To be more environmentally friendly, we all try to reduce our paper use, but for the rehab medicine office, it can have more than environmental benefits. It can also reduce the amount of paperwork done by both practitioners and staff, and save money in the long run.
Physiotherapist Heather King, co-owner of Active Life Physiotherapy in Vancouver, explained that she and her business partner (physiotherapist Sophia Sauter) deliberately designed their office to be as paperless as possible, but it has taken some time to get the system working as smoothly as they had envisioned.“All our therapists are responsible for tracking their own appointments, doing their own billing and handling their own administration,” said King. “We don’t have administrative support staff.”
Patients book their appointments online, and all files are kept online. There is some paperwork, as patients are given paper receipts when they pay for their appointments, but invoices for insurance purposes are issued online. Because many hospitals now store patients’ records electronically, if patients bring their CDs from the hospital, they can be uploaded to their Active Life Physiotherapy files. Paper files and X-rays can be scanned into their files, as well, so all records become electronic, eliminating the use of paper files in the clinic.“The patient is given an identity code based on their email address to access appointments, invoices and the treatment plan outline established on the first visit, as well as any notes the practitioner adds for the patient to read,” King said. “Each patient has one file that all the practitioners can get into using a unique password so notes can be added and shared.”
"The practitioners have put more than 300 exercise clips on a DVD for patients to follow at home, which eliminates the need for paper copies of the exercises"
Before the first visit, information regarding the patient’s current health status, health history and other relevant details can be filled in online and then automatically put into the patient portal. The treatment plan is available online and the practitioners have put more than 300 exercise clips on a DVD for patients to follow at home, which eliminates the need for paper copies of the exercises. It also allows patients to follow someone doing the exercise, so the maximum benefit is derived. More exercises are available on the clinic’s website.Another consideration in having a paperless office is the cost. All the systems geared to the various types of medical offices take time to implement, which has associated costs, and then there are the costs of training the clinicians. But while the start-up costs were significant, King figures that money has been saved by not having the extra support staff costs.
Active Life Physiotherapy is making good use of modern technology both before and after the patient’s first visit and any subsequent visits, thereby reducing paperwork and moving ever closer to the goal of becoming an essentially paperless office. The modern technology approach might not work if your clients and patients don’t have computers, computer literacy, and high-speed Internet access, said physiotherapist John Barratt, owner of the Napanee Sports and Spinal Centre in Napanee, Ontario. Having to meet extensive regulations set out by insurance companies, regulatory bodies and government agencies that require faxed copies of forms and charts doesn’t make it any easier to reduce the paperwork in the office, either.
Even so, handling appointments and at least some patient information electronically does make for less paperwork in the office. And as the technology advances, improves and becomes more accessible, we can look forward to the day when all offices could be very close to paperless.
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