Come see us at booth No. 1007 – which we will be sharing with the good people at Net Health – and learn about what makes FOTO the most powerful outcomes management solution for rehab therapists in the U.S.

Our FOTO team will be on hand to provide demos, answer questions about how our solution integrates with EHRs throughout various rehab therapy care settings, and discuss how our use of the FHIR App make these integrations secure and efficient.

Whether you work in a hospital outpatient setting, a private practice, a skilled nursing facility or a senior living community, FOTO has the tools you need to manage patient outcomes and improve the quality of care you provide.

So if you’re attending the APTA CSM this year, be sure to visit FOTO at booth No. 1007 to see a demo of FOTO, ask questions, and discover how this valuable tool can help you improve the care you provide to your patients.

The post Attending CSM 2023? Come See Us and Learn What Makes FOTO the Premier Outcomes Management Solution appeared first on FOTO Patient Outcomes.

And with all of the potential benefits that come with telerehabilitation solutions like convenience, cost-savings, and greater efficiencies, it’s no surprise TR makes the shortlist as a viable care model used in conjunction with or in replacement of the traditional in-person clinic visit.

But is TR really all it’s cracked up to be? Are there things we should be considering before investing in this new set of tools?

The answer is a resounding yes, there are always things we should consider before making any changes to how we meet the needs of patients. One of the chief concerns, and one of several aims examined in a recent data study, is how satisfied patients are with their treatment results when TR was used during their episode of care compared to in-person clinic visits alone.

Let’s take a look at the details of this study and what this could mean for PT providers.

The Details of the Study

Published in the July 2021 issue of the Physical Therapy Journal, researcher Mark W. Werneke, PT, MS, Dip.MDT and his team looked at the impact of telerehab in the outpatient rehabilitation setting during the Covid-19 PHE. The study, as described by Werneke in a recent APTA podcast was a retrospective look at over 220,000 episodes of care where TR was or was not used. Data was drawn from the FOTO Patient Outcomes (FOTO) database, the industry leader in outcomes management systems with a very large national sample including all 50 US states of nearly 10 million completed rehabilitation episodes of care.

While the study examined many aspects of TR, we want to look specifically at patient satisfaction. Patients were asked at the completion of the episode, “How satisfied were you with overall results of your treatment at this facility?”

Here are the findings:

View Table 2

There was a small but noticeable 3.4% difference in patients who were ‘Very Satisfied’ with the higher level of satisfaction going to those not receiving TR during their episode of care. However, while this finding is certainly something worth considering, it’s important not to over-interpret these results for a couple of important reasons.

• Satisfaction results between patients receiving and not receiving TR were not risk adjusted. Therefore, the satisfaction differences observed could be explained by many other confounding factors not related to the patient’s satisfaction with treatment but more to do with the patient’s restrictions due to the PHE.
• When you include the percentage of patients that were ‘Very Satisfied’ and ‘Somewhat Satisfied’, the difference between TR (86.2%) and No-TR (87.9%) is marginal and clinically unimportant.
• When you consider the percentage of patients that were Very Dissatisfied or “Somewhat dissatisfied” between TR (0.6%) and No-TR (0.4%), the difference is nearly identical. Low TR dissatisfaction rates provides promising evidence supporting TR use during routine clinical practice.
• Note that dissatisfaction rates are nearly identical. This could me more promising evidence for the efficacy of telehealth.

Considerations for PTs Thinking About Implementing Telerehab

For many providers, these encouraging satisfaction results imply that TR is a viable alternative care model compared to in-person care not only during the current PHE but also in the post-PHE era. If you’re considering utilizing TR in your practice, here are a few helpful hints to consider:

• Understand that TR may not be for every patient. It may be important to discern during the initial evaluation whether or not a patient is a potential candidate for treatment using TR. For instance, a patient’s lack of knowledge and comfortability with technology as well as limited broadband internet access may identify patients who may not benefit from TR treatments.
• During the initial evaluation, educate the patient on the effectiveness and benefits of TR technology by explaining how TR works and how TR can facilitate better outcomes for the patient. Using posters, video examples, or other educational materials to demonstrate the benefits of TR could be an ideal way to communicate with the patient.
• Understand and share some of the unique benefits of TR with the patient. For example, TR could help reduce travel time, resolve scheduling conflicts, overcome mobility concerns, and enhance convenience. In addition, TR offers unique treatment advantages which allows the therapist to see the patient exercising and performing their usual physical activities in their home instead of trying to replicate these activities during the office visit.
• Realize that telehealth doesn’t need to be an all-or-none endeavor. Data shows the benefits of TR are present at all levels of implementation and does not require that 100% of visits use TR to enhance outcomes.

