UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
The University Hospital
Chief of Service Report
July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2011
Joel A. DeLisa, M.D., M.S.
Professor and Chair
2010-2011 PM&R Chief of Service Report
Service Overview:
The Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) includes physiatry (physician
services), occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, therapeutic
recreation, and cardiac rehabilitation. Rehabilitation services are designed to restore, improve,
or maintain the patient’s optimal level of functioning, self-care, self-responsibility, independence,
and quality of life. In addition, the services are designed to minimize symptoms, exacerbation of
chronic illnesses, impairments, and disabilities. All interventions respect and encourage the
patient’s ability to make choices, to develop and maintain a sense of achievement, and to
choose to continue or to modify his/her participation in rehabilitation.
PM&R provides an inpatient consultation service, a unique program of respiratory muscle
facilitation to extubate patients who are “unweanable” from ventilatory support to spare them
tracheotomy and long-term institutionalization, general and specialty outpatient services in the
hospital and the DOC, inpatient and outpatient therapy services, phase I, II, and III cardiac
rehabilitation, and contract therapy services to Broadway House. In addition, PM&R provides
diagnostic and therapeutic services such as electrodiagnostic studies and epidural injections.
Due to New Jersey’s Certificate of Need Law, the University Hospital has no designated
inpatient rehabilitation beds. This is a problem for individuals who need rehabilitation but
have no payment coverage.
Brief Overview of Clinical Services:
The Center for Noninvasive Mechanical Ventilation Alternatives and Pulmonary
Rehabilitation was established in 1992 and cares for patients with neuromuscular weakness
and respiratory impairment. It is under the direction of John R. Bach, M.D. who also serves as
Co-Director for the Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic. These neuromuscular weakness
intervention programs continue to be successful in prolonging bace-free ambulation and
reducing cardiorespiratory morbidity and mortality to prolong quality survival. An inpatient
program for the extubation of patients who are “unweanable” from ventilatory support is
provided in coordination with the departments of Medicine and Pediatrics. The program focuses
on decanulating ventilator users or avoiding tracheostomy by extubating unweanable patients to
noninvasive respiratory muscle aids, thereby reducing ICU stays, and facilitating return to the
community rather than costly long-term institutionalization. The mechanical ventilation
alternatives program has successfully extubated over 203 unweanable intubated patients most
of whom were transferred to UH after failing extubation at other facilities. 36 of these patients
were referred to UH to be extubated or decanulated since July 2010.
Musculoskeletal and Occupational Medicine involves the non-surgical treatment of
musculoskeletal and neurological conditions that cause pain and/or functional difficulties with
activities of daily living. Some of these include:


