Acute Conversations

Show Notes: How do physical therapists decide who needs therapy today—and how often—when resources are limited and patient needs change by the hour? In this episode of Acute Conversations, hosts Leo Arguelles and Daniel Young sit down with Joshua Johnson, Sandra Passek, and Brittany Lapin to unpack the development and validation of PT-PENCIL, a clinical decision support tool designed to help acute care PTs prioritize care using real-world data. The conversation goes beyond algorithms. The guests walk through how a multidisciplinary learning community shaped PT-PENCIL, why documentation quality matters more than we think, and how predictive models can support—rather than replace—clinical judgment. They also tackle the realities of “it depends,” workflow integration, and why identifying patients on the fence may be where therapy makes the biggest impact. This episode is a must-listen for clinicians, educators, and leaders navigating triage, staffing, and value-based care in today’s hospitals. Today’s Guests: Joshua Johnson PT, DPT, PhD joshua.johnson@duke.edu Sandra Passek PT, DPT, Rehabilitation Manager Clinical Informatics at Cleveland Clinic Brittany Lapin PhD, Associate Professor of Biostatistics lapinb@ccf.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-lapin-004710b/ Guest Quotes: 7:44 “ I can’t help therapists set a frequency at the outset of a patient’s hospitalization. The best thing we could do and what we felt like really was the most appropriate thing to do was help therapists recognize which patients they needed to see the next day.” 20:43 “really what we found is that everybody benefits from PT. And so that ended up having a lot of discussions with the learning community about how do we then flag patients based on like clinically driven decisions rather than just the statistical model?” 32:27 “ So while we said a lot about helping individual clinicians make decisions about triage. I also think that there’s an opportunity here for managers and leaders to think through, how can I do something like that to support the clinicians that work for me.” Rapid Responses:   What patient population do you enjoy thinking about or working with the most? Brittany: “ As a statistician, I like surgical patients the most because there’s a date, there’s a pre and there’s a post.” Sandi “I like the geriatric population. It doesn’t matter what it is. I think there’s just a lot to learn from them.” Josh “ When I see patients I’m usually on our neurological floor and I really enjoy that. But I’ll admit a bias that I’ve, this little bit of time that I’ve spent in cardiovascular ICUs have been absolutely fascinating. And if I were to do full-time clinical care, I’d want to get trained to really take care of that population.” You know you work in acute care when… Josh “ Your treatment plan changes three times before you make it from the doorway to the edge of the bed.” Sandi “Things change all the time in acute care. You just have to be ready for it. You have to be resilient and just move with it.” Brittany “  📍 Lots of sensitivity analysis with your/any studies.” Links: https://academic.oup.com/ptj/article-abstract/105/9/pzaf093/8198102?redirectedFrom=fulltext 🎧 Connect with Our Hosts Leo Arguelles (pronounced LEE-O R-GWELL-IS) 📧 largue2@uic.edu 🐦 Twitter: @LeoArguellesPT Nicole Neveau, PT, DPT, NCS 📧 ngunder1@gmail.com 🔗 LinkedIn: Nicole Neveau Danny Young, PT, DPT, PhD 📧 daniel.young@unlv.edu 🐦 X: @DLYoungDPTPhD 🌐 Bluesky: @dlyoungdptphd.bsky.social 🎧 Listen now on Spotify | Apple Podcasts (Or wherever you get your podcasts) #AcuteCare #PhysicalTherapy #ClinicalEducation #HealthcareLeadership Interested in being a future guest? APTA Acute Care: Website Awards Journal Access https://www.aptaacutecare.org/page/AspireandAchieveMentorshipProgram Twitter @AcuteCareAPTA Facebook APTA Acute Care Instagram @AcademyAcutePT YouTube  APTA Acute Care Podcast APTA Acute Care Resources APTA Adult Vital Signs APTA Lab Values Document Webinar Recordings