How to Use the Return to Sport and Discharge Checklists
I want to tell you how to use the discharge testing checklist. It's organized in such a way that it goes from simple activities all the way down to complex. So it starts off at range of motion and strengthening and goes all the way through hop testing, agility testing and that type of of higher level function.
First, we are going to determine what our patient is going to return to. So we asked them about their goals and what type of activities they want to return to. And regardless of the patient and really of their debility, we're definitely going to be working in the range of motion, strength, basic movement and balance areas. Everybody needs to be tested on that and we need to have our objective measures for that.
Now, if they're returning to a higher level activity, whether they have a more active job or physically demanding job, we're going to keep going down into this. Maybe they want to return to running. Alright, so that means that hop testing definitely needs to be done. Or they might be returning to sport, which means we're going to go through the entire checklist.
So what you can see is this is a great way to start a discussion with your patients of what they want to get to, and pairing that with what you're doing in rehabilitation. This helps buy-in tremendously because the person understands the roadmap of where they're going. So in that first visit, or maybe the second visit, sit down with the person and discuss. Have that checklist right in your hand, discuss it with them so they know where they're going.
And then if it's a longer term rehab, be sure you're discussing the process as it goes so we can tell them, hey, look, you've progressed on this. Look, your strength has improved, your range of motion has improved. Now we're going to go focus more on your balance and start that testing. That way they see the progress, they recognize the progress, and they're more excited and more compliant with rehabilitation. So I hope you use these checklists to really improve your communication with your patients as well as your outcomes.
