Learn how EMR can be very beneficial to your practice. Discover how this latest physical therapy documentation can be more convenient when it comes to efficiency, productivity and reporting.

If you’ve heard anything about physical therapy software and electronic medical records (EMR), the reviews have probably been mixed.

Over the past five years, many physical therapy software systems have been implemented for the first time.

There are some systems that seem to work well for large scale hospitals and medical facilities, and there are others that improve the efficiency of the billing team but clinicians and doctors have not yet adopted their use.

The Challenging Times

The first few years of any new technology are challenging. Physical therapy software engineers are venturing into new territory. Healthcare providers are unlikely to see the value of something like EMR if they haven’t seen them successfully used in practice. A lot of skepticism, lack of enthusiasm, and problems with the software have given EMR a bit of a bad name.

But regardless, EMR systems are slowly increasing in popularity. More and more medical practices, from large hospitals to small private practices, are implementing technological improvements that are starting to be truly effective. Physical therapy software developers are working with early adopters of technologies to make changes that improve the systems.

Broad Strokes 

The process of implementation can be a bit burdensome, but forget that part for a few minutes and imagine a medical practice that has already implemented physical therapy software. Put aside concerns about cost, and imagine that instead of a paper folder and pencils or pens, the clinicians carry around small tablet computers that are hooked into your server, where all the EMR are stored.

Each time they change rooms and see a new patient, they can quickly pull up the record they need, scan it for the relevant details, and start taking notes on the current appointment.

Sounds like the future, doesn’t it? Well, it is the future of medicine. Each time the clinician finishes a visit with a patient, an alert is sent to the medical coding and billing staff.

At their most efficient, physical therapy software solutions could even provide the first draft of codes based on common terminology and previously agreed upon standards. In ten years, it may be that every practice is using some form of physical therapy software.

Convenience, Efficiency, and Reporting

The most basic benefits of EMR are in convenience and efficiency. A physical therapy software staff or member no longer needs to pull files for incoming patients and re-file the files that have been taken out during the day.

Communication between the clinician, assistants, and billers is made smooth and instantaneous.

A lot of time is spent in physical therapy private practices just getting things and information from here to there. Everything can move at the speed of automatic alerts and emails. This will free up time for more important tasks.

And for the management of physical therapy software, having all of the data in one place and easily accessible represents a big change to the way we do business. Reporting can highlight inefficiencies as well as efficient and effective practices. The benefits of having information at your fingertips are almost immeasurable.

Nitin Chhoda discusses the specific benefits of using electronic medical records in all aspects of your physical therapy business.  Useful advantages can be found in a variety of areas such as documentation, billing, scheduling, and reporting purposes.

While hospitals are struggling with a huge web of information to be managed by medical EMRs, physical therapy private practices have an advantage when implementing physical therapy software.

A private practice has a smaller number of employees to train. But most importantly, a physical therapy private practice has a very specific set of needs that physical therapy software can meet.

Reporting

For physical therapy management, nothing can compete with the reporting capabilities of physical therapy software. If reporting is used optimally, the average number of visits per patient can be easily checked.

This number can also be correlated with referral statistics. Inefficiencies can be identified where patients are most likely to self-discharge. In the past, this kind of detailed reporting would take a lot of time to compile. With physical therapy software, reports can be generated in minutes.

Billing Efficacy

Another realm where reporting does a very important job is within the billing department. Medical billing is notoriously cumbersome, with insurance companies paying roughly half of all submitted claims.

Physical therapy EMRs actually improve the success of submissions. Physical therapy software can help eliminate errors, increase the efficiency of the process, and make identifying the reasons for rejected or denied claims much simpler.

Medical billing staff will have access to tools that can track the insurance companies that reject or deny claims with the most regularity. Health care practice management can make decisions about keeping or dropping insurance companies based on real numbers.

Scheduling

Scheduling in a physical therapy private practice is also a place where inefficiency costs money. What happens when a patient cancels? How often do cancelled appointments get re-scheduled?

Do cancelled appointment slots get filled regularly? Are there patients who often do not show up for appointments? Physical therapy software review makes answering these questions simple, and provides solutions to fix problems with scheduling.

