Physical Therapy EMR Dashboard

Physical therapists are always looking to help patients achieve their goals 100% and complete their plan of care. However, patient self-discharge is a challenge that physical therapists deal with regularly. Solving such challenges does come down to data on patient progress.

Having to chase down notes and appointments to monitor progress is not something that therapists look forward to. What would come in handy would be a therapist dashboard in the physical therapy EMR that would provide a one stop shop where the therapist could find all that they needed to get through the day smoothly and connect the dots across the patient journey.

However, just having all the data may not be sufficient. It would need to be contextual as well. The context could be clinical or insurance or payments or something else. Seeing data in the right context would make all the difference in gaining valuable insight.

End of the day, the dashboard should provide an easy to access window into tasks, follow-ups, appointments, notes, outcomes and more.

Follow-ups to complete

Where would we be without tasks? Everyone has tasks to complete and stay on top of. Therapists are no exception. Tasks could be about patients or payers or billing, among others. The EMR should provide the means to filter tasks, prioritize them, and execute them.

Appointments to meet

Appointments are after all front and center. Status codes like arrived, canceled, no show, or rescheduled and appointment types like initial eval or follow up or discharge are ways to sort and filter appointments so that the therapist can appropriately prepare and be ready for them.

Documentation to process

There are notes that are yet to start, those that are started but not signed off, and then there are the ones that are signed off and finalized. The dashboard should provide a top-level view of all documentation along with their statuses and make it easy for therapists to find and review the right note at the right time for the right patient.

Missing items to track down

Missing items could be many. Missing charges, missing notes, and missing flowsheets, to name a few. It should be possible to easily find these missing items and quickly take care of them from the dashboard.

Outcomes to deliver

With patient outcomes close at hand, it would be possible to closely monitor the impact on patients from therapy. Trends in outcomes would be helpful in determining how much progress patients are making overall. Making corrective actions based on trends should help lower self-discharge rates for example. Setting of realistic expectations with patients based on outcomes data would strengthen patient engagement and patient relationships.

Metrics to stay on top of

Being able to access and track metrics over time would be welcomed. Starting with just two or three metrics should be good. It could be productivity or arrival rate or units per visit or charges per visit or visits per eval.

Anything that could help therapists get through the day without stress should be a big plus. That is where the therapist dashboard would step in and provide a helping hand.