Arthritis
Carpal tunnel syndrome

Neuromuscular diseases

Neck pain




Peripheral nerve injuries
Traumatic brain injury
Osteoporosis
Sports injuries



Extremity & coccyx pain
Back pain
Work-related injuries
and conditions
The outpatient division is under the joint direction of Todd P. Stitik, M.D., Professor, Director,
Occupational/Musculoskeletal Medicine and Acting Director of Sports Medicine, and Patrick M.
Foye, M.D., Associate Professor and Assistant Director, Occupational/Musculoskeletal
Medicine.
2
2010-2011 PM&R Chief of Service Report
Injured workers account for about 20% of total office visits. UMDNJ employees at the Newark
and Scotch Plains campuses who experience a work-related musculoskeletal injury are
generally referred to the Newark PM&R faculty practice, where most are seen within 24 hours.
Workers receive treatment aimed at an early return to work and a reduced risk of re-injury. The
PM&R faculty has also established agreements with other employers such as University
Physician Associates, Rutgers University-Newark and the City of Newark for the care of their
employees’ injuries. The Injured Workers’ Program also includes treatment of injured workers
from the city of Newark as well as injured workers under case management from local
companies including Active Care-1st MCO, Traveler’s, Liberty Mutual, and Corvel.
The Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation has worked in conjunction with
University Hospital to expand its current injured workers program as follows:
 A previously developed practice brochure was created and has been distributed to
case managers and workers’ compensation program administrators.
 Dr. Todd Stitik represented University Hospital lectures on pain management to
potential outside referral sources.
The PM&R department’s Coccyx Pain Center (tailbone pain center) at NJMS and University
Hospital has entered its fourth year and has continued to grow in terms of patient volume,
catchment area, and the number of interventional injection procedures performed at University
Hospital. In 2010 our Coccyx Pain Center provided evaluations for 179 new patients with
coccydynia, as well as many more follow-up visits and injections. This Coccyx Pain Center has
a national reputation, such that many of these patients fly in from around the country and
occasionally from other nations to receive this subspecialty niche care within the
research/publication focus of the Center’s Director, Dr. Foye. This brings not only favorable
national attention to UMDNJ/NJMS/UH, but also brings in a truly international catchment area
for patients receiving outpatient procedures at University Hospital.
Five subspecialty centers are offered within the DOC faculty practice, reflecting exceptional
faculty expertise in research and teaching as well as in clinical practice.
 The Osteoarthritic Rehabilitation Center, which utilizes non-surgical approaches
such as viscosupplementation in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee.
 The Interventional Pain Management Center, which performs spinal injections and
major joint injections under fluoroscopic guidance within an on-site procedure suite in
DOC 3300, as well as in the hospital’s Medical Special Procedures Suite.
 The Low Back Pain Rehabilitation Center, specializing in the non-surgical
treatment of this common condition. Conditions treated include sprain/strain of
muscles and ligaments, spinal arthritis (degenerative joint disease), disc problems,
radiculopathy, and painful facet and sacroiliac joints.
 Coccyx Pain Center, specializing in non-surgical treatment of tailbone injuries and
tailbone pain.
 The Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Diagnosis and Treatment Service (i.e.
musculoskeletal-guided injection procedures) is becoming increasingly used in
the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal pathology. One of our attending
physicians has been actively expanding his knowledge base and scope of
3
2010-2011 PM&R Chief of Service Report
practice using this relatively new musculoskeletal tool. A dedicated ultrasound
musculoskeletal medicine clinic has been established on Monday afternoons and
the Monday morning knee injection clinic is now conducted with the use of
ultrasound guidance. In addition, ultrasound guidance is being used throughout
the week for a variety of other non-fluoroscopic guided injection procedures.
Further growth in this area is strongly anticipated as this attending's experience
increases and his referral sources specifically for this diagnostic/therapeutic
modality expand.
General PM&R Clinics are held daily in the Orthopedic Clinic (Clinic 8) at UH and in 3300 in
the DOC. These physiatry clinics provide non-surgical treatment for a variety of musculoskeletal
conditions. Conditions treated include sprain/strain of muscles and ligaments, painful joints,
spinal arthritis and disc problems, radiculopathy, and sacroiliac joint dysfunction. In the UH
Clinic, PM&R sees new referrals for non-operative management of musculoskeletal conditions,
from a variety of referral sources including the ER, UMD Care, rheumatology, trauma,
orthopedics, and many outside facilities. The physiatrist in this clinic also provides follow-up
care for a wide variety of conditions. Currently a new patient waiting time is greater than five
months. The clinic could benefit from a physician assistant. Patients with other rehabilitative
diagnosis such as stroke, spinal cord injury, neuropathies, amputations, reflex sympathetic
