60 patients a day, 5-minute notes: The EMR that keeps FYZICAL Sherman moving

When Sarah Whitworth, a certified hand therapist and occupational therapist, opened FYZICAL Sherman in 2022, she was the sole clinician at the practice. Just a few years later, her North Texas clinic has grown into a thriving multi-disciplinary team: 2 OTs (including one preparing for the CHT exam), a PT, a PTA, and soon, additional hires for pelvic health services. 

The clinic serves a wide-ranging patient population ranging from 15 to 90 years old. Referrals from a local hand surgeon help the hand therapy team sustain their daily volume of 35-40 patients. 

On top of that, the PT team averages 30 additional patients daily. With consistently high patient volume, having software that supported efficient operations was a non-negotiable for Sarah.

The problem: An EMR that couldn't scale

Sarah quickly realized that her EMR system couldn’t keep up with the clinic’s growing demands. “Our prior EMR seemed very clunky. It didn’t have as many templates. It took a long time to write an evaluation,” she said.

In addition to slow documentation, administrative inefficiencies around scheduling, billing, and reporting made it harder to keep up with increasing patient volume and staff needs.

That’s when Sarah made the switch to Prompt. She describes it as a turning point: “Prompt has streamlined our treatment as well as documentation to make it easier and more efficient.” 

Documentation that adapts to every discipline

Prompt’s template-driven workflow supports FYZICAL Sherman’s diverse team, including hand therapists, physical therapists, and a PTA. It’s also flexible enough to adapt as they expand into pelvic-health care. 

Before they went live with Prompt, Sarah had her staff build discipline-specific templates that would make their day-to-day lives easier.

“The templates have been the best thing about Prompt for us. Each clinician made every single template they possibly could. Even OT-specific, like my other OT made her own,” Sarah said. 

That upfront investment now pays dividends. “I can write an evaluation in probably 5 minutes and that would be on the long end,” she said. “Daily notes take me 1 or 2 minutes a piece.”

Because the clinic sees a lot of recurring diagnoses, having these templates already created in Prompt makes all the clinicians’ lives easier. “When you have the same diagnoses over and over again, you can just change some of the information. It’s just so much faster. There’s no point in recreating the wheel,” Sarah said.

The clinic also uses PredictionHealth, and Sarah notes the integration with Prompt makes it seamless: “It pretty much writes the evaluation for you. The marriage of those 2 is perfect.”

Scheduling made smarter

Prompt’s scheduling and automation tools quickly became favorites among the team. With their patient volume and with Sarah still working 4 days a week in the clinic treating patients, Prompt’s waitlist feature is one of their favorites. 

“We do love the wait list entries. That was a new feature Prompt released that we really enjoy. The staff spends less time calling to get people in for the cancellations than they did before, so that’s been great,” Sarah said. 

Even smaller touches had a big impact: “Every time Prompt adds something new, it’s helpful. They added the numbers on the top of the schedule that shows you how many patients you have, so you don’t have to count.”

Real-time data for better management

With Prompt’s reporting tools, Sarah is able to coach her team using actual data. “I can pull each provider and they have a cancellation rate specifically for that provider. So I can really hone in and say, ‘Hey, your cancellation rate was this. Let’s work on that this week.’”

Prompt’s intelligent checkout system has also cut down on billing errors. “The system doesn’t let you make errors. It cues you, ‘Hey, you can’t use this CPT code. You don’t have enough units, you have too many.’ So now we’re not resending the same billing information 35 times because of errors on our side,” Sarah said. 

A smooth, guided transition

When Sarah decided to make the switch to Prompt, the process was straightforward. She was able to handle the data transfer with just one other teammate and says the process was simple: “We got together the day after the data was complete and made sure everybody the next day was good. It seemed easy to me. It went very smoothly because Prompt trained us on what to expect.”

Even post-onboarding, Sarah has felt supported by the Prompt team. “I like the ‘need help’ section. It’s pretty easy to find what you need. And if you can’t find something, you can chat at any point in time with Prompt–they’re really fast.”

Return on investment

When asked about the financial impact, Sarah is clear: “You get what you pay for. It’s more expensive, but the automations, the ability to fill your schedule, the online scheduling opportunities. We didn’t fill those appointment slots in our old EMR. So you lose that. I think it pays for itself.” 

Prompt has helped Sarah and her growing team deliver exceptional care while simplifying the operational challenges of a high-volume, specialty practice. “It just seems easier,” she says. “I just like the platform as a whole. It’s very easy to navigate.”

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If you’re curious how Prompt can help streamline your practice operations, request a demo today. 

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For other OTs like Sarah looking to expand their community, you can also check out our partner OT Potential.

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