We had an open access PT clinic and we compared new visits to new visits with a sports medicine doctor (not orthopedist).

The PTs had an almost 50% referral rate to other clinics while the sports medicine doctors had a 10% referral rate (in other words, they took care of everything 90% of the time).

The patients who saw sports medicine averaged 2 appointments and the patients who saw PT averaged 8 appointments before their treatment was completed.

We weren’t able to study actual outcomes so you can’t really take away too much.

I tremendously respect the PTs I work with. With that said, their diagnostic skills are often not as strong as a sports med or ortho doc and they will require a lot more visits because their solution will almost always be PT (as expected). There are many issues that simply don’t require PT.

I would personally see a sports medicine doctor first and then go to a PT if indicated. Always get a good diagnosis first.