Have you ever wondered why so few physical therapy clinics use electronic medical records when other health care professionals have broadly adopted this as an industry standard? Surprisingly, 80% of physical therapists are still using pen and paper. Talk to most physical therapists and they view EMR as a complex and complicated process – it simply feels too overwhelming to make the transition. Many believe that therapists need to be ‘tech-savvy’ to use an EMR efficiently and fear that these systems are expensive, tedious, and high-maintenance.

Well, here’s a 2011 newsflash: not any more! Physical therapy EMRs have moved away from the traditional server based models that involve hardware and software installation as well as routine upgrades and scheduled maintenance. ‘Cloud computing’ is the new model for EMRs. These EMRs provide web-based service which means you don’t have to purchase a server, upload a program or even back up your information. In addition, your EMR can be accessible from any computer or smart phone that has browser capabilities. Since medical records are stored in the ‘cloud’, they are easily accessible

to other healthcare providers involved in that patient’s care (permissions required as per HIPAA guidelines). Processes are streamlined, medical errors and redundancy are significantly reduced. Genius! In the small and mid-size business sectors, cloud computing is becoming mainstream in how information is utilized and accessed.

Cloud-based service may prompt you to think about security of medical records and HIPAA compliance. Here are some things to keep in mind with regards to HIPAA when adopting a cloud-based physical therapy EMR:

• The EMR service you’ve adopted must store records for the appropriate length of time as stipulated by HIPAA regulations.

• The EMR service must provide user logins to ensure patient-therapist confidentiality.

• The EMR service should be SSL encrypted to a minimum of 128-bit. This is the same encryption required by banks for storage of client financial records.

Although physical therapists have been excluded from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which provides funds to help physicians with the required transition to electronic records by 2015, the adoption of an EMR in the near future is going to become a necessity to remain competitive. APTA’s Vision 2020 mandates all physical therapy services be provided by ‘Doctors of Physical Therapy’ so we should hold ourselves accountable to the same level of documentation standards required of physicians.

Bronwyn Spira, PT, and Tejal Ramaiya, DPT, CSCS authored this guest post.