dystrophy and many other disabling conditions are also cared for in these clinics.
Inpatient consultative services are provided by PM&R faculty to a diverse inpatient
population of patients with neurological or traumatic injuries, including stroke, spinal cord injury,
and brain injury and to patients with disabling medical and surgical conditions or complications.
Pulmonary consults are also provided to patients in need of non-invasive ventilation. The
inpatient consult service working in coordination with the case managers play a key role in
facilitating the discharge of patients to post-acute rehabilitation. Their contribution to the health
care team is crucial to decreasing LOS.
The Northern New Jersey Spinal Cord Injury System was founded in 1992 under a
grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, the “Northern New
Jersey Spinal Cord Injury System” (NNJSCIS) at University Hospital continues to care for SCI
patients within a broad 13-county area. (This grant has been competitively funded since 1992.)
The NNJSCIS is a joint effort among UMDNJ-University Hospital, Kessler Institute for
Rehabilitation, and Kessler Foundation Research Center, and is one of 14 federally-funded
model systems in the U.S. The University Hospital is the site of the acute care component of
the system, while Kessler Institute is the site for the remaining aspects of the system. The next
round of this grant cycle is September 2011 (these are five-year grants). Due to a loss of the
major SCI grant writer at the Kessler Foundation Research Center, it is unclear whether we will
be successful.
Acquired Brain Injury Services Dr. Peter Yonclas, a physiatrist with a secondary
appointment in our department, serves as Director of Trauma Rehabilitation at University
Hospital. Although lost to our department due to budgetary reductions, he continues to teach
PM&R residents and provide PM&R services to the trauma center and works closely with
Trauma Surgery and Neurological Surgery to improve the acute care of brain-injured patients
and to ensure the success of the New Jersey Trauma Center. Dr. Yonclas also directs an
outpatient brain injury clinic to serve the many diverse needs of this population. University
Hospital is a site for the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR)
Model Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) system. University Hospital, along with Kessler Institute
for Rehabilitation and Kessler Foundation Research Center are one of only seven sites in the
4
2010-2011 PM&R Chief of Service Report
country to have both model systems. This grant will be up for competitive renewal in September
2012. The competition will be intense.
The Prosthetics and Orthotics Clinic is offered weekly. Outpatients requiring braces or
artificial limbs are referred for evaluation, prescription, and follow-up. Financial support and/or
assistance from Social Work Services are required in order to provide assistive devices to our
charity care, uninsured and underinsured population (currently provided only through payments
directly to the vendor or through donations). We do provide splints and braces to our charity
care population, but not prosthetic limbs.
EMGs and Electrodiagnostic Studies The PM&R Department continues to provide
electrodiagnostic testing (EMG and nerve testing) for patients with a wide variety of symptoms
and conditions including numbness, pain, weakness, back pain radiating into the legs
(radiculopathy / sciatica, etc), neck pain radiating down into the arms (cervical radiculopathy,
brachial plexopathy, etc.), carpal tunnel syndrome, ulnar neuropathy and peripheral
polyneuropathy. In FY 10, PM&R performed a total of 340 EMG procedures. The PM&R
Department has more physicians who are credentialed by the American Board of
Electrodiagnostic Medicine than any other NJMS department.
Therapy Services
The PM&R Department provides Occupational, Physical and Speech Therapy and Cardiac
Rehabilitation services to both inpatient and outpatient service; Therapeutic Recreation Therapy
is available to the inpatient Psychiatric Unit. There were significant OT and PT staffing
problems since February 2011.
Current staffing and vacancies are as follows:
POSITION
Cardiac Rehabilitation
Clerical
Occupational Therapist
Physical Therapy
Rehabilitation Aide
Speech-Language
Pathology
Therapeutic Recreation
INPATIENT
OUTPATIENT
.5 FTE Exercise Physiologist was upgraded to 1 FTE in April 2011
for inpatient and outpatient cardiac rehabilitation
1 Secretary I, 1 Patient
3 Medical Office Assistants, 1
Accounts Clerk; no vacancies
Billing Technician, 1 Medical
Records Clerk, 1 Patient
Accounts Clerk; no vacancies
1 Lead OT, 2 OTs
2 part-time OTs, 1 full-time OT;
2 vacancies
1 vacancy
1 Lead PT, 3.5 PTs
1 Lead PT, 2 PTs
3 PTAs
2 PTAs
3 vacancies
1 vacancy
3 FTEs, no vacancies
2 FTES, no vacancies
2.5 FTEs, no vacancies
1 Lead ST, no vacancies
2 Certified TRs, 1 Recreation
Specialist, no vacancies
none
Weekend Physical Therapy services continue to be staffed with one Physical Therapist and one
assistant per weekend day utilizing both inpatient and outpatient staff. Speech-Language
Pathology provides on-call services for holidays and weekends with the clinical priority focusing
on dysphagia. Occupational Therapy services offer Sunday coverage for inpatients. In
response to our current staffing difficulty, a new staffing plan was implemented in April to shift
staffing from outpatient to inpatient services. This plan includes the following:
5
2010-2011 PM&R Chief of Service Report



