Netsmart's Top 5 Features for Physical Therapy Documentation Systems

Physical therapy electronic documentation software is a digitized system that creates and records patient information, including physical therapy treatments and patient progress. It helps therapists make informed decisions about patient care, speeds up the overall treatment process, and ensures accurate documentation.

Thanks to TheraOffice being designed by a practicing physical therapist, the system is filled with intuitive features that directly affect providers’ workflow as well as the patient care experience. Today, we are going to look at the top five features that TheraOffice providers love most about the documentation software for physical therapy.

Physical Therapy Documentation Templates

Document templates allow providers to quickly populate document sections with a standard set of data based offn a certain diagnosis or condition. Typically, document templates are loaded into initial evaluations and guide rendering providers on what sections they may want to fill out. Templates are specific to each clinic’s database; however, providers have the option of editing the default ones or creating their own from scratch. Furthermore, if providers create their own templates, they can choose to share that template with their colleagues or they can keep it private. Templates can save providers SO much time and effort and allow them to spend more time treating their patients instead of typing into a therapy note software in front of them. That's the power of a physical therapy EMR.

Physical Therapy Documentation Protocols

Protocols are groups of treatments that are generally used together so that providers can easily add multiple treatments to a note without having to search for them individually. TheraOffice comes equipped with several default protocols including ones for acute lower back pain, rotator cuff repair, and general manual techniques, among other ailments that you might frequently encounter. We highly encourage therapists to set aside some time to set up custom protocols that fit their style of practice. This will result in your electronic therapy notes becoming even faster while enhancing accuracy.

Integrated E-Faxing

This is one of the most popular add-ons and allows clinics to send and receive faxes directly through TheraOffice. Clinics that sign up for outbound faxing can eliminate the headaches associated with standing over a fax machine and manually sending out evaluation after evaluation to physicians. When e-faxing is enabled, providers can generate their evaluation, or progress note, and elect to fax it right from the report generation screen. The software will pull the fax number assigned to the referring provider in the patient’s case and send the fax quickly and securely without ever having to print off a sheet of paper!

Customizable Dropdown and Common Phrase Boxes

Within all physical therapy software documentation notes, therapists will find custom dropdowns and common phrase boxes. Both of these features allow clinics to input data that is relevant tor their patient population so that they can easily choose what they need during a treatment session as opposed to manually typing in the same data note after note. Just like templates and protocols, customizations can be made available to all providers at the clinic or can be kept private. Ultimately, the more customization that can be done, the more time providers will be able to save when writing electronic therapy notes.

Physical Therapy Documentation Co-Signature Settings

Within staff settings, users can select whether or not a particular provider or assistant must add a co-signer to notes for patients with a specific payer. For example, if a provider requires a co-signature on Medicare notes, this can be noted in their staff settings. Then, when that provider opens a note on a Medicare patient, they will not be able to input any data until a co-signer is selected. This is a really awesome feature that can nearly eliminate the chances of a note getting locked without a co-signer and disrupting the billing cycle.