Strategies for increasing referrals for occupational therapy in home health care

The paucity of home health care referrals for occupational therapy led us to develop an educational approach to increase both the referral sources and the number of referrals to occupational therapy. With a consistent effort to exercise clearly identified strategies, the occupational therapy referrals at the Visiting Nurse Association of Porter County, Indiana, increased threefold from the number of referrals at the same time last year. The greater staff awareness of the need for occupational therapy in home health care requires occupational therapists to continually prevent old nonreferring habits from reemerging and to orient and educate new staff members as they enter the home health care field.