Learn More Now

As you can see, FOTO, the data source and outcome management software behind the study, is an incredibly effective tool for managing patient expectations and outcomes, which can not only be effective for data researchers but for PT providers on the local level. The services FOTO brings to the table can help you finetune the entire patient process (by seeing what is and what isn’t working), drive higher patient buy-in (by using real data to set realistic expectations), and ultimately deliver a stronger bottom line and better patient outcomes.

If you’d like to learn more about what FOTO might be able to do for you, we’d encourage you to take a moment and learn more about the full list of capabilities today.

A Practical Guide for Implementing Telehealth in Rehab Therapy Practices

4 steps to get started and ensure success with telehealth

Download e-book

The post Telerehab: Is It the Right Call? appeared first on FOTO Patient Outcomes.

Fortunately, the rise of new communication strategies has made it possible to generate patient engagement in outpatient therapy with a few clicks of a button. Through electronic health records (EHR) software and physical therapy marketing, clinicians can now quickly tap into new avenues of communication to promote engagement.

Why Outdated Methods of Communication Don’t Work

Unlike acute care settings, where patients are constantly in the vicinity of a clinician or physical therapist, outpatient therapy patients are often spread across a city or town. Far travel distance and time constraints are just two of the many reasons why patients fail to engage with physical therapy programs, followed by intervening medical conditions, lack of privacy during physical therapy, and believing physical therapy was not helpful.²

The majority of outpatient physical therapy providers utilize strategies such as phone calls or texts in an attempt to ensure patients arrive at their scheduled appointments. However, if barriers such as travel distance or time constraints have already arisen, text reminders are unlikely to sway the decision of a disengaged patient. Instead, there needs to be very purposeful and deliberate communication to lead patients to take the next step in treatment.

New Communication Strategies to Leverage Today

While phone calls and text messages have their place among strategies to spark engagement, email correspondence, a patient portal, and physical therapy marketing are new avenues of communication that should not be ignored.

1. Email Communication
   Email correspondence is an easy way for rehab therapy providers to connect with patients outside of the office. American adults check their email for an average of five hours per day, making it an effective channel to target clients.³ Moreover, email can be leveraged by physical therapists to communicate the dangers of forgoing outpatient treatment to a wide audience, without diving into individual private health information.
2. Patient Portal
   A patient portal is a private, secure server that clients can use to view the healthcare analytics contained within their own electronic health records. When used alongside an outcomes management system, such as FOTO (Focus On Therapeutic Outcomes), clinicians can leverage the patient portal to provide data points such as how a patient is progressing against expectations and how a missed visit can impact recovery trajectory to encourage engagement.
3. Physical Therapy Marketing
   Physical therapy marketing encapsulates a wide variety of targeted communication, ranging from email newsletters to social media posts and outpatient therapy blogs. With physical therapy marketing services, clinicians can segment audience types based on existing patients or potential patients to fine-tune messaging focused on engagement.

Find New Methods to Spark Engagement Today

The answer to reviving engagement among outpatient physical therapy markets does not stop with advanced communication strategies. Download the latest Net Health e-book, 6 Strategies to Stimulate Patient Engagement in Rehab Therapy, to learn the latest methods for boosting engagement among rehab therapy markets today.

6 Patient Engagement Strategies for Rehab Therapy Clinics

Actionable tactics your team can implement right away to stimulate patient engagement.

Download e-book

References:

¹, ² Marquette University, “Predictors of Retention in Physical Therapy: Client-, Disease-, and Treatment-Related Factors,” July 2021.

³ Adobe, “2019 Adobe Email Usage Study,” September 12, 2019.

The post Generate Engagement in Rehab Therapy with New Communication Strategies appeared first on FOTO Patient Outcomes.

Most clinicians in the healthcare space have at least heard of telehealth and many may have even implemented some form of it in their own practice already. And while it is growing in popularity, you may still have a few reservations about things like efficacy, logistics, and the quality of the patient experience.

