The Team Chart Concept is a natural fit for Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy.  The documentation requirements that now burden rehabilitation services are approaching critical mass (no pun intended).  From initial evaluations, to treatment plans, flow sheets, daily progress tracking reports, and final evaluations, the demands for documentation on the therapists of today are as great as on any other medical discipline.

         There are three broad areas of application for the Team Chart Concept in the world of rehabilitation services:

•   Data Entry
•   Data Communication and Presentation
•   Reporting and Decision Making

Let us look at each of these three areas.

Data Entry:

       With the Team Chart Concept, the overwhelming paper work of the therapy office can be effectively and efficiently computerized.   Using a simply point-and-click interface, the user can rapidly document any step in the cycle of patient rehabilitation.

         Consider, for example, Goal Tracking.  You can, using User Defined Fields (click here for more information), define the following fields to track progress towards Goals:

  Date

  Goal Description

  Current Value

  Goal Value

  Percent Of Goal Reached

The Goal Description field might have choices such as

  Pain

  Bicep Strength

  Cervical Flexion

         Each day then, the therapist or assistant could rapidly record in the Team Chart Concept, values such as:

         As this information is computerized, you can record it much faster than writing or even typing, because default values (e.g. Pain, Bicep Strength, 0, 45, etc.) can be selected from a list of choices with just one mouse click.  The computer can also automatically calculate fields like the Percent Of Goal Reached (in the example above).  For just a few fields, the speed savings might not appear to be very large, but when you define a record for an Initial Evaluation, there may be 50, 60, or more fields needed. Therapists that have spent up to half an hour writing an Initial Evaluation on paper, can now do that evaluation in just a few minutes using the Team Chart Concept.  Again, the speed savings to having pre-defined lists of choices (that YOU define) result in much faster data input.

         It should also be obvious, that using a computerized system of pick lists will ensure that every question is answered, and that common record gathering errors (such as spelling, illegibility, incorrect terminology, etc.) can be eliminated.

         Furthermore, the decision to even ask some questions can be made to be dependent on the answers to previous questions (for example, if the patient experiences back pain when performing certain tasks, additional questions may need to be asked).

         Of course data entry is just the first step.  The next step is to get the relevant data back out in a presentable format.

Data Communication and Presentation:

       With the Team Chart Concept , you can automatically pull values from records (like the Goal Tracking shown above) and "merge" those values into Microsoft Word Documents.  This gives the therapist the ability to design extremely professional documents within Microsoft Word and then "merge" or insert specific values stored in the Team Chart Concept into the Word Document.  This process works much like traditional mail merge routines.  It is very easy to do with the Team Chart Concept, and you can even run reports to find, say, all Initial Evaluations that were done today and merge all of them into the Initial Evaluation Word Document.  Treatment Plans that must be agreed to by the referring physician are a natural fit for using Microsoft Word Documents.  The process can be completely automated and then delegated to the office staff.  You can even e-mail these Microsoft Word documents to patients or physicians directly out of the Team Chart Concept.

         Not only can individual fields be inserted into Microsoft Word Documents through the Team Chart Concept's "merge" routines, but Patient Reports can be automatically run and "merged" as well.  You can for example, define a report that pulls all Range Of Motion Records from the Patient's Timeline that involve Back Therapy, and automatically insert that report into the Microsoft Word Document set up for a Final Evaluation.  For more information on merging information with Microsoft Word, click here.

Reporting and Decision Making:

       Now that we have data entry, and information presentation down, there is one other area of interest to many therapists: outcome reports.  For example, you can easily define reports to show how many of your patients have improved due to your treatment methods. You might also run reports to show how quickly patients have responded to your services, and how many patients have been discharged ahead of schedule.  Other reports can be run on such things as

•   Overall Office Efficiency
•   Patients with Missed Appointments
•   Comparison of Different Types of Treatments
•   Productivity by Therapist/Facility/etc.
•   New Evaluation Reports

       Don't forget that the Team Chart Concept is a complete billing, scheduling, and electronic medical records package.  So you can run clinical reports that also pull from patient demographics and financial fields. This gives you the ability to run outcome based reports broken down by say, insurance company.  You can show Insurance Company A that you have treated X number of patients and Y percentage of them have improved due to your treatment plans.  Of course you can also do such things as compare reimbursement levels between Insurance Company A and Insurance Company B.  Hopefully, you can see the opportunities for leverage in negotiations with third party payers.

         The marketing opportunities presented by the reporting capabilities of the Team Chart Concept should also be obvious.  For more information on creating and running reports in the Team Chart Concept, click here.

         The Team Chart Concept from Ulrich Medical Concepts is the complete package for rehabilitation services, today.  If you are a practicing therapist, or involved in education, or research, the Team Chart Concept is ready to go.  We look forward to working with you to deliver the best possible patient care in the most cost-effective way possible.

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