White boarding in physical therapy
If you are a physical therapist in clinical practice, you always look for tools to improve patient care and communication with patients and other staff.
Summary
- Physical therapists can use whiteboards to brainstorm goals with patients, improving engagement, motivation, and adherence to treatment plans.
- Whiteboards in inpatient settings enhance patient education, track questions, display treatment plans, and improve discharge planning.
- Whiteboards help therapists communicate important updates, brainstorm ideas, and collaborate on workplace improvements efficiently.
- Modern digital whiteboards, such as those integrated into EHR systems like TheraPlatform, allow real-time communication, easy updates, and remote collaboration.
- Whether traditional or digital, whiteboards improve patient outcomes, staff coordination, and interdisciplinary communication in physical therapy.
Streamline your practice with One EHR
- Scheduling
- Flexible notes
- Template library
- Billing & payments
- Insurance claims
- Client portal
- Telehealth
- E-fax
Therapists can use whiteboarding in a variety of ways to enhance their practice. Whiteboards can be as simple as the type you'd find hanging on a classroom wall or as advanced as using digital whiteboard software.
If you've been in a classroom, conference room, or hospital room in the last 20 years, you have probably seen a whiteboard. They're rectangular boards professionals use for drawing or writing using dry-erase markers.
Easily erasable, therapists can use whiteboards over and over again. Nowadays, many companies utilize digital whiteboards, which further increases their utility and versatility.
This article will discuss some of the benefits of whiteboarding, the advancement of digital whiteboards, and considerations for implementing whiteboarding into your practice.
Benefits and utility of whiteboards in physical therapy
Whiteboards can benefit patient care and workplace communication in many ways. Let's explore further:
Benefits to clients
Brainstorm with patients: Patient-driven goals and activities can increase saliency, adherence, and motivation. A study published in 2022 by Trojano et al. states that "[e]vidence from outpatient populations demonstrates that patient engagement, defined as active participation in the care process, is associated with improved patient satisfaction, higher adherence to healthy behaviors, formation of more trusting relationships with physicians, and better overall health outcomes."
Physical therapists could develop the same trusting relationship with clients through a similar process.
A whiteboard makes it easy for you and your patient to brainstorm goals and ideas for their care. At the initial visit, you can sit down with the patient and, as a team, develop and write down meaningful goals for their therapy, which you can translate into functional goals in your documentation. This is an easy way to confirm your accurate understanding of the patient's goals and priorities and for patients to take an active role in developing their plan of care.
Improve communication and education in the inpatient setting: Whiteboards are standard in hospital rooms, but the application quality can vary greatly. Physical therapists working in a hospital can contribute to whiteboard communication in a way that improves patient outcomes.
Trojano et al., in their 2022 study on the use of standardized whiteboards to improve patient engagement, found that patients whose whiteboard was utilized optimally by staff had better scores on the Patient Activation Measure, as did those who actively participated in their whiteboard content versus those who participated passively.
The Patient Activation Measure® is a 10- or 13-item survey that assesses an individual's knowledge, skills, and confidence integral to managing one's health and healthcare.
Optimal usage of the whiteboard included several behaviors, all of which inpatient physical therapists can play a role:
- Staff members explain the purpose of the whiteboard to their patient
- Patients cannot take an active role with a tool they do not understand
- Researchers recorded patient questions on the whiteboard
- This demonstrates that staff acknowledge and take seriously patient queries and concerns
- This allows all staff members who enter the room to read patient questions and have an opportunity to answer them
- Whiteboards were used for education about diagnoses, test results, medications, daily plans and discharge instructions
- This increases patient understanding of all aspects of their healthcare
- This ensures patients and their family members are up to date on changes to their care plan
- Patients and family members can plan their day and their visits if they know the daily plans
- Clearly expressed discharge plans allow for better preparation by staff and patients
- Important patient preferences and care information are front and center for all patient care staff to see immediately upon entering the room. This can help reduce errors in patient care and unwanted outcomes.
- Finally, optimal whiteboard use ensured that patients felt included in developing whiteboard communication.
