An overview of the Australian Physiotherapy Association accredited practice data collection.

The Accreditation Committee of the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) undertook a national survey of accredited private practices from September to November 1995. It aimed to describe patient and episodes of care characteristics, and provide accredited practices with large scale quality improvement opportunities. Of the private practices accredited in August 1995, 40.6 per cent (122) participated. Data were generated on 12,403 rooms-based patients. Practice-specific information on patient and episode characteristics was sent to each participant, allowing individual comparison with the group data. Lessons were learnt, not only in the administration of multi-centre studies, but also in the focus of future studies. This study highlighted the need to develop standard diagnosis coding and robust outcome measurements for use in private physiotherapy practice.