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460 BCE
Initial Beginnings
Unofficially, some say the Physical Therapy profession started as far back as 460 B.C when Hippocrates and Galileo first started advocating for massage, manual therapy and hydrotherapy. Closer to home, in the U.S Physical therapy went through an important juncture in the 1900 when it became widely used to rehabilitate those stricken with polio in 1916 as that epidemic took hold before the advent of the Polio vaccine. -
World War I
At this time, Physical therapy practice focused mainly on rehabbing those with injuries from the war. Reconstruction aides were what the ones who engaged in this form of rehab were called. Some of the differences between the closely related fields of Physical and Occupational therapy begin to be seen in the wardrobe of the different type reconstruction aides. Aides that would eventually become PT's would wear short sleeves because they often used water mediums in treatments. -
PT associations
On this date, local associations came together and helped to form one main association in the American Women's Physical Therapeutic Association. The first president being Mary 'Mollie' McMillan. At one of the first meetings of this association it was discussed about whether to allow male therapists to be able to be admitted as members. -
Development of Standards
This was the year PT saw the adoption of its first 'Code of Ethics and Discipline'. Also there was the development of the first standards for accreditation for physical therapy education programs. -
Research
The research conducted by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (founded in 1937) which was backed by the very successful fund-raising campaign of the March of Dimes would help to progress the goals of the PT profession. Lucy Blair, who would later serve as the Executive Director of the APTA, worked for the March of Dimes during this time and placed PT's in polio treatment programs in rural areas. The NFIP would become one of the major supporters of the profession of PT. -
Hospital and Private Practice Expansion
The Polio (Salk) vaccine in 1956 allows the PT profession to move on from primarily being technicians to that of a professional practitioner. There started to be more private practices and the Self-Employed Section of the APTA was founded in 1955. Hospital practice also increased with the Hill-Burton Act, which funded building and expansion of hospitals throughout the country. -
Medicare Inclusion
The passage of the Allied health Professions Training Act in 1953 allows for baccalaureate degrees to become the standard for entry-level PT education. The Health Professions Education Act paves the way for the development of assistant levels of personnel and to help reduce the costs of services. In 1963 PT services were recognized and included in the Medicare program. -
Orthopedics, Cardiac and CVA Rehab Advancements
PT witnessed the expansion of practice into the management of orthopedics and cardiopulmonary disorders. Open-heart surgery is now possible and PT's practiced preoperative and postoperative rehab techniques. Also, Howard University in DC, was the first historically black university to establish a PT program and graduated 8 students in 1974. -
Tricare and PTAs
Previously physical therapy assistants were not included in Tricare's approved providers list by the Department of Defense. Meaning that PTAs could not get reimbursed from any treatment they performed on the patient. In this month, the DoD includes PTAs on the approved provider list with a majority of the same supervision rules as Medicare provides for. This is set to take affect April 16th. -
Telehealth
On this date South Carolina's Governor Henry McMaster issues an Executive Order declaring a public health emergency due to COVID-19, with this the state department of labor and licensing regulation amends some of its prior policies that excluded PT's and PTA's from billing under telehealth regulations and only granted this to physicians. Now PTs and PTAs will be allowed to provide services in this way in order to keep to the applicable social distancing standards for public health.
