While patient documentation is secondary to patient care in terms of importance, its impact is quite significant. In fact, poor medical documentation can cause many problems in your clinical workflow. However, it can prove challenging to recognize the signs of insufficient documentation, especially in the face of a heavy workload.
Fortunately, there are tell-tale signs of poor documentation that are easy to detect. Once you’ve identified these signs, you’ll be well on your way to optimizing your workflow for better patient outcomes and higher job satisfaction among your physical therapists (PTs).
Here are the signs that you have poor medical documentation in your practice.
Incomplete patient history
Patient histories may lack critical details such as medical conditions, past treatments and medications, and lifestyle.
A few reasons why a patient's history might be incomplete include:
- Working under time constraints, leading to rushed documentation
- Patients who forget specific parts of their medical history
- Forms missing necessary fields for data gathering
Why it matters: Working with incomplete patient histories can lead to misdiagnosis, incorrect treatment plans, and harm to the patient.
Missing or partial treatment rationales
During busy days, PTs may rush or omit treatment rationales behind the treatments, interventions, and progress assessments during documentation. They may also assume that their colleagues can understand their notes even if abbreviated or abridged.
Why it matters: Without clear treatment rationales, other healthcare staff struggle to understand the care provided, potentially leading to treatment duplication or omission.
Vague progress tracking
Some PTs may want to prioritize delivering hands-on patient care over note-taking. Often, this leads to the production of quick notes that other PTs will find challenging to understand.
Unclear progress tracking may also result from a lack of standardized assessment tools. These are important to ensure that PTs can input clear information about factors such as the effectiveness of interventions in a systematic format.
Why it matters: Patient progress updates must be consistently clear and detailed to ensure optimal patient outcomes and enable communication among healthcare team members. Otherwise, it becomes challenging to make informed treatment decisions.
Inaccurate billing information
PTs may make mistakes with medical billing information due to the complex nature of billing processes. They have to navigate and comply with numerous insurance requirements, coverage limitations, and coding specifics, which undergo updates annually in accordance with HIPAA.
On top of this, to keep up with high patient volumes, PTs need to multitask. This may lead to them rushing their documentation and committing mistakes in recording billing codes, treatment durations, or service details.
Why it matters: Incorrect billing information can lead to delayed reimbursements, legal issues, and financial losses for the practice and patients.
Lack of follow-up plans
As PTs often prioritize immediate patient needs, they may be unable to allot sufficient time for thorough post-treatment discussions. It is also possible that PTs will overlook the need for structured guidance after the appointment, as they assume that patients will reach out to them for any questions or concerns.
Plus, there may be inconsistencies in care and patient outcomes without a standardized approach to post-appointment planning.
Why it matters: Without proper post-treatment guidance, patients may experience setbacks or fail to achieve sustained improvements, resulting in dissatisfaction, patient safety issues, and potential legal concerns (e.g., medical malpractice claims).
Why Is Proper Medical Documentation Important?
In physical therapy, precise medical documentation is crucial to protect against insufficient records. It fosters trust and confidence not just between providers and their patients but also among healthcare staff.
Here are a few reasons why:
- It builds a strong rapport between PTs and patients. When PTs take the time and effort to document their findings on their patients properly, they become invested in providing quality care to their patients
- PTs find more success in having accurate patient charting. Proper documentation is the foundation for finding the best possible treatment options for patients
- Healthcare teams can collaborate more seamlessly. When patient documentation is robust and detailed, it enables medical staff to have clear communication and informed decision-making
On the contrary, lacking improper documentation can lead to:
- A compromise in care continuity
- Medication errors
- Interdepartmental miscommunication
- Legal matters due to malpractice claims
- Stress and frustration among PTs
How To Improve Medical Documentation Processes
Medical documentation continues to be a burden on PTs. Some PTs may prefer to skimp on the process out of stress or lack of time or choose to focus on their patients.
To improve your patient record workflow, you must support your providers in dealing with the challenges and struggles of documentation.
Here are a few ways how you can help your providers in avoiding poor medical documentation:
- Provide your PTs with examples of poor medical documentation so they know what to avoid in their workflow
- Give your physician team easy access to updates in CPT codes and regulations
- Create a standardized process for note-taking and medical record management to provide PTs with clear guidelines for documentation
- Conduct team meetings to discuss and identify the most efficient method of documentation that everyone can implement
- Delegate health record documentation to other staff so that PTs can focus on their patients
Another effective strategy is considering up-to-date software solutions that significantly streamline the documentation process. Discover how ScribePT can lift the administrative burden off the shoulders of your providers so they can focus on their patients. Sign up for ScribePT today and make your patient documentation duties a breeze.