In this article, we’re going to address these concerns and answer some common questions about telehealth physical therapy, including:

• What exactly is telehealth for physical therapy and how does it work?
• How does telehealth physical therapy compare with traditional in-person physical therapy?
• What are the benefits and concerns that may come along with this form of treatment?

What is Telehealth and How Does it Work?

Telehealth is a form of treatment that utilizes technology to connect patients with physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech pathologists, without the patient and therapist needing to be in the same physical location. The exact technical configuration varies from therapist to therapist but the general setup involves both the therapist and the patient utilizing some form of camera and audio recording equipment to facilitate the treatment.

The Benefits of Using Telehealth Physical Therapy For Your Patients

Telehealth for physical therapy brings a lot of the same benefits to the table that telehealth brings to other areas of the medical industry. The biggest and most obvious of these benefits is access.

Many patients face challenges when it comes to getting to an in-person physical therapy appointment. These include logistical factors like being homebound, a lack of transportation, distance, impacts on their work schedules, or limited scheduling availability. Additionally, many patients feel less comfortable meeting in person or may struggle with psychological factors such as body-image issues, unfamiliarity with the process, discomfort with new things, or understandable COVID-19 safety concerns.

But by being able to meet with a provider by simply turning on a camera in the comfort of their own home, a lot of these issues are instantly mitigated in a convenient way.

The Benefits of Telehealth PT for Care Providers

Not only does telehealth physical therapy deliver benefits for patients, but it also carries plenty of benefits for care providers as well.

First, it allows providers to be more efficient in their scheduling. Instead of dealing with issues of patients being late because of traffic or weather or the provider having to drive long distances to provide on-site care, travel time is cut to zero. Additionally, if a patient no-shows or cancels, the opportunity to schedule a replacement on short notice may be more effective.

Second, the conveniences that come with telehealth are extremely helpful. When patients are happier and have more options, they’re more likely to complete care. And when patients complete care, it means better patient outcomes and a stronger bottom line.

Third, it provides unique opportunities to engage in new ways. For example, if you have patients that still prefer in-person care, you have the opportunity to offer ‘booster sessions’ in between regularly scheduled in-person sessions. It’s a chance to augment care and better engage with patients for better outcomes.

Concerns with Using Telehealth for Physical Therapy

While many would agree that the benefits outweigh any concerns when it comes to telehealth physical therapy, this discussion would be incomplete without visiting these potential drawbacks.

The most important question and concern people have is the efficacy and effectiveness of the treatment. If it’s not as effective as in-person therapy, is it really worth it? Well, the answer would be no, it wouldn’t be worth it.

Thankfully, that’s not a concern that we need to worry about. According to a 2020 study on telehealth conducted by Focus On Therapeutic Outcomes (FOTO), telehealth is as effective in rehab therapy as in-person care. In fact, the study suggests that telehealth may promote greater efficiency of care by delivering comparable results in fewer visits.

Read More: Telehealth Data Study Delivers Answers to Critical Questions for Rehab Therapists

Additionally, concerns about costs must be addressed. And while this certainly would be a major concern a decade ago, the commoditization of streaming technology has significantly lowered the costs for both providers and patients. Yes, the upfront costs are still there, but the economic spreading effect lowers the impact over time and turns these upfront costs into savings.

Should You Consider Telehealth Physical Therapy for Your Practice?

While this is a decision best made on a case-by-case basis, offering patients more convenience and flexibility at a better price most certainly is a good thing. And with the knowledge that telehealth physical therapy can offer similar results in potentially fewer sessions, it certainly merits further exploration.

And an important closing thought to keep in mind is that telehealth doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. The aforementioned data study showed that benefits were present in cases where only some degree of telehealth was utilized. What that means for you is that you can dip your toe in the shallow end with telehealth. It doesn’t have to be a headfirst jump off the high dive to start testing and seeing real results.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can start implementing the benefits of telehealth into your practice, we’d invite you to reach out today and speak with a member of our team.

A Practical Guide for Implementing Telehealth in Rehab Therapy Practices

4 steps to get started and ensure success with telehealth

Download e-book

The post Telehealth and Physical Therapy: Benefits, Pitfalls, and Your Questions Answered appeared first on FOTO Patient Outcomes.

