WebPT Blog - cloud-based EMR
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0 CommentsMay 8, 2013| Brooke Andrus
We believe in empowering the entire rehab community to achieve greatness in therapy practice. That’s why we created WebPT, an intuitive, web-based EMR solution exclusively for rehab therapists that offers comprehensive documentation, scheduling, practice management, and billing services.Don’t let the name fool you; WebPT isn’t solely for physical therapists. Rather, it’s for the entire rehab therapy community, and we’ve custom tailored our EMR solution to suit the practice of occupational therapy. Here’s how:
OT-Specific Documentation
WebPT contains a whole separate user profile for occupational therapists. As soon as you select an OT user type, WebPT automatically loads all of our OT-specific items into your clinic’s account.
In addition to OT billing codes and Medicare therapy cap-tracking, WebPT features tons of OT-related tests and tools—like our Activities of Daily Living (ADL) profile; our Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) test; our upper extremity functional test; our shoulder pain and disability index; plus a host of special tests geared toward hands and joints. And speaking of hands—OTs specializing in hand therapy (like Laura Berger of Maui Hand Therapy) absolutely love our detailed wrist/hand profile. They also love being able to document and bill for custom orthoses, casts, and splints right in WebPT.
Plus, every document you create in our system will have an occupational therapy label—and your clinic’s name and logo—right at the top of the page, so the source and content of your emailed and faxed documents is immediately clear to referring physicians and other recipients. And you can send out those documents directly from the WebPT system. Cool, huh?
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Oct 8, 2012| Charlotte Bohnett
Today’s blog post comes from WebPT copywriters Charlotte Bohnett and Erica Cohen.
Paper shredding, filing, shuffling, stacking. Basically, there’s nothing appealing about paper documentation, especially if it’s a quagmire of quarrelsome patient charts—handwritten, faded, and sharp as all get out—just waiting to wreak havoc on your soft, supple paper-cut-fearing fingers.
And don’t even get us started on ink stains. Of course, there are reasons beyond paper cuts and ruined shirts to ditch the pen and paper, and go digital with Electronic Medical Records (EMR). Here are four of ‘em. -
Oct 4, 2012| Mike Taylor
Today’s post comes from WebPT Member Mike Taylor, PT, MBA, OCS, from OrthoSport Physical Therapy. Thanks, Mike!I remember how excited I was in 1989 to legally be able to sign my notes with “PT” after my name. All the schooling and training was finally over, I was really proud and very happy to sign that signature. Writing a SOAP note? My pleasure. Discharge Summary? No problem.
Oh, how times have changed for me after 23 years and approximately 75,000 SOAP notes. I can't even recognize my own signature. Writing so many of the same words and phrases over and over has left an indelible mark on my psyche. I can't even write a check without putting “PT” after my name!
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Aug 2, 2012| Charlotte Bohnett
Today's post comes from WebPT copywriters Charlotte Bohnett and Erica Cohen.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is as dense as it is important. But for any healthcare provider handling private personal health information, which you promised to protect as part of the Health Information Privacy Rule, there are a few things you must know.
First, a little background information on HIPAA: US Congress established the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in 1996. They implemented Title II: Preventing Health Care Fraud and Abuse to protect a patient’s private health information (PHI).
Under this act, all healthcare providers, insurers, and their business associates may only collect, share, or use a patient’s PHI in approved methods and only for the explicit purpose of furthering patient care.
PHI is defined as demographic information; medical history; test and laboratory results; insurance information; and any other data health professionals collect to identify individual patients and determine their appropriate care. -
May 29, 2012| Erica Cohen
For most people, any mention of the cloud causes flashbacks to high school science class—a white, fluffy cumulus or dark, stormy nimbus. But when we talk cloud, we mean neither. We’re talking the techy type: cloud computing.
Cloud computing is, quite simply, internet-based computing. Essentially, shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices (like your smartphone) on demand. Think about it like an electricity grid for information—you plug in (sign on) and immediately are able to access the flow of information available to you without needing your own generating station (in this case, bulky servers to house all your data).
Have a Gmail account? Then you’ve used cloud-based software. You get all the benefits of access, storage, tools, and features without any of the hefty storage or upkeep responsibilities you might have if you were running it directly from your hard drive.
Want more perks?
