With 35 employees and ten physical therapy clinics in central Missouri, Peak Performance Physical Therapy needed to find a way to solve their growing IT challenges to avoid administrative and clinical issues. The group’s existing patient care tracking and billing processes were simply not efficient at the rate at which clinics were opening, and Peak Performance decided to take control of clinical documentation and reimbursement. By using a therapy software system, the group was able to increase the accuracy and quality of their clinical documentation, while improving productivity and optimizing reimbursement schedules.
Peak Performance is now experiencing a 35 percent increase in net revenue per patient visit, directly contributing to group profits and the ability to expand into new regions. For years, all areas of Peak Performance’s documentation process, including administrative and clinical functions, had been done manually, and it was starting to show. This outdated process was having an effect not only on the efficiency of the workflow, but also on the bottom line. Administratively, Peak Performance was constantly at risk of losing money because the group often unknowingly scheduled visits that were not approved by the payer. If a patient was cleared for eight physical therapy appointments but ended up meeting for ten visits, the payer would not fund the group and would have to incur the cost of the two additional visits.
In their daily schedule, therapists postponed handling administrative functions, such as clinical note writing, until the end of the day, but with a pile of case histories piling up, the quality of clinical notes inevitably declined. “It just wasn’t an efficient system because the delay from treatment to registration sometimes led to not only poor documentation in patient records, but also incorrect and incomplete application of billing codes,” said Phil Threatt, administrator of Peak Performance Physical Therapy. . From an accounts receivable standpoint, it was clear that the refund process was inefficient and not up to the payer’s standards. Claims were regularly reimbursed at a lower rate and were sometimes denied outright. “Physical therapy practices continually need to find ways to become more efficient and get paid faster while providing excellent patient care,” Threatt said. “Care and reimbursement are always intertwined and cannot be separated. We needed an outpatient information system that would bring the two elements together in a consistent and seamless process.”
The Solution After a lengthy evaluation process evaluating multiple outpatient information systems, Peak Performance selected software designed as a complete solution for rehabilitation clinics and manages everything from scheduling, registration, and management reporting. “We chose the system because it’s designed for physical therapists, by physical therapists,” Threatt said. “The company understands our market, the challenges, and the nuances. This was a refreshing change from other software companies that try to be everything to everyone and sell the same practice management system to a physical therapist who just Selling to a Pediatrician or OB/GYN “We needed a specialized solution.” Upon implementation, the system immediately solved Peak Performance’s scheduling challenges by automating receiving processes through task prompts and intelligent drop-down menus. Group administrative staff no longer have to worry about scheduling unauthorized visits, because the system actively notifies the user if a patient has complied with their assigned visits.
Their physical therapy software combines patient care and administrative aspects by providing much-needed structure to the way Peak Performance therapists enter clinical notes. Group clinical notes are presented against short-term (2-4 weeks) and long-term (4-8 weeks) goals. When therapists create daily SOAP (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) notes for their patients, the system prompts them each step of the process. Therapists can then instantly track each patient’s progress, so they can justify directly to the payer the rate at which each patient is achieving treatment goals. Due to the inherent flexibility of the system, Peak Performance therapists have been able to customize the use of the software based on their own documentation needs and prior experience with similar information system tools.
“The support team assigned to us by the company has been very responsive to implementing our suggestions,” Threatt said. “The company continually provides updates and additional features to the system to make it more useful for our specific needs.” The wireless point-of-care system has enabled Peak Performance to increase revenue by strengthening its ability to capture and manage more complete and accurate clinical documentation. The group now experiences a 35 percent increase in net revenue per visit by limiting clinical errors associated with poor handwriting, treatment omissions, and dirty notes. “Therapy software gives us a smart way to track the number of patient visits, referrals and treatment histories,” Threatt said. “And, because programming, logging, and reporting can be accessed from multiple computers and facilities over a secure connection, this solution makes more sense than competing offerings based on an on-site server.” “. Today, the group also uses the system as a self-assessment tool.
At any time, Peak Performance administrators can use the physiotherapy reporting features to assess the efficiency of administrative and therapist staff, which can be an invaluable tool when it comes to coordinating the workflow of employees across ten locations. . “The software makes the parts of the job that therapists least like — documentation and administrative processes — easier,” Threatt added. “With all the automated functionality, our therapists have been able to spend less time on administrative processes and more time on what they do best…patient care.”