The use of outpatient therapists in the hospital to cover for some of the inpatient
vacancies
Early business hours in outpatient are no longer offered
Most of our non-priority outpatients are referred to other facilities. The risk of losing
reimbursement and referrals exists each time a patient is referred to another facility.
Concerning our recruitment efforts and the difficulty we have filling the vacancies, we have
reinstituted sign-on bonuses for OT/PT. A recent salary survey indicated that Rehab salaries
are below market value. Industry starting salary for a new graduate is $63,000 and UH’s
starting salary is $62,088. Median salary in the industry is $78,700 and our median salary is
$74,963. Consequently, a proposal to adjust salaries has been submitted to hospital
administration for consideration. Four per-diem positions were created that can assist weekend
staffing. Working with contracting agencies diligently for the past few months has yielded 1
contracted PT (starting June 1, 2011) and one PTA (starting June 20, 2011) for 13 weeks each.
The Orthotics contract for inpatient services is now being serviced by Jack Gold Orthotics.
A detailed staffing plan for PT and OT Services is enclosed as attachment.
 Cardiac Rehabilitation - The Exercise Physiologist offers service three days a week. Phase II
volume has grown substantially this year.
Phase II
Phase III
Medical fitness
FY 2010
425
276
450
FY2 011 (annualized)
839
436
460
 Dysphagia program – Volume has stayed essentially the same, with only a slight increase.
A Nursing swallowing screen was developed by Speech-Language Pathology and they are
training the entire hospital nursing staff to perform the screen.
o MBS: Modified Barium Swallow
o FEES: Fiber Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallow
Evaluations
MBS Studies
FEES
FY 2010
1122
195
242
FY 2011
1172
152
356
Therapy Volumes - Both visits and procedures have increased slightly from FY2010. The
staffing crisis in PT occurred recently, the full impact on our volume is not evident yet in this
yearly report. However, the volume started a downward trend in April of 2011.
Visits
Procedures
FY2010
66,367
88,704
FY 2011 (annualized)
71,800
93,760
6
2010-2011 PM&R Chief of Service Report
UH Clinic Volumes - The YTD volume of UH clinic is 2,686 visits (3,223 visits annualized), a
9% decreased over last year. During this time we have increased PM&R faculty members’ slots
for other UH-based fluoroscopically-guided spinal injections, which can provide more RVU’s per
time slot.
PMR Weekly Clinic
P&O Clinic
Acquired Brain Injury
PMR Daily Clinic
# of PM&R Physicians
FY08
1,522
195
194
3,461
6
FY09
605
250
641
2,839
5
FY10
1,220
93
322
1,940
4
FY11
(annualized)
1,153
86*
199
1,784
4
NOTE: Since FY03, the Department of PM&R has gone from 8.5 FTE faculty members
to 5 FTE.
* As P&O Clinic often involves the issue of obtaining an orthotic or prosthetic from a
company for patients without insurance or ability to purchase one themselves, P&O
issues are often discussed during regular PM&R visits.
7
2010-2011 PM&R Chief of Service Report
Clinical Faculty and Residency / Fellowship Highlights:
Faculty - The Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation consists of 98 faculty
members (57MD, 27PhD, 1 DO, 5 MD/PhD, 1 DO/PhD, 1 EdD, 6 other) practicing across
northern New Jersey. Only five of these faculty positions are based in Newark and are
paid by UMDNJ (University Hospital and New Jersey Medical School).
Collectively this past year, our 98 teaching faculty trained 28 residents, 6 clinical fellows, 4
postdoctoral fellows, 175 fourth year students, as well as 102 medical students on electives at
seven affiliated patient facilities. The distribution of the PM&R faculty by rank is as follows:
Faculty Rank
Full-Title
Total
Professor
Associate Professor
Assistant Professor
Instructor
Total Full Title
11
4
22
5
42
Modified-Title
Clinical Professor
Clinical Associate Professor
Clinical Assistant Professor
Clinical Instructor
Associate
Total Voluntary
3
4
39
4
6
56
PM&R Grand Total
98
The affiliated hospitals in the systems are the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, NJ Veterans
Affairs Health Care System, Children’s Specialized Hospital and Mountainside Hospital.
Departmental Honors
The Kessler Foundation’s Joel A. DeLisa, MD Award for Excellence in Research and Education
in the Field of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation was announced in 2010. The award will be
presented annually for 20 years to a physician and/or scientist who has demonstrated a
significant impact on the field of PM&R, particularly as it relates to the translation of research
and education in patient care. One annual award will be presented in the amount of $50,000.
The first award was given May 12, 2011.
Dr. DeLisa was the recipient of the Derrick T. Vail Award by the American Board of Medical
Specialists (ABMS). The award recognizes extraordinary national or international contributions
to the broad field of medical specialty education, evaluation or certification. This is only the
second time it has been given.
We had five faculty (Drs. Foye, Garstang, Nieves, Shenoy, and Yonclas) and eight residents
(Drs. Campos, Chen, Farag, Lee, Lercher, Levy, Patel, and Seto) nominated for Golden Apple
Awards.
8
2010-2011 PM&R Chief of Service Report
RVUs FY 03 through FY 10
We declined again in RVUs for FY 10 as one of our billers failed to put in inpatient charges for
one of our physicians (Dr. Bach) for 14 months including the entire 2010 calendar year. Dr.
Yonclas is billing through another department; Dr. Garstang is no longer seeing patients at UH.
Residency Program - The UMDNJ-NJMS physiatry residency program is considered one of
the top four physiatry residencies in the United States and probably the top program on the East
Coast. However, the Spaulding/Harvard program is now matching students that previously we
would have gotten. The NYU (Rusk) and the Columbia/Cornell programs have recruited new
Chairs in the last few years and with the additional resources added to these programs, are
becoming more competitive. Many of our graduates are members of their faculty. The North
Shore – Long Island Jewish Health System added a new chair and program director, who are
markedly upgrading that program.
Despite the continued loss of University resources (Dr. Garstang the Residency Program
Director left September 1, 2009 for the NJ VA Health Care System, but the VA has graciously
allowed her to continue as the residency program director), the Department in August 2009 was
awarded by the ACGME RRC a five-year accreditation with NO Citations and received
COMMENDATIONS. Specifically, they stated “The Review Committee commended the
program for its demonstrated substantial compliance with the ACGME’s Requirements for
Graduate Medical Education without citations. The committee particularly commended the
program for their extensive and excellent educational curriculum, use of OSCE for competency
assessment, the emphasis on scholarly activity among their faculty (especially among their
residency staff), and their outcomes regarding ABPMR Board scores.”
For the most recent Match cycle (Class of 2015), the department received 387 applications for a
total of 10 positions. We interviewed 81 and ranked 65. Seven students from New Jersey
Medical School’s graduating Class of 2011 chose PM&R as a specialty; all were able to match
in competitive residency programs including one into our program. The other slots were filled by
students from University of Rochester, New York Medical College, St. George’s, University of
California LA SOM, Georgetown University, and Drexel University. Unlike some residency
programs, our department always fills 100% of its positions within the Match. Many of our
candidates have been elected to AOA, have received USMLE scores above 225, and have
9
2010-2011 PM&R Chief of Service Report
authored research publications. Our residents have made 62 academic presentations at
national meetings and had 20 peer-review publications in the last three years.
The SCI fellowship remains fully ACGME-accredited for five years. We are beginning the
Accreditation process for a Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine Fellowship with Children’s
Specialized Hospital being the main site. Our residents perform well on both Part I and Part II of
the PM&R Board examinations. We have had a 100% first-time pass rate on the written
portion of the Certification Boards since 1989. Our residents have been awarded the Elkin's
Award (highest written Board Exam score in the United States in PM&R) eight times, which is
more frequently than any other PM&R training program. (The next highest is four).
Our graduating residents have been, and continue to be extremely successful in securing
competitive fellowship positions in the specialty of their choice as indicated below (All of our
seven graduating residents will be entering competitive fellowships):
Class of 2011







