9- FOXcast OT: Patty Hoffman And Marv Lawson At AOTA ’18

Jimmy: This is FOXcast OT, a podcast for clinicians made by clinicians. It’s brought to you by FOX Rehabilitation. Find out more at foxrehab.org.

Alright, here we are at FOXcast OT, live from AOTA in Salt Lake City. My name is Jimmy McKay, I’ll be your host for this podcast created by clinicians for clinicians. In the expo hall right now and we’re surrounded by OTs from around the country and around the world. I saw some international stuff going on, too. And I want to introduce some of my colleagues at FOX Rehabilitation. Ladies first – introduce yourself.

Patty: My name’s Patty Hoffman. I’m an occupational therapist, for 28 years.

Jimmy: Let’s hear it for 28 years in OT. I like that.

Patty: I started when I was five.

Jimmy: You started when you were five – good! No, that’s good! And to her radio left:

Marv: So I’m Marv Lawson, I’ve been with FOX Rehab for 15 years.

Jimmy: 15 years.

Marv: I’ve been an OT for, I don’t know, for 22 years.

Jimmy: Yeah, let’s hear it for that – I like that! And you guys were presenting here, dropping some science knowledge on us, right? You guys who are part of the poster presentations, which has began going on all day.

Patty: Correct.

Marv: We are!

Jimmy: What’s the skinny on your poster presentation? What did people get when they were coming to talk to you guys in front of your poster?

Marv: The purpose of the poster presentation today was to help people understand the differences between Occupational Therapy home care delivery under Medicare Part A versus under what we can do under Medicare Part B – which is what we do.

Patty: One of the best differences I think is that it’s preventative versus reactive. So somebody can get a therapy referral to OT without having had a hospital stay, without having had an injury, or an illness, and that allows us to go in there and focus more on the wellness aspect of care which is really nice.

Marv: I have done home care under Medicare Part A. I did that for about, I don’t know, six or seven years.

Jimmy: So you’re a great person to look at this from A to B, because you’ve done both.

Marv: Yeah, I had a really good understanding of what that was about. Some of the differences include, you know under Medicare Part B the patient does not have to be homebound…

Jimmy: Right.

Marv: Under Medicare Part A they do. Another thing that some OT’s are really happy about, others or not, is that under Medicare Part B there’s no OASIS form that you have to spend a lot of time, you know, filling out. So we can sort of skip that and get right down to the nitty gritty of what we do.

Jimmy: Do the thing that you want to do.

Marv: Absolutely! Well, whatever the patient or the client needs from us is what we do!

Jimmy: What were some of the questions? Did you guys get any good questions? Because that’s the fun part, right? You get to stand there in front of your own poster and field questions.

Patty: The best question that we get every year is: “I had no idea you could do this!”

Jimmy: Yeah.

Patty: And it’s great to be able to share with them exactly what the Medicare regulations say, that yes – you can do this and this is how it works.

Marv: The other question that we get every year is: “Why don’t you bring this to Utah? Why don’t you bring this to wherever the conference happens to be that year?”.

Patty: “We really need this.”

Marv: Yeah, “We really need this.” Because, uh, especially out here – on the west coast or in the western states – it’s pretty much unheard of. They just don’t even understand that it’s a possibility. A lot of people are saying “That’s exactly what we need! Come to Utah!” or wherever it is, so….

Jimmy: That’s gotta be pretty fun!

Marv: Yeah, it is fun.

Jimmy: You know, your colleagues from different states saying” “Oh wow – the thing you do, I would love if that were here! I would love to jump in and do that.”.

Marv: Yup.

Patty: It is – it’s really exciting. So we gave out our booth number a million times today.

Jimmy: Good!

Patty: And just said: “Come talk to us”.

Jimmy: Come talk! We’ve got stuff for you to take home, or, as always, we like to say – especially with this digital age, you can read about stuff on the airplane, in the Uber, whatever – so foxrehab.org is where you can find out really about us. And, you know, we’ve got people like….

Marv: Right.

