Grant Application

Prakash Jayabalan, MD, PhD of UPMC Mercy Stroke Rehab Unit and UPMC Montefiore; Jennifer Shen, MD, Terry Breisinger, PT, Rebecca Kaplan, PT, Kelly Vitti, PT of UPMC Mercy Stroke Rehab Unit; Elizabeth Greene, DPT, Julie Lanphere, DO ofUPMC Montefiore Rehab Unit

 

Proposed Innovation

The goals of the project were to improve patient motivation during rehabilitation with increased satisfaction and better outcomes. This was done by providing patients with video recordings of their gait progression along with graphical representations of their change in function.

 

Improvements in Action

Through the project, iPads were used to record patients twice a week during therapy sessions. The rehabilitation staff later reviewed the videos with each patient in their weekly one-on-one counseling session. The patient’s motivation, satisfaction, and progress was then assessed and compared to patients who did not have any video recordings taken.

 

Results

Results showed that 100 percent of the patients participating in the project felt the videos improved their satisfaction with rehabilitation and improved their motivation to continue therapy. Ninety-five percent of the patients strongly recommended the video recordings for other patients in rehabilitation. In addition, patients who viewed the graphics and videos of their sessions had a slightly shorter length of stay in rehab than those who received the standard care.

After being presented the results of this project, UPMC equipped the rehab unit with a “Computer on Wheels” to record and track patient progress, providing immediate visual feedback to patients.