Pediatrics

Business Challenge

Assessing children with a wide range of illnesses and issues results in documentation challenges for therapists specific to pediatric treatment. Therapists need to collect large amounts of data from many different systems: integumentary, neurological, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal. Therapists also need to document developmental skills, as well as the documentation of a wide range of standardized testing procedures to validate assumptions.

Before WebPT, therapists were required to adapt to generalized documentation templates, wasting time trying to correctly document pediatric patient therapy to a one size fits all model. Finding an EMR system just for PTs was hard enough, finding one with documentation templates for pediatric-focused PTs seemed nearly impossible.

Affordability is an additional challenge for PTs. In the past, in order to have documentation software specific to pediatrics, a clinic would have to shell out thousands of dollars to have custom software built for children. As with any custom software creation, once it is built it almost becomes immediately out of date.

Deborah Stack, owner of PTC, decided that before the opening of her clinic in 2008, she needed to find the best documentation solution for her adolescent patients. Stack knew that she couldn’t spend thousands of dollars on the creation of a new software system. After scouring industry tradeshows for a solution, she came upon WebPT. Although WebPT did not offer a pediatric solution at the time, they recognized the need for a pediatric specific documentation and were starting to develop pediatric-specific modules for clinics like PTC. Additionally, WebPT was the only Web-based physical therapy software Stack could find that catered specifically to Physical therapists.

Solution

WebPT created the first pediatric-specific documentation modules for the PT industry, and provided the solution to Stack prior to releasing it to the public. Stack was impressed that the company was open to working with her as a test customer, and appreciated how much they valued her feedback, and used her suggestions in the final, go-to-marketing solution.

Benefits

The first thing that she saw as a benefit was the WebPT pricing model. WebPT’s pricing is based on the number of users and, because WebPT is a totally Web-based platform, there was no need for a large upfront investment for equipment and software. Being billed on a user basis, she took comfort in knowing that the system could grow with her practice. In addition, the elimination of having potentially out of date software went away with the implementation of WebPT into her clinic.

 The fact that data is encrypted and stored in multiple locations around the country to protect against loss and power outages pleased my computer-savvy technical advisor.” said Stack. “I am also a Mac user so having a system that can run on the hardware I prefer was important. 

Pediatric physical therapists are often required to make home visits. Having a system that is portable was also important to Stack. With WebPT, therapists have access anywhere they have an internet connection. The ability to work outside of the office opens up a whole new level of documenting. As a WebPT customer, Stack has the ability to work on her iPad from home, or even in a patient’s home.

 What I liked about WebPT’s adult system, is also true of the pediatric module. It is user-friendly, intuitive, and continually updated based on feedback from the therapists who use it. The pediatric module is not an additional add-on.

Instead, the fields specific to pediatrics automatically appear when the client’s birthday designates them as under 18.Instead of the many sticky notes all over my laptop so I remember which progress note needs to be finished or which billing has not been completed yet, WebPT tracks that for me. 

With WebPT, the overall look and feel of all reports is consistent. Having an EMR system that is streamlined will help with overall productivity of the front office by providing correct pediatric coding as well as proper billing and tracking of notes. All documents are in one place, from initial intake forms, to photos and videos, to reports.

 Now that I have WebPT, everything is on the web-based server, even the initial intake forms from my clinic that are uploaded with edoc.” said Stack “Instead of the many sticky notes all over my laptop so I remember which progress note needs to be finished or which billing has not been completed yet, WebPT tracks that for me. There are no bulky charts to carry home, store, or get misplaced!