Physical Therapy EMR Therapist Dashboard: All That Matters in One Place
The human brain has a limit on the number of items it can process at the same time, four items as per this article.
Inside the Physical Therapy EMR is lots and lots of information about everything that the practice does across clinical, financial, and operational areas. Trying to use application menus to find the critical items that matter to a therapist on a day-to-day basis would be an uphill task.
That is where the therapist dashboard would come in. This would be the single place that the therapist could go to find everything they are likely to need for the day through the convenience of one click accessibility.
Therapists have a lot to do to get through the day. The therapist dashboard would help them do just that and raise their efficiency and productivity.
Follow-ups to stay on top of
- Follow-ups are an essential part of the dashboard. They would be comprised of assigned tasks for each user within a due date and would highlight tasks for which the due date has passed, due today, and due in the future. Checking off completed tasks would take them off the list.
- Some follow-ups could have an insurance context or a patient context. Reason codes for each task would be assigned by department and function. Filtering tasks by reason code would make it easier to process and execute them.
- Tasks could also be reassigned to a different user. Filtering tasks by date, reason, assigned person etc. and sorting them would make it easier to focus on the key ones that matter. It should be possible to switch between tasks assigned to the user and those tasks the user has assigned to others. There are specific items to be completed before finishing a patient encounter. Assigning a follow up for the appointment would help get these squared away.
Appointments to complete
- Therapists should be able to see their appointments for the day without needing to login to the scheduler, along with their status like arrived, canceled, no show, or rescheduled and type of appointment like initial eval or follow up. PTAs should be able to see who the supervising therapist for the appointment is. There could also be a co-therapist for the appointment.
- Highlighting Medicare patients would signal to the therapist to be more alert on compliance related matters. Other relevant information would include the number of visits till date and number of visits since functional outcome codes were billed, both of which would be key for Medicare compliance. If 10 visits should have transpired since functional outcome codes were billed, then it would be time for a progress note or billing of functional G-codes.
- Status of documentation is another item to keep track of: Notes not started, notes started but not signed off, and notes signed off and finalized. The therapist should be able to navigate directly to the SOAP note or flowsheet for the day. Opening the documents for the patients for the day would make it possible to prepare for them and get ready. Supervising PTs should be able to view the documentation that their assistants have started and complete the sign off.
Missing items to nail down
- Finally, there would be missing items from patient encounters to track. These would include missing charges as well as missing SOAP notes and missing flowsheets (no finalized or signed off documentation) for arrived appointments. These missing items could be quickly loaded and addressed right from the dashboard.
- Suggested reports are the ones the therapist would need to access on a day-to-day basis and use to run tasks for the day. Reports could also be tagged as favorite by accessing the appropriate group of reports. Running reports would also help track down missing items and stay on top of priorities.
Information overload is a problem that needs no introduction. Therapists are no exception. The EMR holds lots of valuable information but distilling it to present what matters to the therapist would be vital. The therapist dashboard helps fulfil this need by presenting the key information items that therapists need to deliver care, remain compliant, and stay productive.