Pediatric Fellowship – UMDNJ/NJMS-Children’s Specialized, Mountainside, NJ
Spine/Sports Fellowship – Hospital for Special Surgery, New York City, NY
Spine/Sports/Musculoskeletal – UMDNJ, Newark, NJ
Spine/Sports/Musculoskeletal – U. Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Spine/Sports/Musculoskeletal – Private Practice, Havertown, PA
Pain Management Fellowship – Private Practice, Nap Valley, CA
Neuromuscular Medicine Fellowship – UC Davis, Davis, CA
As of July 1, 2011, the number of trainees in our various postgraduate programs will be as
follows:
Level
PGY-2
PGY-3
PGY-4
Clinical Fellows
Postdoctoral Fellows
Total Trainees
Number of Trainees
8
9
11
5
3
36
Of the 28 resident positions currently offered in the department, only four are paid by UMDNJUniversity Hospital. These four positions represent the number of residents who are on-site in
Newark throughout the year. Funding of PM&R residency slots by individual facility is indicated
below:
Funding Sources of Residency Slots by Year
2007-08
2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12
University Hospital
5
4
4
4
4
Children's Specialized Hospital
2
2
2
2
2
Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation
11
11
11
11
11
Mountainside Hospital
1
1
1
1
1
NJ Veterans Affairs Healthcare System
7
8
8
9
9
U.S. Army
0
0
1
1
1
Total Resident Slots
27
26
27
28
28
10
2010-2011 PM&R Chief of Service Report
Fellowship and Post-doctoral Programs - The department offers physician fellowships in
seven subspecialty areas. None of these fellowships are funded by UMDNJ, but clinical
experiences are provided at UMDNJ and its affiliates.
1.
Spinal cord injury medicine*
2.
Musculoskeletal/pain medicine
3.
Traumatic brain injury
4.
Stroke
5.
Pediatric rehabilitation medicine**
6.
Research – Neuropsychology & Neuroscience***
7.
Research – Medical Rehabilitation Outcomes & Intervention Effectiveness***
8.
Neuromuscular Disease Fellowship (Dept. of Neurosciences) with Dr. Bach as a
mentor
*The Spinal Cord Injury Medicine fellowship is one of only 14 in the nation that has been
accredited by the ACGME.
**We are awaiting notification of accreditation of the Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine fellowship
***NIDRR and Multiple Sclerosis training grants.
Note that Fellows in Brain Injury, Spinal Cord Injury, and Musculoskeletal/Pain management
work in The University Hospital and clinics as well as the DOC, even though neither the hospital
nor the Medical School provides their salary support. Rather, they are paid from grants and
clinical practice revenues in collaboration with our other teaching sites at which they rotate. All
postdoctoral fellows in the department are currently paid and their training supported by federal
training grants obtained through Kessler Foundation Research Center.
The 23st Annual Resident, Fellow, and Postdoctoral Fellow Research Day was held June
1st, 2011. There were 16 platform presentations and 20 poster presentations.
Continuing Medical Education - The Department of PM&R put on its 23rd annual Board
Review Course March 17 – 25, 2011. We had 161 participants (156 full course and 5 optional
session only). Participants came from 18 states (New York was the largest with 60 attending)
as well as Canada, Puerto Rico, and Hong Kong. It is the largest PM&R Board Review course
in the nation.
Medical School Education - Our department remains actively involved in teaching within all
four years of the medical school curriculum. For first-year medical students, we have taught
clinical correlations within the Anatomy course (including correlations with musculoskeletal
ultrasound). For second-year medical students, we teach within both the lectures and the
