While about 70% of providers perform documentation at the point of care, 90.8% still document beyond office hours.
(“The State of Rehab Therapy”)
The emergence of AI is proliferating among various industries — and rehab therapy is no different.
The demands of clinical documentation are compelling healthcare professionals in the industry to expend far more time and energy on administrative work. Unfortunately, this often impacts their productivity and care quality significantly in the long run.
Fortunately, AI has entered the rehab therapy space and can now help physical therapists with SOAP note-taking.
Here’s what you need to know.
Why Use AI For SOAP Notes?
According to a 2022 APTA report, 86.3% of providers said administrative burnout contributed to burnout.
The increasing demands for better care are becoming more difficult to meet in the midst of the constant challenges of creating accurate documentation.
Hence, the need for AI scribes — they can:
- Save time. They can automatically generate or write SOAP notes immediately after the patient encounter.
- Improve patient engagement. Providers can now entirely focus on their patients, knowing that their AI scribe is taking care of the brunt of the physical therapy SOAP notes.
- Standardize note-taking quality. AI scribe tools like ScribePT can mirror your documentation style, ensuring note-taking quality and consistency.
- Minimize compliance issues. The best AI scribe tools stay updated with the latest coding guidelines to reduce the risks of non-compliance.
- Reduce stress and burnout. Because their medical documentation is largely taken care of, providers can rest easy, being able to enjoy their line of work more thoroughly.
5 Ways To Use Note-Taking AI For Streamlining Documentation
1. Modify Your Workflow To Include AI
Your current documentation workflow may involve documenting at the point of care or using an audio recording device after the patient encounter. However, both methods fall into the problem of taking too much time or expending massive amounts of energy over time.
A scribe AI documentation tool can narrow the SOAP note-taking process down to a few steps, allowing you to save time and energy.
Here is a sample patient appointment workflow that integrates AI SOAP notes:
- Initiate the tool
- Engage with the patient
- Finish recording
- Edit the tool’s automatically generated SOAP notes
- Send the draft note to your EMR
2. Train Team On The Usage Of AI Tools
To ensure the holistic success of your practice with AI, the entire team must undergo sufficient training with your tools.
Here are some best practices you can consider implementing for training:
- Equipment orientations - Ensure each provider is well-versed with your practice’s equipment and AI tools, especially regarding their interoperability.
- Conducting role-playing activities - Provide your team with the opportunity to adapt to an AI-powered workflow by simulating a patient encounter.
- Having 1-on-1 meetings with each provider - Sit down with each team member and go over their questions and concerns with adapting to the new workflow and other matters.
Learn more training best practices for mastering PT documentation on this blog!
3. Stay Abreast Of Documentation Requirements
Documentation payor requirements continuously change throughout the year. Catching up with the updates is usually tricky due to the demands of documentation reeling you into the familiarity of a current workflow. Unfortunately, this can lead to issues such as overcoding or misbilling due to non-compliance with the updates.
AI scribe tools take on a massive portion of the documentation process, allowing you to have the time to familiarize yourself with payor requirement updates. Specialized tools like ScribePT also stay on top of requirements, though being able to learn the updates yourself allows you to have a deep understanding of guideline changes.
4. Centralize Your Focus On Patient Care
The core advantage of AI tools for documentation is they allow you to focus on your patients fully during the appointment. However, providers who have grown accustomed to a non-Ai-driven workflow may feel strange that they’re no longer taking notes during an appointment.
Understandably, this is a side effect of the traditional approach of SOAP note-taking. Besides becoming accustomed to the inclusion of AI in the workflow, it’s vital for providers to rest easy knowing that their documentation is well taken care of while they engage with their patients.
A highly effective way of doing this is to remember the impact of a positive patient experience on the success of a clinic. If providers are more focused on their patients, they can provide care quality that is highly satisfactory, making patients want to come back.
5. Using The Right Scribe AI Tool
Of course, one of the best ways to ensure the AI tool works for you is if it’s the right tool to begin with.
The ideal AI scribe tool should have the following features:
- Built specifically for rehab therapy
- Matches your documentation style and EMR information structure
- Seamlessly transfers to your EMR
- Complies with documentation requirements and data privacy regulations
- Is backed by continuous customer support and updates
With all these elements in hand, you’ll be able to effectively streamline your SOAP note-taking for the long run.
Choose The Best AI Scribe For Your Practice, Choose ScribePT
Integrating AI into your patient documentation is becoming non-negotiable. With the increasing demands of patient engagement and changing documentation requirements, AI has become necessary to support providers in their careers.ScribePT is a leading rehab therapy-focused AI scribe tool built with over 20 years of SaaS experience. Discover how ScribePT can help you reclaim over 40+ hours per month!