Practice Management + EHR + Telehealth
Mange more in less time in your practice with TheraPlatform
.
Benefits of whiteboards for physical therapy staff
Patients are just some of the beneficiaries of good whiteboard practices. Therapists can use whiteboards in the workplace to enhance many workflow aspects.
Below are some examples:
Alert staff of important updates, events, and policy changes: While emails are the most-used method of communication for employees, physical therapists are busy with patient care, and sometimes, communication can get lost in the inbox. Whiteboards centrally located in staff areas can be used to draw attention to important updates, upcoming events, and policy changes of which therapists should be aware.
Employee brainstorming sessions: Just like patients who feel involved in their care have better healthcare outcomes, staff involved in developing workplace priorities, events, and policies are often better employees.
Meetings can be an excellent time to use a whiteboard to log therapist concerns, brainstorm ideas for events or changes, and keep track of suggestions. This method promotes acknowledgment of staff thoughts and opinions and allows all team members to contribute.
Free Resources for Therapists
Click below and help yourself to peer-created resources:
Whiteboards in the digital age
As many aspects of healthcare exist behind a screen nowadays, whiteboards are no different. Understanding the benefits of a tool like a whiteboard, software developers have created digital models therapists use throughout healthcare spaces.
At some hospitals, standardized whiteboards in patient rooms are available in digital format. Digital whiteboards allow for real-time communication, easy editing, and the dissemination of personalized patient education and information. They also allow for more patient input on vital information on the whiteboard.
Vibe smart whiteboard is another example of a digital whiteboard product that allows providers to annotate medical reports, share educational videos, keep patients informed about healthcare goals, share test results visually, collaborate virtually with patients and providers at different sites, and more.
Many EHR and EMR software platforms also include whiteboards. Theraplatform, practice management, EHR/EMR, and teletherapy platforms, for example, offer digital whiteboards that meeting participants can annotate during an online meeting as part of their Pro plan and Pro Plus plan. This allows for real-time recording of thoughts and ideas, which can later be saved as part of the meeting record.
Whether you are lucky enough to have digital whiteboard technology in your hospital or clinic or are using the old-fashioned version, if you have been overlooking the benefits of whiteboards, now is the time to take action. Whiteboards may look simple, but simple tools can profoundly benefit patient outcomes, staff collaboration, and interdisciplinary care. Talk with your team and your managers about how you can begin to incorporate whiteboards into your practice.
Streamline your practice with One EHR
- Scheduling
- Flexible notes
- Template library
- Billing & payments
- Insurance claims
- Client portal
- Telehealth
- E-fax
Resources
TheraPlatform is an all-in-one EHR, practice management, and teletherapy software built for therapists to help them save time on admin tasks. It offers a 30-day risk-free trial with no credit card required and supports different industries and sizes of practices, including physical therapists in group and solo practices.
More resources
- Therapy resources and worksheets
- Therapy private practice courses
- Ultimate teletherapy ebook
- The Ultimate Insurance Billing Guide for Therapists
- The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Private Therapy Practice
- Insurance billing 101
- Practice management tools
Free video classes
- Free on-demand insurance billing for therapist course
- Free mini video lessons to enhance your private practice
- 9 Admin tasks to automate in your private practice
References
- Insignia Health. (n.d.). PAM - Insignia Health. Retrieved August 13, 2024, from https://www.insigniahealth.com/pam
- Practice management, EHR/EMR, and teletherapy platform - TheraPlatform. (2018, July 20). https://www.theraplatform.com
- Smart whiteboards for hospitals & health care | VIBE. (n.d.). https://vibe.us/solutions/health-care/?srsltid=AfmBOopuPUv8Oj3_VRUJ3kVEAlprNwPdPHOeYzVkfZnpnJN78JMe-MdC
- Trojano ML, Rucker G, McGillen B. Using Standardized Whiteboards to Improve Patient Engagement. J Patient Exp. 2022 May 22;9:23743735221103030. doi: 10.1177/23743735221103030. PMID: 35647266; PMCID: PMC9134397.
