In health care, anything and everything with claims to help the patient is documented. Case studies are done on everything from the effects of prescription medicine on a person to what type of chair best supports the back. Medical journals include articles on documentation in physiotherapy to keep doctors and others in the health care profession up to date with new methods, ideas that work and those that fail.
Documentation forms and papers generally consist of an introduction to physiotherapy, or the physical issue, a background of physiotherapy, methods tried in the past, methods attempted, guidelines that were followed, or created, medical discussion, and anything else the author, or authors thought to be important to the subject.
Documentation in physiotherapy is an important legal requirement for all professional health care providers. Because of its importance, more areas and physiotherapy cases are being studied, evaluated and documented to show their worth to the community at large.
Documentation in physiotherapy has been issued from study after study on physical therapy for the elderly. While few studies remain inconclusive, or appear to show no change between those receiving physical therapy and those who did not, most documentations prove physiotherapy is beneficial to elderly patients.
A documentation in physiotherapy management of adults with lower limb prostheses conducted by a small group under the British Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Amputation Rehabilitation write a paper with detailed information that lists the need for evidence based clinical guidelines, the aims and objectives of their guidelines, the development process, consensus and external review.
More extensive documentation in physiotherapy is needed within the area of childrens health, including childhood diseases and disorders, such as Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Cystic Fibrosis, development, and speech and language disorders, or injury to the spine, head or neck.
The term, documentation in physiotherapy, also includes providing health care workers with information on guidelines to follow, patient and hospital policies, and strategies centering on physical therapy. These guidelines may be used universally, or by hospital to hospital requirements.
It is also a term for a personal program, or software with forms for physiotherapists to fill out with such things as patients name, cause of illness, therapy used and what methods worked best. Medical software companies sell programs that detail and help health care professionals answer questions when creating documentation in physiotherapy. PhysioGraphic is one such product that can be found online, or in medical catalogs. It is a program suitable for handheld computers, such as PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) that a doctor may carry around with him or her while visiting patients.