To identify patient- and provider-level determinants of PT referrals for peripheral vestibular disorders.
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Audiologists and ENT providers should audit their own referral patterns for vestibular physical therapy, as this study suggests patient- and provider-level biases likely create referral gaps that affect patient outcomes.
Identifying the drivers of physical therapy underreferral for vestibular disorders highlights a system-level equity and quality-of-care gap that the audiology and otolaryngology communities can directly address.
- 01Retrospective cohort design used electronic health records to study PT referral rates for peripheral vestibular disorders.
- 02Both patient-level factors (e.g., demographics, diagnosis type) and provider-level factors influenced referral likelihood.
- 03Vestibular rehabilitation physical therapy is an evidence-based treatment but is frequently not prescribed.
- 04Identifying predictors of referral can help target quality-improvement efforts.
- 05Findings are limited by the retrospective, single-system EHR design.
Patient- and provider-level factors significantly determine whether patients with peripheral vestibular disorders are referred to physical therapy.
studypartially supported- PMID
- 42808647
- DOI
- 10.1002/ohn.70472.
- Journal
- Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 3
- Population
- Patients with peripheral vestibular disorders identified via electronic health records
- Intervention
- Analysis of patient- and provider-level determinants of physical therapy referral
- Comparator
- Patients not referred to physical therapy
Primary outcomes
Rate of physical therapy referral for peripheral vestibular disorders; Patient-level predictors of referral; Provider-level predictors of referral