Physical Therapy Forms Design

Designing your physical therapy forms is easy if you have a clear understanding of their importance and uses. he key is to aim for simplicity, practicality and functionality.

Medical science which includes physical therapy is dynamic and as such is getting more complex. Thus, it is imperative for medical practitioners to communicate with other healthcare professionals more effectively and more clearly especially when during referrals. Before, health care providers would call each other and discuss a particular case being referred. These days however, the preferred mode of communication is using forms with specific instructions on what should be done, physical therapists included.

What are the elements of a good design of physical therapy forms?

1. Purpose of the physical therapy forms. These forms should have enough details of the patient’s medical condition from the perspective of the referring physical therapist. These physical forms might also request more evaluation of the symptoms of the physical therapy patients from a specialist.
2. Compare formats with other physical therapy forms and if there are elements that may prove useful, adapt them for your own.
3. The layout of your physical therapy forms should take full advantage of the maximum area so no space will be wasted.
4. The fonts that should be used for your physical therapy forms should be easy-to-read. Avoid decorative fonts.
5. The physical therapy forms should have information about your practice such as contact person, physical address, email address, website, phone and fax numbers
6. Your physical therapy forms should be able to capture the demographics of patients such as name, date of birth, contact information, gender, primary care physician, insurance details abd vital signs among others

Once your physical therapy forms are printed, evaluate the look and the readability. They should have enough white spaces for additional notes and details. Remember, the 4 C’s of designing forms which can also be applied to physical therapy forms.

• Clarity – Physical therapy forms should be clear enough such that the one who fills them up know what to with the forms.
• Concise – Information must be collected in the most efficient manner.
• Clever – This pertains to the sequence of the information being gathered in the physical therapy forms.
• Cooperative – The designer of physical therapy forms must make sure that those who would be filling them up would not be frustrated by the complexity of the forms.