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Mar 26, 2012| Mike Mannheimer
Documenting patient exercises has always been somewhat of a mess. We all know the scene; PTs and PTAs following patients around with a clipboard in hand. If your clinic uses EMR, you are probably used to taking that paper flowsheet, trying to decipher it, and inputting the data into the system. We know this process can be frustrating and cumbersome, so we set out to make paper flowsheets a thing of the past.
One of the biggest improvements we made to our digital flowsheet impacts screen real estate. Our members wanted control over what was visible on the screen and what was not. A majority of the areas on the flowsheet can be collapsed, reorganized, or removed entirely. For instance, therapists who don’t need the SPO2, HR, and RR fields to appear on the Flowsheet can remove them entirely. We know this new functionality will give you more of the information you need and less of what you don't need.
The flowsheet also accommodates clinics that have multiple treatment environments in their facility with the ability to add multiple locations. For instance, if your clinic has a gym and an aquatic center, you can now separate your flowsheet exercises based on location. This is just one more piece in our quest to make a more user friendly flowsheet.
The new WebPT Flowsheet makes it even easier to work with multiple patients at once. We have reinvented tabbed browsing and added new navigation so you can tackle a large group of patients at once. We also made the new digital flowsheet more tablet friendly. On tablets, you will enjoy larger buttons and navigation on the top and bottom of the flowsheet.
For current WebPT Members, take a look in the News and Updates area of WebPT and download our Flowsheet User Guide.
Let us know what you think of the new and improved Flowsheet in the comments below!
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Sep 20, 2011| Mike Mannheimer
Fits like a Glove?
A recent article assessing the effect of EMR Implementation on clinical productivity came to a rather common sense solution. The evaluation found that “different tools work better in different settings and that one-size-fits-all is not a valid approach to EHR implementation.” This finding is predictable and holds true in almost all applications. The interesting part of this article is where the assessment goes next. They go on to speak about usability and how they have attempted to create a very user-friendly experience. While usability can hinder your productivity, there is another factor that is just as, if not more important, than usability that most EMR vendors ignore. That aspect is specialization.
A majority of the vendors out there are used in different offices for many different disciplines. If they assert that a one size fits all solution isn’t the best way to go, then why are they offering that exact thing to their potential customers?
We have always been concerned with usability, but at the crux of our company is our focus on Physical Therapy as an industry.
Specialization leads to Usability
Our Documentation, clinical workflow, reporting, features, Etc. are all based on the needs of a Physical Therapy Practice. The specialization of WebPT allows us to eliminate many of the productivity issues right off the bat. The system was designed to mimic the flow of care in the office. At this point in the process of development is where you can see that specialization automatically leads to usability. If our most basic task is to build and EMR that is the best choice for physical therapists, we have to make sure that all of their needs are met. Usability is a piece to that puzzle.
I think the state of the EMR industry as it currently stands is missing the point when it comes to implementation. The conversations all revolve around usability, but that’s as far as they go. What about making a system that fits the needs of a particular discipline? Every medical specialty is different by nature and so EMR vendors need to realize that. We understand the needs of a very specific group of clinicians and seek to meet those needs 100%.
Choose Wisely
Other EMR vendors should realize that fitting every specialty into one EMR would kill productivity no matter how many meetings you have about usability. When searching for an EMR vendor, make sure to establish their focus on your profession or you might be left with one-size-fits-all software.
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Jan 23, 2011| Heidi Jannenga PT
Our clinical environment is changing with the advancements in technology. The iPad can be a useful tool to bridge the internet gap by making software tools and information available at the point of service with your patients for education and specific clinic tasks.
Staying with our theme this month of use of the iPad in the PT clinical setting, here are my favorite iPad apps that are available for Physical Therapists. To explore iPad apps, simply to the App Store in iTunes on your Windows or Mac computer, then choose “App Store” at the top of your screen in the navigation bar. Once you are into the App Store, you will see that there are quite a few “Medical” apps available, and with a quick search, apps that are specific for PTs. Most are not free in this category, but all have reviews and descriptions that you can browse through before buying. We will also be reviewing some of these Apps in our free webinar on "The iPad for PTs" next week on either Thursday January 27 11am EST or Saturday January 29 12pm EST.
There are 3 main types of iPad apps for PTs:
- Patient education
- Staff/student education/reference
- Actual clinical tools
Here are my top 10 iPad apps by topic:
