An Emergency Department Physical Therapist (PT) provides specialized physical therapy services in a fast-paced acute care setting, focusing on patients with emergent musculoskeletal, neurological, or cardiopulmonary issues. Key responsibilities include bedside evaluation, non-pharmacological pain management, prescribing assistive devices, providing education, facilitating safe discharge, and collaborating with the interdisciplinary team to optimize patient outcomes, reduce hospital admissions, and improve overall ED efficiency.
Core Responsibilities
Patient Evaluation:
Perform bedside assessments and evaluations for patients presenting with acute musculoskeletal, neurological, vestibular, or cardiopulmonary dysfunctions.
Direct Intervention:
Provide direct physical therapy interventions, including manual therapy, therapeutic exercises, and patient education on injury management and pain reduction.
Mobility & Safety:
Instruct patients in bed mobility, transfers, and safe use of assistive devices to improve functional mobility and prevent falls.
Pain Management:
Utilize non-pharmacological methods, such as heat, ice, and compression, to manage pain and reduce reliance on medication.
Discharge Planning:
Assist in discharge planning by evaluating patient mobility and safety for home or further care, coordinating with community resources, and providing patient and family education.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration:
Work with other healthcare professionals, including nurses and physicians, to contribute to diagnostic clarity, treatment plan development, and disposition decisions.
Key Skills & Competencies
Advanced Clinical Reasoning:
Ability to quickly and accurately assess patient conditions in an acute setting and develop appropriate treatment plans.
Strong Communication:
Effective communication skills to work with patients, families, and the interdisciplinary team.
Position/Opportunity Highlights:
Opportunity to work in part of a multi-disciplinary team
Opportunity to work in a Regional, Non-Profit Hospital
Opportunity to work for an organization that promotes continued education
Qualifications:
Master's or higher
Indiana license to practice physical therapy.
American Heart Association's BLS for Healthcare Providers required
We offer competitive salaries and excellent benefits. We are conveniently located 10 minutes from downtown Louisville at 1850 State Street, New Albany, IN 47150. EOE.
Work Experience
Education
Founded in 1924 in Louisville, Kentucky, Baptist Health is a full-spectrum health system dedicated to improving the health of the communities it serves. The Baptist Health family consists of nine hospitals, employed and independent physicians, and more than 400 points of care, including outpatient facilities, physician practices and services, urgent care clinics, outpatient diagnostic and surgery centers, home care, fitness centers, and occupational medicine and physical therapy clinics.
Baptist Health’s eight owned hospitals include more than 2,300 licensed beds in Corbin, Elizabethtown, La Grange, Lexington, Louisville, Paducah, Richmond and New Albany, Indiana. Baptist Health also operates the 410-bed Baptist Health Deaconess Madisonville in Madisonville, Kentucky in a joint venture with Deaconess Health System based in Evansville, Indiana. Baptist Health employs more than 23,000 people in Kentucky and surrounding states.
Baptist Health is the first health system in the U.S. to have all of its hospitals recognized by the American Nursing Credentialing Center with either a Magnet® or Pathway to Excellence® designation for nursing excellence.
Baptist Health’s employed provider network, Baptist Health Medical Group, has nearly 1,500 providers, including more than 750 physicians and more than 740 advanced practice clinicians. Baptist Health’s physician network also includes more than 2,000 independent physicians.
Learn more at BaptistHealth.com.
