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Accreditation

The Ola Grimsby Institute is approved by the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapy (AAOMPT) to teach Clinical Physical Therapy Residencies and Fellowships respectively. The APTA refers on their site to this approval process as Accreditation of these post-professional programs. This should not be confused with the Academic Accreditation process such as what the Commission on Accreditation of Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) provides for entry-level physical therapy programs.

CAPTE is the accrediting agency for Universities teaching entry-level physical therapy education. It does not provide accreditation to any post-professional physical therapy programs such as residency or fellowship.

A University may be accredited by CAPTE. That does not provide accreditation to their post-professional program. In this light, a school may claim to offer a Residency or Fellowship program by an accredited University. This is true, but confusing to the potential student. The university is accredited but not for those professional programs.

At this point in time, no post-professional program has academic accreditation. Primarily due to the fact that these post-professional programs do not offer degrees. There are a few exceptions that tie their residency to a Master’s program in Health Sciences. In those cases, the residency is not accredited, the Master’s in Health Sciences is instead. There is also a lack of an accrediting agency for specific post professional physical therapy programs.

The Ola Grimsby Institute is the only Post-professional Institution approved by the Board of Education for granting post-professional clinical and Academic degrees, the Doctor of Manual Therapy and the PhD in Orthopaedic Manual Therapy respectively. These degrees meet all University standards for terminal degree granting. IRB approved clinical trials are performed, Dissertation committees are developed for each student by Health Care and Research Experts that are full Faculty at major Universities, and the development of a full professional Dissertation with defense. The PhD program is a 3-year full time Academic program with original research and completed, defended and published Dissertation.

These degrees offered by the Ola Grimsby Institute are approved by the Board of Education, but are not accredited. The Ola Grimsby Institute is working through the process to be granted full accreditation, though this will take a number of years. They are the first and only program working towards this goal of full academic accreditation of a post-professional program. When granted accreditation, students that have graduated during the process of gaining accreditation, will need to meet certain standards to receive the accredited degree. Every University that offers an Accredited program in physical therapy, at some point was not an accredited program itself. Every University must go through a probationary period of 1-3 years or more to gain accreditation. Those students graduating within that time frame graduate with a Board of Education approved degree. They will earn accreditation as the University gains approval for their program. The Ola Grimsby Institute is going through this identical situation and hopes to be able to offer the first Accredited post-professional physical therapy degrees in the World.