6 features physical therapists should look for in electronic medical record systems

Physical therapy providers are often met with challenges at work. Some of these challenges might include, but are certainly not limited to:

• Long hours spent working with a patient. 

• Long hours spent filing a patient’s paperwork and documentation afterward.

• Keeping up with compliance and education requirements.

• Stress from the overload of workplace responsibilities. 

In this post, we’ll provide an outline of some key features an EMR system should have to help physical therapy providers meet their challenges.

What is an electronic medical record system?

An electronic medical record (EMR) system contains electronic records of patient medical history. These digital records are logged into a computer or tablet and can be updated over time. The kind of information included in an electronic medical record might include:

• A health care provider’s progress notes during an appointment.

• Relevant medical history.

• Medications. 

• Laboratory data.

• Radiology reports.

EMR systems can be beneficial for physical therapy providers in many ways. Keep reading below to learn about the specific features they should have to help PT providers meet the challenges that they often face.

What are 6 EMR system features that can help PT providers meet their challenges?

• Documentation — A good EMR system should ensure complete, concise and compliant medical records. It should also include initial evaluations through discharge summaries, autocalculation of units by insurance, and MIPS reporting. Be equally sure to look for integrated outcome-based reporting within the documentation.

• Task management — An electronic medical records system can help with task management in your practice. Specific task management tools should include clinical and clerical work queues as well as the ability to view assigned tasks by individual or group. The system should also contain built-in compliance rules. Case inactivity tasks, insurance authorization tasks and updated progress notes tasks are also important.

• Scheduling — As far as scheduling capabilities go, you should be sure your EMR system incorporates specifics like alerts and configurable appointment types. Be sure to also check for cancellation functions, daily clinic overview reports and patient waitlists.

• Customizable templates and management — The right electronic medical records system is usually able to provide both corporate- and clinician-specific templates and create unlimited tailored protocol templates. It should also pull information from one document to the next and include a template library.

• Reporting — It’s also generally desired for a system to incorporate features that generate facility and therapist statistics; provide productivity reporting and analysis; and show physician referral trends, outcome reporting, cancellation rate summaries, and KPIs.

• Billing tools — The billing tool feature is an essential part of any EMR system. Good billing features should include patient accounts receivable visibility, correction management tools and a built-in billing rules engine. It should also have credentialing rules that vary by the person paying, modifier-based rules and medical review alerts. Another tool it should include is automatic ERA processing with third-party integration. It should support both automatic and manual claims file generation to a clearinghouse for private practices as well as billing integrations like ADT and DFT for hospital outpatient clinics.

Still not convinced?

At the end of the day, if you are a physical therapy provider working at a practice that hasn’t yet incorporated an electronic medical record system into their office, you know how tiring it can get. Choosing a software system designed to seamlessly integrate into your daily work activities will help make your day-to-day more efficient. More importantly,  it will ultimately reduce your chance of experiencing burnout. The right electronic medical record system can improve organization and streamline necessary processes. Choose one today to create a positive physical therapy environment for both PT providers and patients.

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AgileEMR is a proven practice management software solution designed for therapists by therapists. We officially launched our software in 2013 to address the issues that physical therapists and clinicians often run into with generic clinical EMR systems: None of them were designed specifically with physical therapy in mind. We worked closely with physical therapists when developing our physical therapy software to ensure that it meets the demands of this unique field of health care. Since our launch, AgileEMR has been used in more than 1 million patient cases by all kinds of providers in the outpatient physical therapy and hospital rehabilitation sectors. EMR systems are driving the future of outpatient physical therapy and hospital rehabilitation. To see our physical therapy and rehabilitation partnerships, click here.

If you’re a physical therapy provider and are looking for more information on EMR systems or the features of our product, look no further. We have the answers you need. Contact our team today for more information or to schedule a demo to see how AgileEMR can help your practice.