Patients who fail to complete their episodes of care leave gaps in the clinic schedule, eliminating streams of revenue for outpatient and private practice physical therapy. And without new patients to fill these empty spots and regain lost funds, the clinic as a whole can suffer. To bring in more revenue, and improve patient retention and acquisition, it’s paramount that clinicians communicate the value of physical therapy to both new and recurring patients alike.

Take a look at just how important it is to communicate the value of physical therapy, as well as how physical therapy marketing and software solutions can help express value to boost patient acquisition and retention.

Importance of Communicating Value to Retain Current Patients

Patient retention at outpatient physical therapy and direct access physical therapy has struggled over the past 15 months. Recent data revealed that more than 41% of patients skipped medical care in the early months of the pandemic, with 58% of patients forgoing scheduled preventative care.² Between fear of COVID-19 exposure and financial repercussions of the pandemic, many believed their condition was not worth continuing treatment.³

However, there’s a multitude of other reasons why patients may not complete physical therapy treatment:

1. They lose insurance
2. They aren’t engaged
3. They don’t think it’s working
4. They are busy and don’t prioritize their health

For the majority of the above reasons, a thorough lesson in the value of PT might help.

How to Engage Current Patients 

Current patients must remain engaged with their care to feel motivated to continue treatment. Highly engaged patients are two or more times as likely to know about the treatment guidelines for their condition and deliberately seek health information, including how long it takes to progress.⁴ Yet to remain engaged, patients must be able to understand the true value of the services they’re receiving.

To improve how your clinic communicates the value of PT, start by leveraging your practice management software. Tools like FOTO (Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes) manage and track patient outcomes to help facilitate the conversation with data and prove the value of treatment by showing exactly how it’s working. Clinicians can also harness this data in their physical therapy marketing, sending routine educational and appointment reminder emails.

Significance of Communicating Value to Acquire New Patients

Unless your business is direct access physical therapy, chances are that your new patients stem from tons of referrals. After all, the rate of primary care physician referrals for physical therapy tops off at more than 5.1 million each year.⁵ However, to cast a wider net on the potential market, there are several steps clinicians can take to speak to the value of physical therapy beyond healing accident injuries.

Similar to therapeutic massage, physical therapy can — and should — be used preventatively. By marketing your physical therapy practice for preventive care as opposed to strictly injury care, you open your doors to a significant number of additional patients. For instance, avid runners, bikers, hikers, and other active individuals can appreciate the value preventative physical therapy can add to their fast-paced lifestyle.

How to Market to New Patients 

Physical therapy marketing plays a major role in securing new patients. Through email newsletters, social media posts, and additional forms of content marketing, a clinic can communicate the value of PT beyond injury care. And by communicating the value to people outside of those who need it, you can unlock new streams of revenue for your practice.

Ways to harness physical therapy marketing for new patients include:

• Partnering with retail environments, organizations, activity clubs, or local fairs to engage an untapped audience segment
• Speaking to the societal value of PT, so that community members learn that a healthy lifestyle equals more time spent with family, friends, and loved ones
• Targeting those with active or rugged lifestyles to express how preventative physical therapy can better overall health

Communicate the Value of PT with Trusted Tools

Both physical therapy marketing and practice management software are irreplaceable tools for communicating the value of physical therapy. Leverage data powered by FOTO (Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes) software to begin to have meaningful conversations with patients that truly express the value of PT. Keep patients engaged and remain top of mind with Net Health Digital Marketing Solutions and Net Health Therapy for Outpatient that spread your message far and wide.

To ramp up patient retention as well as patient acquisition, discover how the Net Health therapy suite of trusted tools can help.

References

¹ Marquette University, “Predictors of Retention in Physical Therapy: Client-, Disease-, and Treatment-Related Factors,” July 2021. 

², ³ American Medical Association, “Why 41% of Patients Have Skipped Care During COVID-19 Pandemic,” February 15, 2021.

⁴ Health Affairs, “What The Evidence Shows About Patient Activation: Better Health Outcomes And Care Experiences; Fewer Data On Costs,” February 2013. 

⁵ Journal of General Internal Medicine, “Primary Care Physician Referral to Physical Therapy for Musculoskeletal Conditions,” April 5, 2018. 

⁶ Becker’s Hospital Review, “3 Important Statistics About Provider Referrals,” August 16, 2016. 

The post How Well Does Your Clinic Communicate the Value of Physical Therapy? appeared first on FOTO Patient Outcomes.

