Background
Located just north of Philadelphia in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Pediatric Therapy Center (PTC) has provided physical and occupational therapy services to children since 2008. Clinic owner and physical therapist Deborah Stack focuses heavily on working with the local community to help create therapy programs for teens and pre-teens with disabilities.
Challenges
Because physical therapists assess patients with a wide array of illnesses and issues, they face a host of documentation challenges. This is especially true for pediatric therapists, who must document developmental skills on top of collecting data from many different systems: integumentary, neurological, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal. They also must perform and record results from a wide range of standardized testing procedures to validate assumptions.
Before WebPT, therapists in a variety of specialties had to adapt generic documentation templates to meet their particular needs. That meant pediatric therapists like Stack wasted loads of precious time creating workarounds in one-size-fits-all models so they could correctly document patient encounters.
Finding an EMR built for physical therapists was hard enough, but finding one with pediatric-specific documentation templates seemed nearly impossible–or at least financially unfeasible. That’s because in the past, acquiring documentation software tailored to pediatrics meant shelling out thousands of dollars for custom-built systems. And often, those systems aren’t worth their hefty price tags because they’re out of date almost immediately after they’re built.
Solutions
Before opening her clinic, Stack set out to find the best documentation solution for her practice. She knew she couldn’t afford to spend thousands of dollars on custom software. After scouring industry trade shows for a solution, she came upon WebPT. Although WebPT did not offer a pediatric solution at the time, the company recognized the need for a pediatric-focused documentation solution and was in the process of developing pediatric therapy modules to integrate with their web-based, therapy-specific EMR system.
Shortly thereafter, WebPT introduced the first pediatric therapy-specific documentation module in the industry. Stack even had the opportunity to test the solution before it was released to the public. She was impressed by WebPT’s willingness to work with her as a test customer, and she appreciated how much the WebPT team valued her feedback and took it into consideration as they created the final product.
Benefits
At the top of Stack’s list of WebPT Member benefits: The low cost. Because WebPT charges on a per-user basis, it’s affordable for large and small clinics alike. Plus, because it’s a totally web-based system, there’s no need for a large upfront investment in expensive equipment and software. Also, updates occur automatically—meaning Stack never has to worry about the system becoming outdated.
“What I liked about WebPT’s adult system is also true of the pediatric module,” Stack says. “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.”
Deborah Stack PT, DPT, PCS
Owner
Having a portable system also was important to Stack as pediatric physical therapists tend to make a lot of home visits. With WebPT, therapists can access their patient records anywhere that there’s an Internet connection. With that kind of flexibility, Stack can work on her iPad at home—or even in a patient’s home.
Security was another feature that separated WebPT from all the rest. “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,” Stack says. “I am also a Mac user, so having a system that can run on the hardware I prefer was important.”
Finally, WebPT allowed Stack to maintain consistency in the overall look and feel of all her clinic’s documents and reports. Plus, everything’s totally organized: all documents are in one place–from initial intake forms and reports to home exercise photos and videos. And with an EMR system that provides correct pediatric coding mechanisms as well as accurate billing and note-tracking, Stack has streamlined her clinic’s overall productivity.
“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. Instead of the many sticky notes all over my laptop reminding me of 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!”
