Posted on January 3, 2017 by Chapter Staff
Originally Published in HAPTA’s e-Newsletter, What’s HAPTAnin’ – January 2017

HPA the Catalyst’s Technology SIG needs your help for an important data standardization project. We are aware that most physical therapists currently use an electronic health record (EHR) for documentation. We are asking that you submit examples of current active physical therapy documentation to aptahpa.org/DataProject, including:

  • Evaluation
  • Reevaluation
  • Progress Report
  • Daily Note
  • Discharge Summary

Data Standardization Project details:

The goal of this project is to identify the most commonly used data elements to identify a “core data set” of items needed for physical therapy interoperability purposes.

We will pull data elements (and check boxes) into a database, where no facility names will be used. The database will help identify a “full set” of data elements currently in use. The most commonly used data elements across each document type will also be identified. Updates on the project will be shared at the APTA Combined Sections Meeting in San Antonio this Feb 2017.

From this core project, we may identify other critical data elements for sharing at transitions of care.

Please provide the physical therapy documentation (Evaluation, Reevaluation, Progress Report, Daily Note, and Discharge Summary) and include whether is it drop-down items or free form text.

If you are at an organization with different data elements in different settings, we would like samples of each set of data elements.

What the HPA Tech SIG will do:

  • provide feedback to CMS and ONC
  • share with APTA regarding future development of the Registry project
  • provide participants with a summary of the results

If you have further questions, please contact HPA’s Tech SIG chair, Robert Latz at RobertLatz1@gmail.com or 859-802-7274.

We are excited to obtain the data and start the database that will potentially give us much needed information for the profession. Look for updates as we move forward.