In the past, creating these referral streams was a bit of an abstract process that involved a lot of anecdotal analysis. Today, though, rehab therapists have a new tool to rise to the top—outcomes management. By properly harnessing the power of outcomes management data, you can start a calculated push to drive new business through professional and private referrals.

Stop a Negative Experience Dead in Its Tracks

The power of a positive review pales in comparison to the magnitude of a vocal client who has a bad experience. And the reality is that no matter how great a rehab therapy practice is, there are going to be people who aren’t completely pleased. Regardless of the reason for the dissatisfaction, if the situation isn’t remedied, you’ll end up with the exact opposite of a referral source.

Outcomes management software helps to identify these potential issues in real-time with built-in notifications. By tracking patient satisfaction throughout the entire episode of care, your team can quickly respond to dissatisfaction or changes in the satisfaction level.

And even if the client doesn’t express their dissatisfaction, the ability to benchmark clinical results, like improved physical function, against a risk-adjusted national database can help to spot clients who aren’t getting as much out of treatment as they might be able to.

Create Raving Fans

One of the first places that people go when they need to choose a service provider (in any industry) is their friends, family, and coworkers. As one of the most influential referral sources out there, it’s imperative to realize that every patient you treat is a potential source of new business somewhere down the line.

While providing the highest level of care is always what you strive for, outcomes management software helps you 

• Drive higher satisfaction rates by showing patients in real-time how they’re doing compared with other patients with similar age, acuity level, involved body part, and other patient factors that impact outcomes.
• Increase patient activation and care participation by better outlining the treatment expectations from the start.
• Benchmark how your company, clinics, or clinicians are performing to find opportunities to improve.
• Find areas of your practice where your team outshines the industry and use ready-made marketing materials to drive referrals.

Don’t Forget Professional Referrals

Clients aren’t the only referral sources that can have a marked impact on your business. Professional sources like hospitals, physicians and other providers present phenomenal opportunities to drive new customers. And much like clients, these professionals want to recommend the providers that can deliver the highest level of care and the best results.

Outcomes management software tracks and reports the critical data points that matter to these sources. Additionally, many outcome quality measures are becoming more accessible to the public. For example, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released Care Compare¹, an online website that allows the public to compare healthcare providers of all different types on several quality indicators. 

All of this should be viewed as a positive opportunity. As you continue to refine patient outcomes, the avenues to shine a light on those results and drive referrals are becoming more and more prominent.

A Focused Approach Forward

Improving patient outcomes is not only great for patients, but it helps to satisfy the needs of value-based care and build private and professional referral sources. Ultimately, clients and providers want to send their friends, family, and patients to the rehab therapists who prove to be the best in the business.

As you move forward in the competitive marketplace, it continues to become more and more important to be able to demonstrate your wins and address your opportunities to improve. And all of this starts with having the right software solutions in place to properly measure and manage your patient outcomes.

For rehab therapists, FOTO Patient Outcomes, a Net Health company, is the most robust solution on the market. FOTO puts the power of data into the therapist’s hands to facilitate growth, engage with patients, streamline operations, benchmark processes, and ultimately—create the loudest and proudest referral sources.

We’d encourage you to check out how FOTO might be able to help you and your team.

How Your Private Practice Can Thrive in a Pandemic

Suggestions to Help Rehab Therapists Proactively Plan for the Future

Download the ebook

¹. https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

The post How Outcomes Management Can Help Rehab Therapists with Referrals appeared first on FOTO Patient Outcomes.

And yet, at the heart of the day-to-day challenges remains the need to care for patients—to help improve their outcomes and to meet their physical, social and increasingly, mental health demands. These issues are leading more rehab therapists to turn to outcomes management systems to measure therapy results, improve quality and market their results.

What is Outcomes Management?

Outcomes management harnesses predictive analytics to capture and report nationally benchmarked, risk-adjusted comparisons by company, clinic, and clinician over time. Outcomes management software can sync with existing electronic medical record (EMR) programs to provide robust healthcare analytics, ranging from patient-reported outcomes that compare treatment effectiveness and efficiency by impairment to satisfaction in real-time.

Such features provide tremendous flexibility and versatility, allowing today’s rehab therapists to streamline operations and keep clients engaged in care, even when in-person clinic visits aren’t possible. If you’re not yet sold, consider these five ways outcomes management aids today’s rehab therapists in improving patient care and facilitating clinician growth.

