Interprofessional Sports Performance-rehabilitation Collaboration And Quality Improvement For A Division I Baseball Team

The make-up of clinical sports medicine teams responsible for athlete care at NCAA Division I institutions varies. Healthcare organizations have increasingly emphasized collaborative interprofessional (IP) practice and the evaluation of population health outcomes. Reports highlight challenges in translating evidence-based medicine and integrating multi-professional healthcare providers into sports medicine teams. PURPOSE: This quality improvement (QI) initiative aimed to describe, assess, share, and integrate evidence-based care and for overhead collegiate baseball athletes within the IP sports medicine team. METHODS: Physical therapists (PTs) collaborated with coaches and sports professionals to conduct a pre-season functional movement needs assessment for overhead baseball athletes. Due to an increase in elbow injuries reported by the coaching staff, a pre-season mobility screening of all BGSU baseball athletes was performed. PT faculty researchers presented the screening data and evidence-based intervention strategies to the sports medicine team in a structured web-conference later that Spring. Follow-up interviews with the head baseball coach and clinical care PT gauged the perceived changes and benefits of the initiative. RESULTS: This QI initiative resulted in six outcomes: 1) the addition of functional baseline multi-joint mobility screening and joint-preserving modifications to overhead power clean techniques, 2) the development of a coach-initiated athlete recovery check-in communication system, 3) increased focus on thoracic spine mobility in rehabilitation screening and intervention, 4) increased trust and integration of new members into an IP team, 5) the formation of a shared clinical research team, budget, and equipment, and 6) the addition of a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) specialty IP clinical education site agreement. CONCLUSION: The new DPT program at BGSU, in partnership with community healthcare employees, prompted a reassessment of athlete care and collaborative clinical medicine in a Division I NCAA athletic department. A team-based needs assessment of baseball athlete population health led to improvements in clinical, educational, scholarly, and IP domains.