Jimmy: People like you guys, who can field any of those questions so the best part is – check out our results.

Patty: Right. And the neat thing is too, like a lot of people were like “You know, well I don’t understand exactly what it would look like. Like if I have someone with dementia…” And we were like “Okay, well tomorrow we’re doing a three hour workshop on dementia, and we’ll tell you exactly how and what we can do under Medicare B.”

Jimmy: What’s some highlights to that talk to people walking by right now thinking “Hey what should I look at tomorrow?” What’s the highlights of a dementia talk?

Marv: So now the new term or phrase is neurocognitive disorder. And, so we’re sort of explaining how dementia fits into that and everything from like a mild cognitive impairment to late stage dementia. And we’re going through the stages and when we go through the stages we sort of explain the different assessments that you can use to figure out where somebody is on the GDS scale – the Global Deterioration Scale – and then provide interventions for each appropriate stage, as well as documentation and how to do appropriate documentation for Medicare B purposes.

Jimmy: Yeah, and if you are working in that environment, it’s good to hear from someone who is.

Marv: Yes.

Patty: I think the best thing about our workshop is that it’s really practical. We really give them great ideas that they can take home and used on Monday.

Jimmy: I love when…

Marv: Absolutely.

Jimmy: I Love when you see that light bulb moment when someone’s listening to a talk and they’re going “I know the exact client I’m going to use this with tomorrow when I fly home,” taking notes, and that’s the great light bulb moment. What are some of the things that you’ve seen here at this conference that have left an impression?

Marv: I’m kind of excited to get out there and see what is there. I’m a DRS, which is a Driving Rehab Specialist, so I always like to go over and see what’s new in that arena.

Patty: For me, being out West this year is interesting because I’m interested in dabbling a little bit in academia. So I’m getting some exposure and some introductions to some schools that I otherwise wouldn’t have.

Jimmy: A little elbow rubbing right there, right?

Patty: Absolutely!

Jimmy: It doesn’t hurt to elbow rub.

Patty: Nope!

Jimmy: Tradition on the show here – it’s called your FOXtale. So the question is: FOX Rehabilitation, working mainly with older adults, why did you start working with older adults? Why that, why that client population specifically?

Marv: I like this question. This is a going for me. I remember when I was in school, like one of the last days before we were actually out and starting our field work level two assignments, they put us sort of in a circle on the floor, and they asked us: “What do you want to do?” And we had 25 undergraduate students in my class and 25 graduate students. And out of all those probably 90 percent of the people wanted to work in pediatrics. And I said “I don’t want to work in pediatrics because I’m not really a kid person, at all!” But I really found an affinity with the older adult population and I kind of knew that’s what I wanted to do! That’s what I’ve done my whole career!

Jimmy: Did know that going into school?

Marv: No, not going into school, I didn’t.

Jimmy: Yeah, ok. I love that organic finding.

Marv: Probably when I went into school I would have never thought that.

Patty: Right.

Marv: But it’s funny, you know, how you change over time.

Patty: Yup.

Jimmy: Alright, why’d did you choose this Patty? Why’d you choose this population?

Patty: I love their stories. I love to hear where they’ve come from, where they’ve been, to really kind of get to the core of the person that they are, and just the experiences that they’ve had fascinate me. I had one gentleman that I was working with who, he said: “Come here! Come into my office – I need to show you something.” And he showed me his college diploma, which was signed by the president of the college – Calvin Coolidge.

Jimmy: Wow…

Patty: Who, before he was President of the United States was president of his college.

Jimmy: Wow, I did not know that!

Patty: You’re not going to find that with any other population.

Jimmy: Yeah, that’s great.

Marv: So true.

Jimmy: Well perfect. We appreciate guys taking some time out talking about the many things you guys in particular are doing here at AOTA 2018 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Thank you guys very much – we appreciate it!

Patty: Thank you!

Jimmy: Thanks for listening to FOXcast OT, a clinically excellent podcast. It’s brought to you by FOX Rehabilitation. Listen to other episodes or read articles and position papers at foxrehab.org.