Mary Koska, a pediatric occupational therapist with 36 years in the field, explains how excessive documentation burns out clinicians. Her 3P method cuts paperwork by keeping only two essentials per note, using measurable progress instead of narratives, and shifting perfectionism toward brevity. DocuFast templates implement this for pediatric OT and PT clinics.
Questions this video answers
Ohana Occupational Therapy; ~15 years (practice nearing its 16th year).
Approximately 36 years.
Perspective; Process; Proof.
Primary: pediatric occupational therapy (SI-focused). Also has added speech examples and is adaptable for physical therapists (PT).
You. Hey, fellow practice owners, have you noticed that the number one reason that our staff clinicians are burning out and that we are even losing clinicians to the profession is burnout from documentation? It has just reached epic levels and it's stressing us out as practice owners because we're not able to pay our therapists as much as we'd like to if they're taking forever to document. And it's really affecting their quality of life, their family time, their ability to enjoy activities outside of work and how many kids they can help. So it's just, just this giant, enormous problem. And I'm Mary Koska and I am a pediatric OT practice owner. I've had my practice Ohana occupational therapy for. Well, they're actually going to turn sweet 16 pretty soon. So for 15 years. I've been an OT for 36 years, most of which has been in pediatrics. And I can tell you right now that the biggest game changer in my practice has actually been streamlining all of our systems. And the biggest thing is streamlining the documentation from intake to discharge. And my clinicians don't take any documentation home. They're able to leave work on time. And like I said, it's just a huge, huge game changer. And the problem with documentation taking too long is that the therapists are just not able to focus on the things that are really important. So they end up focusing on, you know, am I wording this right? They get nervous. They, they put in way too much than what they need. They worry about if it's going to work to communicate with each other, is it going to, is it going to hold up if there's an audit? They worry if they're going to be sued. I mean, it's just the list goes on and on and on. All the stress that comes with documentation. But like I said, I have streamlined everything. Are all very confident. My, all my appeals that I've ever done, I've 100% of them. And so it's just, it's just a. It's not really that hard to figure out, but there's things that you have to do differently. And so I have a 3Pmethod. The first is shifting your perspective. And you have to figure out why you're stuck in the way that you're in it. And most people, it's that they're too wordy, so why are they doing it the way they're doing it? And a lot of it's around fears. Fear of audit perfectionism, lack of knowledge of what the insurance actually needs less is actually better. And then the process, how to keep it Two essentials only. You don't have to write a story. You don't even have to have complete sentences actually. And then the so perspective the process on how to do it and proof your documentation is the most important thing. It's proof of progress, using numbers, showing your clinical reasoning, showing your clinical skills, just keeping it simple. So Docufast is a suite of tools and templates and videos. Literally everything that I do and the person that it's ideal for is somebody like me. So a pediatric OT with an SI focused in their clinic. Now a lot of SI clinics also have PTs and speech therapists, so I'm always asked will this work for them? We now have speech examples added to Docufast and the speech therapists that have taken it have found it extremely helpful. And pts have a pretty easy time of translating it to their discipline as well. It's really not for people who are just want to keep doing things the same same way that don't mind spend spending extra hours documenting on their free time or practice owners that don't mind paying them for that or don't mind their therapist burning out. You know, it's for people that are really ready to make a change, get down to business and are willing to do it in a different way and streamline everything. So if that's you, then there is a button here somewhere to book a call with me and I can see if this is a good fit for you. All right. Aloha. Have a good rest of your day.
