Physical Therapy Patient Portal and EMR | Connected Pathway to Care Delivery
Patient Portal and EMR on the Care Journey
By connecting care delivery across pre-clinic, in-clinic, and post-clinic stages, the patient portal in conjunction with the physical therapy EMR becomes a key tool to making patient empowerment happen. Here is a quick synopsis of how the patient portal enabled care journey unfolds, at a high level.
Patient Portal for Pre-Clinic Care
Patients begin their care program well before they arrive at the clinic. Using the patient portal, patients can:
- Update demographic and family information into the patient record in the EMR.
- Fill out custom PDF forms like consent forms and insurance information.
- Close out the registration process and access their care dashboard from the portal.
- Schedule appointments and get them confirmed on the clinics calendar.
- Receive text and email notifications from the clinic that are routed via the portal.
Patient Portal for In-Clinic Care
Patients contribute to their care session as they:
- Complete clinical questionnaires with functional scales and outcome tests that get imported into the eval stage of documentation.
- Enable therapists to transfer over completed clinical questionnaires from the patient portal into EMR eval forms.
- Make it easier for therapists to revise and update questionnaire responses and eval records in the EMR as needed.
Patient Portal for Post-Clinic Care
Patients stay connected with the clinic during and after their plan of care as they:
- Take care of their share of financial responsibility via the portal through online bill pay.
- Review appointment and financial history and complete specific transactions.
- Analyze and review their end-to-end patient journey.
Patient Portal for Care Program Success
Patient portals add significant value to the care process as patients can:
- Collaborate with therapists and get more involved in their plan of care.
- Increase trust in clinicians and become more confident about achieving desired outcomes.
- Get their questions about their care program answered online and track their progress over time.
- Stay engaged and connected in the care plan and motivated to complete the end-to-end program.
Patient Portal and EMR Benefits
Implementing a patient portal along with the EMR can take patient experience to the next level. Benefits include:
Eliminating Manual Form Fills
The patient portal avoids frustrating form downloads and form fills for patients that are typically followed by manual upload of the same information by clinic staff. Instead, patients simply fill out the forms through the patient portal from the convenience of their homes that gets seamlessly transmitted to the EMR.
Speeding Up Documentation at Clinic
Therapists access documentation through the dashboard or from the scheduler and initiate the evaluation. Once the notes page has been loaded, therapists import clinical questionnaires and outcome tests from the patient portal into the current note. After that, therapists can quickly complete the rest of the evaluation while combining it with patient responses captured through the portal.
Streamlining Patient Payments
Collecting patient payments at the front desk can be challenging. The patient portal instead offers the ability to send patient notifications via text and email allowing them to pay instantly without the need to print and mail invoices to make a payment. Patients can simply pay bills online and view their balances anytime so that they have full visibility into their share of payment responsibility.
Getting patients to sign up and stay committed to their plan of care is easier said than done. The patient portal and EMR make a valuable contribution to patient engagement and retention through easy-to-use digital tools that make the entire process smooth and efficient.