Physical Therapy Forms Design and Layout

Even in this age of automation, office forms are still needed and this is also true for physical therapy. Physical therapy forms, like any office form, are source documents which are important to your bookkeeping.

The information from these source documents serve as proof of the transaction between your patients and you. However, it is not only the patients that use your physical therapy forms. There would be business forms for purchasing, receipts and payments to vendors.

Going back to the basics, we know that forms are documents that contain blank spaces wherein information are provided. For physical therapy forms, patients can fill up the necessary forms from the website of the private practitioner if it is available. This saves time when the patients arrive at the clinic for treatment. The information will then be stored in the clinic’s computer and will be very easy to access. Otherwise, the physical therapy patients have to fill up the forms in writing which have to be done before treatment will commence. Afterwards, the information has to be entered manually to the clinic’s computer.

Whether the physical therapy forms are pre-printed or can be accessed online, standardization is the key to speed things up. Forms must follow a certain format such that all users need not go over the entire form before they enter the required information. Standardization and a good layout of the physical therapy forms can lessen data entry. The layout or design is such that the pre-printed physical therapy forms are identical to the computer forms.

The proper layout and designing of the physical therapy forms is important due to the following:

• It increases the productivity and efficiency of the staff handling the forms because the forms are easy to use.
• The private practitioner will be able to capture all the pertinent information.
• Most patients, especially returning patients, will find filling out the forms annoying but if these forms are streamlined without sacrificing the quality of information, then it will lessen the aggravation from the patient’s end.

Some of the physical therapy forms that physical therapists usually use are as follows:

• Encounter form
• New Patient Registration form
• Initial Examination or Evaluation Form
• Medical History Questionnaire
• Patient Sign-In Sheet
• Assignment of Benefits Form
• Notice of Patient Information Practices Form
• Release of Records Form

All these physical therapy forms should be designed with the aim to get proper physical therapy documentation. This can be accomplished by making the forms easy to access, short, logical, symmetrical and easy to understand.

Physical therapy forms should not be boring. They should rock!