A multicentre exercise: developing an indicator for the physiotherapy management of acute low back pain

The collection of information from a number of treatment centres is necessary for the development of diagnosis-specific treatment norms. From these data, realistic outcomes of treatment can be determined and significant risk factors identified. By comparing individual therapists' data with the overall treatment norms, acceptable levels of variation can be established. A prospective pilot study on acute low back pain, which examined both patient characteristics and outcomes of physiotherapy intervention, was conducted among one-third of the private physiotherapy practices in Tasmania. There was no previously developed methodology on which to base the study. As a result, the distribution of treatment numbers was first examined in order to flag the mean number of treatments. The outcome of the patient groups which fell on either side of the mean flag (the normal and outlying patient groups) was then defined. A clinical indicator was developed from both treatment numbers and outcome.