1. Better (and Faster) Ways to Perform Assessments 

Patients typically have to answer a significant number of questions while filling out patient-reported assessments—many of which have nothing to do with their impairment. An outcomes management system uses modern science and computer-adaptive technology to streamline this process by tailoring the questions to the individual patient so that only a few questions are needed to get an accurate score.  For telehealth appointments, this feature provides a seamless way to gather assessment data and limits patients’ frustration with filling out repetitive paperwork. 

2. Tools to Measure Functional Status

The ability to measure functional status is critical for rehab therapists who perform outpatient therapy via a telehealth platform. These tools allow patients to conveniently complete assessments from home. Because the functional status results are delivered to the EHR in real time, the clinician can efficiently incorporate the outcome measures into the evaluation and ongoing treatment processes, whether the patient is seen in the clinic or by telehealth.  

3. Technology that Fosters Patient Engagement

A large advantage of outcomes management is predictive analytics. With this benefit, therapists can forecast the number of visits and duration needed to achieve recovery as well as the likely recovery amount. While helpful for therapists, such insights are also beneficial to patients. By sharing this information with patients—including details about how they’re progressing against expectations for their age, acuity, involved body part, and other risk-adjusted data—therapists can drive satisfaction rates, enhance patient motivation to actively participate in care, and reduce missed visits and premature discharge rates. 

4. System Assistance with Reporting Requirement

Patient-reported outcomes have become a strong focus for MIPS reporting, encouraging patient-centered care. An effective outcomes management system should measure and manage relevant patient data in a consistent, standardized way across the practice, so therapists can identify and address any gaps in care.  Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, management software provides not only the ability to measure outcomes at the patient level, but also generates aggregated data that can be used for insights to drive better patient outcomes.

Outcomes management software provides these features, along with measures of patient satisfaction and real-time alerts of negative patient satisfaction responses. In this way, the practice can locate and remedy sub-optimal patient experiences proactively. 

5. Methodology to Improve Reimbursement and the Bottom Line

When it comes to finding ways to improve reimbursement, therapists know all too well that there is always something new coming down the pipeline from CMS. Not to mention that payers are continually looking for ways to slash what they pay to therapists. Outcomes management helps today’s rehab therapists with reimbursement and the referrals stream by giving clinicians the data-driven tools they need to optimize patient outcomes and engagement, while providing objective and non-biased proof of quality to payers, referral sources, and the public by leveraging user friendly reporting and marketing tools.

Providing the Tools Necessary to Thrive

Outcomes management systems are no longer a benefit—they’re a necessity for rehab therapists managing the complex and evolving healthcare landscape.  FOTO Patient Outcomes is Net Health’s trusted outcomes management system, built to assist today’s therapists in daily operations and facilitate practice growth while keeping patients engaged and satisfied.

Discover how FOTO can provide the tools and support necessary to help therapists thrive today. 

3 Things You Need to Know When Choosing an Outcomes Management System

Ensure that Your Practice Stays Relevant in the Rehab Therapy Industry by Making the Right Choice

Download the eBook

The post 5 Ways Outcomes Management Helps Today’s Rehab Therapists appeared first on FOTO Patient Outcomes.

Keep an Eye on Technology

Technology is one of the few arenas that is constantly changing, evolving and often becoming better over time. In order to continue growing, it’s important to keep up with the latest developments and advancements. For example, combining an electronic health record (EHR) system with an outcome management solutions platform like FOTO (Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes) can help patients stay aligned with their treatment plan and better understand what to expect along the way. Additionally, technology, by way of telehealth services, can also allow patients to be seen by their rehab therapist virtually when an in-person office visit may not be deemed necessary.

Promote the Value of Your Services

Building personal connections with clientele, whether they’re new or regulars, is key. Oftentimes patients will turn to their rehab therapists to help them make educated and well-informed decisions about their treatment plan. This is where promoting the value of one’s services can speak volumes. When promoting the value of rehab therapy services, consider brainstorming the following questions:

• How does your private practice stand out from the rest?
• What bits of knowledge and information can help your customers?
• What platforms may be worth investing in to advertise your services?

Educating rehab therapy customers about the range of services that are available may help them feel like they’re in good hands and, in turn, they can come to expect a positive experience regarding their therapy care. A positive experience can then lead to solid recommendations that are passed on and shared with others.