The Essentials

Managing a private practice is not a simple or easy job. Scheduling, medical billing and coding, and identification of inefficiencies can turn into time wasting tasks that lose money for the practice.

Handling these essential tasks is usually the job of the staff, but they can only do so much if they are still using outdated and flawed systems.

Inevitably, it is easy to tell which practices are using physical therapy software or a medical EMR.

When walking through the door of a modern physical therapy private practice, it is clear that an office has streamlined their practice management since they use a physical therapy software. Patients aren’t left waiting and the receptionist or medical assistant has the time to answer questions.

Of course, physical therapy private practices that use physical therapy software are more efficient, have better insurance claim acceptance rates, and tend to adjust quickly to problems that arise. The initial transition period always presents challenges. But the value of adding physical therapy software to your practice is well worth the work and time.

Investing in a tablet-based EMR can do a lot for your practice. Although it is not a requirement to have tablets in your practice, doing so will make the physical therapy documentation process a lot faster. Nitin Chhoda explains the benefits of having a tablet in your practice in further detail.

Tablet computers are everywhere these days. They are used as educational tools, as the fast and easy replacement for a laptop, and as a way to improve informational exchange.

Tablet-based EMRs and physical therapy software really are making the job of a physical therapist more flexible and successful.

But the improvements come with a lot of changes, and for many, those changes will be challenging. So why should you consider spending a lot of money on new tablets and an integrated physical therapy software tablet-based EMR?

The easy answer is that in the long run it will save you money and make your practice more efficient.

But that may not feel like a fair answer. How can a small physical therapy private practice really make up for a big expense like fancy tablets?

The Costs Aren’t What You Think They Are

First of all, it turns out that purchasing tablets for your physical therapy software and practice will not be the overwhelming expense you expect it to be. Tablets can be just a couple of hundred dollars each when you buy them as a consumer.

If you do some research and communicate with tablet manufacturers, you may find that you can get an even better deal on a large purchase.

You can get close to wholesale prices if you are buying for your practice, and as a health care provider and physical therapy software user, some companies will give you great discounts. The tablets will not be the biggest capital investment you make, but they will make implementation and adoption of an EMR much more fun, exciting, and interesting for your staff.

Benefits Abound

And if your staff is truly on board with the big changes that will come from physical therapy software adoption, then the entire process will go more smoothly.

You can expect some difficulties, as with any change in the way people do their jobs.

But if you make implementation the priority and introduce the software and hardware together, you may find that your staff will be more interested and excited to learn new things.

Starting Out Slow: Some Good, Some Bad 

If you do adopt physical therapy software without tablets, at least at first, you may not get the full benefit of the programs. Clinicians will still need to get back to their desk to make the notes they need to make.

Or they will continue to carry paper and pens around, which is one thing you’d be better off eliminating entirely. Of course there is also a good side to taking things slowly. Naturally, your bottom line will have more time to adjust.

It’s Better to Start Sooner Than Later

You can make the changes to your physical therapy software scheduling and billing that come up and improve efficiency before you invest in tablets. With the improvements you and your staff see, everyone might be eager for more improvements.

The process of implementing physical therapy software should be considered carefully. What will work best for your staff?

Some practices take it slowly and things work out just fine. But other practices implement a fully integrated, tablet-based physical therapy software system and find that the way things work is dramatically changed for the better.

Before switching to electronic medical records system, there are important things that a practice owner should prioritize.

Nitin Chhoda points out the stages that a practitioner needs to complete before changing from a manual physical therapy documentation to an automated EMR system.

Every physical therapy practice manager wants to know exactly which physical therapy software is the best.

Of course, which is best will depend a lot on how the practice works currently and what you are hoping to achieve.

But there are a few helpful steps that physical therapy management can take to make sure that they are selecting the best EMR, one that will work for the staff, management, and benefit patients, as well.

Long Term Goals

Before making any decisions, in fact, before you even start looking at what is available, sit down and draft a list of long term goals for the practice. Have you been frustrated by the lack of tracking in the scheduling and re-scheduling of patients?

