Colombia

Welcome to Worldwide Physical Therapy Practice: a focus on Primary Care Physical Therapy

This is a project created by and for the students in the School of Physical Therapy at the University of St. Augustine in St. Augustine Florida. Please do not edit unless you are involved in this project, but please come back in the near future to check out new information!!

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Patient Access to Physiotherapy or Physical Therapy Services / Entry Point

In Colombia patients have access to physical therapy either through private health insurance or goverment health insurances. All Colombians have mandaory affiliation to health insurance services provided largely by the goverment, which are called EPS ( Entidad Promotora de Salud), IPS (Instituciones Prestadoras de Servicios) or POS (Plan Obligatorio de Salud).In all cases a physician referral is necessary, except for those who will pay privately. 1 

The physicians or EPS are the ones who determine when therapy services start and when do they finish. The frequency,lenght and amount of sessions need previous insurance authorizacion and are based on the type of insurance and not so much the need of the patient.1

Therapist Preparation

In order for students to initiate a physical therapy program, first they need to pass a national competence test upon high school graduation.This test is called ICFES. According to the score in this test students can be admitted in public or private colleges or universities, usually goverment colleges demand a high ICFES score. 2

All entry level programs in Colombia are Bachelors' level and last anywhere from eight to ten semesters. The last one or two semesters are internship programs in public health institutions under direct or undirect teacher supervision. 

Degree/Credentialing

There are currently 34 programs nationwide. Upon completion of the program, all graduates will register with the department of health and be appointed a license to practice. Completion of the program alone will grant the license and there are no national physical therapy tests requiered in order to become licensed. 

Specialization

There are several colleges and universities throughout the country with five main specialty approaches:

Neuro-Rehabilitation

Adult Critical Care

Cardiopulmonary

Trauma and Orthopedia 3

Manual Therapy 

Therapeutic Physical Activity

Hand and Upper Extremity Rehabilitation

Comprehensive Integration in Motor Disability

Management and Formulation in Kinetic Conditioning Programs 4

Professional Associations

Colombian Association of Students of Physiotherapy  Asociacion Colombiana de Estudiantes de Fisioterapia (ACEFIT)

Colombian Physiotherapy Association- Asociacion Colombianna de Fisioterapia (ASCOFI): Non-profit national entity formed by physitherapist whose main objective is to defend and look for the integral development for the profession in all areas 5

References

1. http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0036-36342011000800010
   
2. http://www.elsevier.es/es-revista-revista-iberoamericana-fisioterapia-kinesiologia-176-articulo-analisis-critico-educacion-fisioterapia-colombia-S1138604511000037
   
3. http://www.cursosycarreras.co/posgrados-fisioterapia-TC-4-755
4. http://www.educaedu-colombia.com/postgrado/fisioterapia