If your practice is still using pen and paper, the thought of electronic medical records can be daunting.

Nitin Chhoda explains how to boost productivity using a web-based documentation system to make life easy for the practice owner, the staff and the biller.

physical therapy documentation systemsProductivity is a key element in all facets of a physical therapy practice, from obtaining vital patient information to receiving reimbursements.

For a struggling clinic, an increase in productivity can mean the difference between eliminating positions to hiring new staff that can help the practice grow.

Physical therapy documentation software provides automation of tasks for increased productivity for every member of a clinic’s team.

As new treatments become available and reimbursement regulations escalate, an EMR provides better and more elaborate coding and physical therapy documentation options to satisfy third-party payer provisions.

Physical Therapy Documentation

Every therapist has experienced the time consuming process of recording, rebilling and providing explanations to insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid. EMRs offer multiple coding abilities for practices working with an extensive array of providers to ensure therapists are adequately paid and clients receive ongoing care.

Employee wages constitute one of the largest expenses for a physical therapy practice. Clinic owners can utilize their physical therapy documentation software to ascertain where the abilities of staff members can best be allocated. An EMR helps therapists ascertain if they’re overstaffed, identify time wasters, and where positions can be eliminated for greater overall productivity.

Patient Scheduling

A full patient schedule is one of the goals of a productive practice and a physical therapy documentation system provides essential information therapists can use to market their clinic successfully. Referrals can be monitored and marketing efforts tracked to ascertain methods that work best based on a variety of demographics.

physical therapy documentationAn EMR provides improved patient management, eliminating duplication of testing, prescriptions and treatments. Lost charts and missing information is never a problem with physical therapy documentation software.

A secure patient record is created that can be accessed by numerous medical professionals and quickly updated as surgeries, procedures, prescriptions and treatments are implemented.

Patient care can begin immediately instead of waiting for essential records to be transported by the postal service.

The Advantage of a Physical Therapy Documentation Software

Those in the medical professions have notoriously bad handwriting that’s eliminated with an EMR. Personal notes can be added with no loss of legibility.

Therapists work with a wide variety of incidental documents that includes work and school excuses, referral letters and requests for records. Physical therapy documentation software allows therapists to produce and transmit those and a myriad of other documents with just a few clicks.

There’s no need to maintain copious amounts of physical therapy documentation paper-based records, space to house them, or engage staff in the time consuming task of finding them with an EMR.

‘Patient information is available at a moment’s notice anywhere an Internet connection is available, reducing the time needed to implement a course of treatment. EMRs speak for a patient in an emergency, preventing errors or inappropriate treatment.

Clients like the convenience of patient portals with physical therapy documentation software, but patient portals save significant time and effort for therapists. Insurance information can be validated prior to services and a complete health history can be submitted, allowing practice owners to familiarize themselves with the client’s data and formulate possible options.

The highest level of productivity is necessary for clinics to survive and thrive and EMRs provide practices with the tools to achieve that, along with tools to analyze trends and the productivity of their entire business operation.