Do you want to improve the acceptance rate of claims submitted to insurance companies? Are you hoping to improve efficiency like using physical therapy software? Would you like your practice to have a more professional and modern feel?

Setting down a few goals is going to be critical to choosing the right physical therapy software. After all, you are not purchasing the software just because you like fancy software. Physical therapy software should help your practice to reach goals that you have determined because they are important for the continued success of the practice.

Working With Staff

While reporting and analysis may be the benefits to physical therapy management, there are numerous potential benefits to staff when adopting physical therapy software. Find out what your staff would like to improve upon.

Are your billers feeling overwhelmed? Does the receptionist handle a lot of miscellaneous tasks that could be eliminated with the elimination of a paper records system?

Not only will you learn what your staff needs from an EMR, but you will also plant the seed of potential benefit with the staff.

If you start with goals, both for the entire practice and for individual staff members, you can set your sights on the things that everyone will gain from adopting physical therapy software. If everyone knows how they will benefit, they will be more willing to work to adjust to the changes they will need to make.

Asking Around

Some of the best information you can gather about physical therapy software will be from other practices like your own.

It may be hard at first, but if you can identify practices that had similar goals, you can find out which software solutions might actually help you to attain your goals.

Often managers will have a lot to say about their experiences with physical therapy software implementation. If you give them the time to talk about what they did, you may learn some very valuable lessons.

Additionally, once you have goals of your own, you’ll know what questions to ask both users of software solutions and the software developers themselves.

By preparing yourself, you will know what you need the physical therapy software to do, and you can work towards goals rather than adopt software that may or may not actually be useful for you and your staff.

As you plan to change your manual system to an automated one, always keep in mind that you must communicate with your staff prior to the changes.

In order to have a smooth implementation of the EMR system,  Nitin Chhoda shares a few important steps to take note of when including your staff in the process.

Implementation of physical therapy software is a daunting task. Even before you have experience with the process, you’ll know that productivity will drop during the learning period.

You know that your staff will be frustrated at times and things won’t run more smoothly right off the bat. But you can take steps to make implementation easier and smoother.

• Plan Carefully 

A critical step will be to make a physical therapy software plan. Include the staff in your planning process. Let them know what to expect, both from the training side and from the implementation side.

Set dates for certain milestones and make sure your staff members are aware of the changes. When everyone knows what to expect, they will be much less likely to be surprised and distracted by the changes that happen.

• Select an Implementation Manager

Someone will have to be in charge of the physical therapy software implementation process. They will be responsible for drafting the plan and getting buy-in from staff. They will schedule training sessions and be the point person when anyone has a question.

They will also be the person responsible for interfacing with the staff at the software company. In many cases, this is the person who vets and chooses the physical therapy software you will adopt.

• Training, Training, and Training

Do not even think about implementing physical therapy software without first training your staff sufficiently. Any software solution you consider should have an extensive training program that includes organized training sessions before implementation, and resources that staff can use on their own time, before, during, and after implementation.

Give your staff time to make the adjustments they will need to make.

Give them time to go over training materials. A little bit of time spent training now will make physical therapy software implementation go faster, saving you time in the long run.

• Inventory of Resources

Another task of the implementation or office manager will be to inventory the current resources.

Will the physical therapy software solution you choose work on the existing computers?

Will you need a faster Internet connection? Are you going to use mobile devices like tablet computers? How many will you need to be optimally efficient and effective?

This is a frequently overlooked step that doesn’t get done until it is suddenly time to implement the physical therapy software. Hopefully you will be working with a company that recognizes how important this step is, but you may want to do this even before you select an EMR.

• Give Everyone Time and Space

The entire process will need to be heavily incentivized from the start. Your staff needs to know that the learning they are doing and the work they put in will ultimately benefit them and make them better at their jobs. Hopefully, that will be enough to inspire everyone to be enthusiastic.

But no matter how much you plan and train there will always be a few bumps and roadblocks. Schedule plenty of time in your physical therapy software implementation schedule so that you can adjust without causing disappointment, neither for you nor for your staff.