EMR Use Saves Physical Therapists’ Time and Money

Using EMR as the latest PT documentation software actually saves therapist’s time and money as Nitin Chhoda, a marketing expert and licensed physical therapist said.

“EMR or electronic medical record is the latest documentation system used by physical therapy practices across the nation. As all health professionals know, electronic records are the future. Not only do they allow a more accurate recording of patient data, but they also cut time and save money,” Nitin Chhoda said.

Given the positive impact from updating an old documentation system to EMR can have on a practice, it isn’t any wonder why so many therapists across the United States are switching over to this special physical therapy EMR software.

Chhoda added that like in any other businesses, medical practices understand that time is equal to money. Every minute that is spent in documenting each visit and recording patient data is a time lost which could’ve otherwise been billed. He said, “As of the moment, it takes an average of fifteen to twenty minutes to document a patient visit. For large practices, the amount of excess time lost during this period can add up to several hundreds or thousands of dollars in potentially billable hours each year.”

Fortunately, EMR allows practices to develop highly efficient procedures for documenting visits. This helps cut down on excessive time, saving the practice money on additional staff which may be required to handle larger patient loads. Moreover, physical therapists use the abundance of free time which results from this new improved efficiency to see more patients. They are able to make more money while still offering the same level of professional care.

The EMR for physical therapy services reduces documentation time by empowering therapists to easily record information by utilizing technological advances. The use of tablets and voice recognition software can reduce minutes of documentation. This software and the technological devices are designed to be intuitive, allowing therapist and staff to easily learn the system after just a few minutes of practice.

As a healthcare professional, therapists’ first priority is patient care. The more time wasted on bureaucratic requirements can be better spent seeing more patients or improving the care of the current ones. Practitioners will have the opportunity to increase profit, which means that they can have more money for expansion of services and upgrades.

Source: www.virtual-strategy.com; January 8, 2013.