Physiotherapeutic treatment can be essential at different times, whether for those who suffer from chronic pain in the body or even in more serious cases, as in movement rehabilitation. Usually after an evaluation, the healthcare professional will tell you how many physical therapy sessions are needed for the patient to improve.
Each patient has its particularities, so there is no rule when it comes to establishing several physiotherapy sessions. Each person will need to undergo a different treatment and this treatment can often be done in one or two sessions, but there are also those cases where the patient will take months to recover. Therefore, health professional needs a tool where they can control this number and thus adequately monitor the treatments.
Before we continue, we need to know: Do you already use medical software to perform your consultations at the clinic? We invite you to get to know Ninsaúde Apolo, online software that can be used on a tablet, smartphone, or in the traditional way, on computers. Learn more on our website apolo.app.
The first tip that we can give to any health professional who wants to make their work easier, is that you use management software in your clinic. The software, in addition to bringing more security, also has tools and features that streamline the process not only of service but also the management of the clinic. In physiotherapy clinics, where it is necessary to control sessions per patient, the use of the software is more than essential, because in addition to the advantages already mentioned, eliminates manual counting work.
But after all, how to control the physiotherapy sessions of your patients, so that you can keep track of how many sessions have already been carried out or how many are still left to finish the treatment? In the Ninsaúde Apolo software, it is possible to carry out this control through recurrences, a tool available in the agenda created especially to assist certain specialties.
Do you see your patients in appointments that are repeated with a certain frequency? So this feature is great for you! It can be used not only by physiotherapists but also psychologists, speech therapists, among others.
Recurring Schedules - What They Are and How They Work
Recurring schedules also called just recurrences here, work primarily as a reminder. They will be visible in the schedule, highlighted by a different color from the other schedules, and the user when scheduling the recurrence, you can choose whether you want it to repeat weekly, monthly, or annually.
When creating the recurrence, you can also choose a specific date for the sessions to end, or if you prefer, choose to end after x number of occurrences or even repeat always. In addition, it is also possible to choose which days of the week that schedule will be repeated.
As mentioned above, the recurrence will initially work as a reminder on the calendar. As the date in question approaches, the secretary simply confirms with the patient whether he will attend or not. If the answer is yes, she can turn this recurrence into an appointment and flag it as confirmed. If the answer is no, the recurrence can be ignored.
When clicking on the recurrence to confirm or ignore it, the system also shows us the total number of sessions scheduled and how many have already been done. For example, in the image above we can see that the patient Karina is scheduled through a recurrence that has been programmed to repeat 5 times, that is, the patient scheduled 5 sessions. Of the 5 scheduled sessions of the package, the patient has already used 1, therefore, the agenda shows us the information "1/5" just below the service.
In some cases, the system may show the number of sessions already used, but not exactly the total number. This is due to the different recurrence options. For example, if you choose the option "Repeat always" there will be no end date, therefore the system will only show "...", as in the example below:
Another important piece of information is that when a recurrence arrives in your last session, it no longer shows new dates to be confirmed for that patient because, in theory, his treatment is over. It's like the example we mentioned above, where the patient had already had 4 sessions, the total being 5. When confirming the 5th (and last) session, the system closes the recurrence, and in this way, you are also aware that the treatment of that patient has come to an end.
In the recurring scheduling, there is also the history of occurrences, which aims to show which dates were used by the patient. As much as the patient has scheduled several sessions, he will not always appear on all consecutively scheduled dates and often ends up having to reschedule, thus moving to the next date. So that there is no doubt whether the patient attended on date x or date y, if you canceled or confirmed the sessions, just view the history of occurrences.
When accessing the patient's record, it is also possible to view some histories, and among them is the history of recurrences. The history tab present in the patient's record gives a broader view of the session package that the patient has open and also lists other recurrences that have already been scheduled for that patient.
To better illustrate, let's analyze the history of the patient Karina, shown below. Karina has a package of 5 physiotherapy sessions, and of these 5 sessions, she has already used 3. We can also observe that the sessions are held weekly, every Tuesday. So far, she has only been seen once (on 03/03/2022) and has two other dates scheduled (remembering that she is entitled to 5 sessions in total), therefore the system shows us at the top the information "3/5".
It is worth remembering that in addition to these tools, Ninsaúde Apolo has many other features that help not only physical therapists in their appointments but also the clinic as a whole.
Did you like our tips? Keep following the blog for more articles like this one, and if you still don't use management software to make your appointments, come and meet Ninsaúde Apolo.