Find out how you can turn great patient experiences into 5-star reviews with Net Health Trust.

Reexamine and Bump Up Your Services

By investing in technology and looking at ways to promote your rehab therapy business, you may then find yourself asking a crucial question: how can I make my services better in 2021? With competition high across various rehab therapy industries, keeping that edge above the others may be the determining factor of whether or not clients will come back for more.

• Look at how specialized services can draw further positive outcomes for patients.
• Reexamine how current services can better accommodate those in need.
• Develop a plan that can enhance and focus in on the entire patient experience.

As is with many things in life, keeping up with the changing of times and the latest technological advancements are just a couple of ways practices can stay fully up-to-speed and up-to-date with developments in their line of work. Utilize these simple yet effective tips to kick off 2021 on the right note and take the reins of a rehab therapy practice you’re proud of.

How Private Practices Can Capture and Maintain a Competitive Advantage

7 Tips to Stand Out as an Outpatient Therapy Practice

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The post Make Your Private Practice Shine in 2021 appeared first on FOTO Patient Outcomes.

Enhance Your Rehab Therapy Practice

If you’re weary of technological advancements but are overwhelmed by a myriad of administrative and regulatory responsibilities, consider these three ways the digital world can enhance your rehab therapy practice.

1. Telehealth Services to Improve Customer Retention 

One of the most significant challenges faced by both private practice physical therapists and rehab directors of hospital rehab therapy clinics is poor adherence to treatment. One study found that 14 percent of physical therapy patients do not return for follow-up outpatient appointments. In fact, non-adherence with treatment and exercise performance could be as high as 70 percent across the board.¹  

Whether patients are discouraged by traveling to their appointment, especially post-COVID, or concerned about how much time an appointment may take, the repercussions of not completing the treatment process can lead to serious complications, like chronic pain. Telehealth services can alleviate these fears and encourage patients to continue their plan of care (POC). Not to mention, recent research shows that care delivered using telehealth with rehab therapy patients is as effective as traditional in-person care for improving functional status and achieving patient satisfaction.²

The study examined the results of analyses of 40,000+ episodes-of-care. Results also showed that telehealth is more efficient, requiring two to three fewer visits³, which can contribute to higher customer retention. In response to COVID, Net Health implemented a new telehealth service for Net Health Therapy.

2. FOTO Electronic Outcomes Management to Monitor Practice Performance

Between adapting to COVID requirements and managing the ever-evolving reporting requirements of payers and government entities, the challenges affecting rehab therapy departments appear endless. Rehab therapists consistently strive to improve their practice or department, but it’s no easy task, especially with day-to-day operations and resourcing. This is where the use of an electronic outcomes management system (OMS) can prove useful to prove the value of your care and maximize your reimbursement.

Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes (FOTO), powered by Net Health, offers an OMS that uses predictive analytics to capture and report nationally benchmarked, risk-adjusted comparisons by company, clinic, and clinician over time to improve patient care and facilitate practice growth. It’s packed with all of the features a busy therapist needs, such as risk-adjusted patient-reported outcomes to compare treatment effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. 

Plus, these analytics are updated in real-time, so therapists never have to wonder if they’re optimizing based on current data. Everything you need to know about clinic performance, quality of care, and patient engagement is immediately at your fingertips.⁴ 

3 Things You Need to Know When Choosing an Outcomes Management System

Ensure that Your Practice Stays Relevant in the Rehab Therapy Industry by Making the Right Choice

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3. EHR Solution to Streamline Operations 

Electronic health records (EHR) can dramatically improve your rehab therapy practice. In reality, EHR solutions are much more than a virtual patient database. Rather, they’re forward-looking systems that support the always-changing regulations and market opportunities in the rehab therapy space, clinical documentation, and patient scheduling.

Consider Net Health® Therapy for Hospital Outpatient and Private Practice (formerly ReDoc®). Net Health Therapy is a cloud-based, fully-integrated specialized EHR solution offering clinical workflows, practice management, outcomes benchmarking, and a telehealth portal. Just one system is loaded with practical daily functions to significantly streamline practice operations.

