Physical Therapy Documentation Is Important
People are spending more time in activities that require prolonged hours of sitting. Whether it is driving, sitting at a desk during work, watching television at home or browsing through mobile apps, most individuals are leading a very sedentary lifestyle. This inactive regime has led to increased chances of diseases including muscle and back pain. Any illness or issue related to muscles, joint and bones require prolonged sessions of physical therapy and an alteration in lifestyle.
Physical therapy is a supportive treatment that restores functionality and movement of an affected area of the body (back, shoulder, arms, wrists, ankle, thighs, etc.). It is a suitable treatment for people of any age — children, young or the elderly. In fact, professional athletes undergo physical therapy sessions regularly to recover from sports injuries and pains. In order to recover fully, patients have to usually undergo several sessions of therapy. This is a very demanding profession in terms of follow-ups and maintaining patient records, which is why physical therapy transcription is such a necessity.
Physical therapy transcription is one of the many branches of the medical transcription service. It entails turning raw medical records, written down by physicians and nursing staff, into organized documents. These files or documents are not only relevant from the perspective of treatment and after care, but are also crucial at the time of any insurance claim by patients. Just like any other field of medicine, physical therapy requires exhaustive paper work. A physical therapist is expected to keep a record of the following things:
- Assessment history of patients during comprehensive examination
- Evaluation of the findings and the description of the diagnosis
- Guidelines for the treatment plan
- Maintaining the record of medicine, drugs and dosage
- Consultation notes and referrals, in case the patient needs specialized treatment
- Complete log of patient progress and follow-up visits
- Summary of the intervention plan
- Recommendations for self-management and care.
Organizing an exhaustive list of patient information and data is a very tedious task. Recently, many physicians are rely on the speech recognition software to complete the task of transcription. However, this technology is not always accurate. Although speech recognition technology has been around for a while, accuracy of the text continues to be a problem even today. There is absolutely no tolerance for error when it comes to medical documentation and transcription. In view of that, it is recommended to engage a professional agency for physical therapy transcription.
Transcriptionists are trained professionals who are well versed with terminologies, medical slang, names of medication, etc. They are experts in the field and can convert a lot of data and information into highly organized and structured documents in no time. Medical transcription agencies have a team of highly skilled transcriptionists who transcribe medical documents for hospitals, individual physicians and health care centers. Medical professionals from any specialization or field get the assurance of up to 99 percent accuracy on medical documents transcribed by such experts. A quick turnaround time and the negotiable price point are some of the other advantages of taking the help of medical transcription agencies. For those agencies that have been in the business of medical transcription for a long time, adherence to HIPPA compliance and other security measures is one of the top priorities. All systems are password protected and documents are transmitted back to the clients in an encrypted format.
In conclusion, physical therapy is recommended to patients who have developed an injury or even undergone surgery. It is an integral part of the rehabilitation program, and every assessment and progress has to be carefully monitored and recorded. Therefore, the proper documentation of physical therapy sessions is extremely important, and it is best if the job is done by professional transcriptionists.
Article by Zainab Sheikh
This article was written by the guest author listed at the end of the article.