hands-on workshops for the musculoskeletal physical exam skills as part of the CORE-2 course.
This involved having nine to ten PM&R physicians per afternoon to run the musculoskeletal
workshops. For third-year medical students, students do elective rotations within our
department as well as obtain exposure to our department during their rotations within other
departments. For fourth-year medical students, our department has a mandatory two week
clerkship. Last year we also had 102 elective clerkships (two to four weeks) such as Pediatrics,
Ambulatory Care, Alternative Medicine, Research, Sports Medicine, Neuromuscular Disease,
etc. We have continued our implementation of a check-list that documents each medical
student’s competencies in musculoskeletal physical exam skills. The Medical Student PM&R
Club is very active.
Grants and Research - The department has no dedicated research space on the Newark
campus. However; it has 23,000 square feet at the Kessler Foundation Research Center in
West Orange. There are 15 full-time PhD researchers and two full-time MD researchers at the
11
2010-2011 PM&R Chief of Service Report
Research Center. The research organization has 62 employees and a $10 million annual
budget with approximately $6.2 million annually from external grants.
Therapy Services Student Affiliations - Physical therapy services trained 14 clinical
doctoral students and 9 physical therapist assistant students.
Occupational therapy trained five students this year.
Speech Language Pathology trained five students and had 25 observers.
New Programs and Services:
New program development in Therapy Services has not been aggressive due to staffing and
budgetary constraints.
Quality Improvement Program:
Our routine monitors for Risk Management are continued:
Patient Injury during treatment or diagnostic procedure: 0
Patient falls during therapy visit: 0
Medical emergencies occurring during treatment &/or diagnostic procedures: <1%
Physician Outcome Measures - The outcomes of high volume and/or high risk outpatient
interventions are being followed for physicians on an ongoing basis with data updates every
three months for credentialing purposes. In addition, a high risk physician inpatient intervention
is being monitored for 2010-11 QI: the efficacy of successful extubation of patients admitted /
transferred to UH specifically for having failed extubation elsewhere.
THERAPY MONITORS
Inpatient monitors: The monitors listed below are required by at least one or all of the
following accrediting agencies: Department of Health, The Joint Commission, or Medicare.
1. All Physical Therapy Assistant notes must be co-signed by a Physical Therapist;
2. All documentation must be complete and accurate supporting any charges billed;
3. Timely initiation of an evaluation for our inpatients (access of services).
The following clinical outcome measures are used to monitor the effectiveness of therapy
interventions:
4. Any improvement in function for CVA patients is noted following Occupational / Physical
Therapy treatment;
5. Any improvement in swallowing for CVA patients is noted following Speech-Language
Pathology intervention;
6. Quality Control checks are made on our equipment, either daily, monthly or per usage.
Outpatient routine monitors:
1. All Medicare / Medicaid patients on programs must have a valid Physician’s order;
2. All Medicare patients on program must have a Physician’s certification / recertification with
regard to the plan of care for treatment;
3. All documentation must be complete and accurate supporting any charges billed;
4. Quality Control checks are made on our equipment, either daily, monthly or per usage.
12
2010-2011 PM&R Chief of Service Report
Future Clinical Goals / Plans / Programs:

