Physical therapists in private practice: information sources and information needs

Abstract

Increasing numbers of physical therapists are providing evaluation and therapy in their own private-practice clinics. Their move out of the hospital setting has reduced their access to the sources of information designed to support clinical and practice-management decision making. The author designed a survey to determine how often physical therapists in private practice in Vermont use seven sources of information for clinical and practice-management decision making. Survey respondents also were asked to rate the anticipated usefulness of a variety of health sciences library information and research services not currently available to them and to rank access paths to information according to their preferences. The therapists' responses show frequent reliance on personal and office collections of professional literature for clinical decision making but virtually no use of bibliographic databases. Respondents ranked document-delivery services and mediated searches as having the greatest anticipated usefulness for clinical decision making. The limitations of their current information-seeking behavior and their high level of interest in increased access to a wide range of information and research services make physical therapists in private practice of special interest to health sciences librarians who are planning outreach programs.