The Occupational Therapist is directly responsible to the Director and/or the Occupational Therapy Supervisor or designee for non-direct patient care issues. The Occupational Therapist has the responsibility for overall direction, utilization, supervision, instruction, and evaluation of professional and supportive staff, volunteers, and students in their area of the occupational therapy department/facility.

Supervision – To supervise the activities of their area in the department/facility to include:

· Scheduling patients for treatment and evaluations.

· Preparing reports and records as directed by Occupational Therapy Supervisor or Director of Rehabilitation.

· Maintaining inventory of materials for their area of the department/facility.

· Utilizing skills of volunteers who may assist in their area.

· Utilizing skills of Student Occupational Therapists and Certified Occupational Therapist Assistants within their area.

· Utilizing skills of Rehab Aides appropriately.

Evaluations:

· To be responsible for the evaluation of patients referred for occupational therapy.

· To be responsible for completion and submission of all reports pertaining to the evaluation in a timely manner.

· To see that all referral sources are advised of department/facility action with the case referred.

Treatment:

· To practice Occupational Therapy consistent with the Minnesota Department of Health Occupational Therapy Practitioner Regulations and Statues and American Occupational Therapy Association standards policies in this manual.

· To maintain a patient treatment schedule consistent with the needs of the department/ facility.

· To confer with the person(s) most closely associated with the active management of the patient and to keep them informed of any additional patients needs, treatment modification, and/or progress.

· To treat patients and function as a Staff Occupational Therapist as necessary.

· To treat patients of any age (e.g., infants, children, adolescents, adults, geriatrics, elderly, ages 0-120 years), race, creed, gender and disability without bias or prejudice.

· To respect and understand the patient’s right to treatment and right to involvement in treatment decisions.

· To practice ethical responsibility based on the cultural, ethnic and religious beliefs of the patients served and applicable laws

Records and Reports:

· As per facility guidelines to be responsible for the authentication, preparation and submission of department/facility reports, ensuring confidentiality of all records, including:

a. Evaluation reports/summaries

b. Discharge reports/summaries

c. Progress reports to referring physicians and agencies

d. Current progress notes on all patients within their area

e. Special reports as requested by the Director and/or Occupational Therapy Supervisor.

f. Daily attendance records and summaries of same.