut. ref.)
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