To increase UH clinic volumes as therapy staffing increases

Further expand the volume of diagnostic and interventional ultrasound procedures
including adding procedures that are not currently being done

Further expand the injured workers program by increasing volume of outside referrals

Continue or expand the volume in the Department’s Coccyx Pain Center

The focus for Rehab Therapy will be to increase staffing and fill the vacant positions

Transition the DOC 3319 from Same Day Surgery to the Department of PM&R for a new
revenue center and PM&R will have budgetary control. This will benefit all patients
including injured workers and hospital patients.

Inpatient therapy staff will consistently utilize a discharge instruction sheet when
discharging patients from the hospital.

We plan to submit for a NIDRR Model SCI grant

To have a Mirror Therapy Center of Excellence (for amputees, stroke patients and
patients with reflex sympathetic and other conditions) established at UH

Solicit the Department of Health and Senior Services and other Trenton departments to
take advantage of the unique skills of UH physicians to develop a program to extubate
permanently ventilator dependent individuals without resort to tracheotomy or longterm institutionalization. This has been estimated to have the potential to save the
State of New Jersey over $10 million per year.
Compliance with medical record completion requirements:
The department began actively tracking completion of the physicians’ clinic records in the third
quarter of FY07. As of the end of May 2011, the department had no unsigned outpatient
records.
PM&R Publications by UMDNJ Salaried Faculty (listed by calendar year)
2010
2009
2008
2007
Peer-reviewed
Manuscripts
14
12
8
21
Book
Chapters
12
6
2
0
Books
2
0
0
0
Abstracts
15
10
0
0
13
Commentaries/
Reviews
6
9
10
23
Total
49
37
20
44
2010-2011 PM&R Chief of Service Report
PM&R Publications by Kessler Foundation Research Center (listed by calendar year)
2010
2009
2008
2007
Peer-reviewed
Manuscripts
41
46
30
27
Book
Chapters
13
6
3
5
Books
2
0
2
1
Abstracts
31
33
34
0
Commentaries/
Reviews
0
8
1
2
Total
87
93
70
35
PM&R Publications by Residents (listed by calendar year)
2010
2009
2008
2007
Peer-reviewed
Manuscripts
1
6
10
4
Book
Chapters
0
1
0
0
Case
Reports
5
1
7
1
Abstracts
12
14
0
0
Total
18
22
17
5
PM&R Publications by Post-docs (listed by calendar year)
2010
2009
2008
2007
Peer-reviewed
Manuscripts
11
7
4
5
Book
Chapters
0
0
0
0
Case
Reports
0
0
0
0
Abstracts
14
4
0
0
Total
25
11
4
5
The Fifth Edition of “Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Principles and Practice” was released
November 15, 2010. Dr. Joel DeLisa serves as Editor Emeritus on the textbook. Bruce Gans is
an associate editor. Todd Stitik is on the editorial Board. Numerous faculty and past trainees
contributed to the textbook. The book is two volumes, 83 chapters and 2,432 pages in length.
Taken right from Amazon.com: “Thoroughly updated and now in full color, DeLisa's Physical
Medicine and Rehabilitation is the "gold standard" in the field of physical medicine and
rehabilitation. It is the most modern and comprehensive book in the field. It can serve as both an
introductory book for residents and a comprehensive reference book for practitioners. One
volume covers physical medicine, the other rehabilitation medicine. Physical medicine covers
principles of diagnosis and management, therapeutic approaches, and the management of
specific conditions. Rehabilitation medicine covers the evaluation of the rehab patient,
managing the rehab patient, and rehabilitation strategies and interventions.”
Outstanding Issues:

Resolve longstanding space constraints and/or renovate existing space. The
department is fragmented with academic and clinical space in three locations: The
University Hospital, the Doctors Office Center and ADMC. This split reduces efficiency.
Also, in the DOC, four faculty, three residents, and a varying number of fellows and
medical students continue to share three offices, six examination rooms, and one
procedure room, making this clinical suite extremely congested. The severe shortage of
clinical space assigned to PM&R in the DOC limits patient volume and impairs the
quality of the teaching experience for residents and medical students. The introduction
of a PM&R clinic in the DOC has created new space challenges. The waiting and
registration areas were not designed to accommodate the additional volume.
14