Net Health Therapy Getting Results

Mason District Hospital recently switched to Net Health Therapy, which resulted in more than 10 minutes of time savings with each patient intake evaluation, a 23 percent growth in patient attendance, and 12 percent annual growth in all therapy patients.⁵

“Having a system that encompasses everything from scheduling to billing to patient intake to documentation has made our Rehabilitation Services Department be more productive and it has made it a more well-rounded and complete business,” said Douglas Kosier, CEO of Mason District Hospital, in a recent case study published by Net Health.

4 Ways Cloud-based EMR Solutions Improve Rehab Therapy Clinic Management

Boost patient satisfaction, improve practice management, and Grow Your Practice

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Footnotes: 

1. National Center for Biotechnology Information, Manual Therapy, “Barriers to Treatment Adherence in Physiotherapy Outpatient Clinics: A Systematic Review,” June 2010. 

2, 3. Net Health, Private Practice Therapy, “2020 Study Shows: Telehealth is as Effective in Rehab Therapy as In-Person Care,” 6 November 2020. 

4.  Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes Inc, Home, “Outcomes Management System,” 6 November 2020. 

5. Net Health Therapy, Case Study, “ReDoc® Powered by xfit® Delivers for Mason District Hospital,” 6 November 2020.

The post 3 Ways the Digital World Can Help Your Rehab Therapy Practice appeared first on FOTO Patient Outcomes.

Specifically, people wanted to know how the technology-driven medium stacked up against classic in-person care. Are the results as effective? Is this something we should consider for our patients?

In the past, there were limited resources to answer these critical questions. In response, Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes (FOTO), a Net Health company, conducted a research study¹ to examine the efficiency and effectiveness of telehealth in the rehab therapy space.

The study used propensity score matching (PSM) to look at over 40,000 episodes-of-care. Researchers looked at three metrics across varying levels of telehealth use—functional status outcomes, the average number of visits, and patient satisfaction with the treatment results.

The results of the study showed three main reasons why telehealth-administered therapy care is just as effective as in-person care.

1) Telehealth Delivers Where It Counts

Out of all the questions we can ask about telehealth, one stands out as the most important—how well does telehealth work compared to in-person care for rehab therapy? If the answer were anything less than equally as effective, we’d owe it to our patients to opt for a different path forward.

But here’s the good news. The FOTO research study showed that telehealth and non-telehealth care episodes were equally as effective in improving patients’ functional status. This fact alone should serve as the foundational go-ahead to explore the other potential benefits telehealth can bring to our patients and our practices. 

2) Telehealth Got There With Fewer Visits

Not only was telehealth equally effective in driving measurable results for patients in the study, but those results were achieved through an average of two to three fewer visits. And while a deeper look at additional variables could help to provide more color to this point, the data here clearly suggests the presence of a higher efficiency of care. If providers can get patients the same results with fewer visits, this means healthcare savings and an optimal road to results for the patient.

3) Telehealth Hits the Mark With Patients

All of these benefits are moot if our patients aren’t happy with the care they’re receiving. In a competitive industry where referrals and building raving fans are paramount to success, it’s all about patient satisfaction. When it came to all levels of telehealth care observed in the study, patients reported equal levels of satisfaction. In other words, patients who received all telehealth visits, some telehealth visits, or no telehealth visits were equally satisfied with the results of their treatment.

This completes a powerful equation—equally efficient results in fewer visits with patients just as happy with the results of their care.

An Important Bottom Line

For most of us, this information gets the proverbial wheels turning about possibly implementing telehealth into our plans. But the idea of a complete transformation of how we interact with patients is scary.

Here’s arguably the most important takeaway from the FOTO study. These efficiency benefits were present at every single level of intensity of telehealth care. Patients who only got some care via telehealth all the way to patients that got all care via telehealth showed the same benefits.

What this means is that you don’t have to go all-in on telehealth to start seeing benefits. By simply working in some level of telehealth care for the appropriate patients, you can start to see real results.

View Webinar for More Information on Results and Findings.

Hear from FOTO Coordinator of External Research, Mark Werneke, PT, MS, Dip. MDT on this ground-breaking study conducted by our partners at FOTO.

¹ “Overview of Telehealth and Outcomes in Rehabilitation,” Mark Werneke, PT, MS, Dip. MDT, Daniel Deutscher, PT, PhD, Deanna Hayes, PT, DPT, MS

The post 3 Reasons Why Telehealth Rehab Therapy Is Just as Effective as In-Person Visits appeared first on FOTO Patient Outcomes.