Frequently Asked Questions of Report Medics

The primary purpose of Report Medic was in response to the ongoing requests physiotherapists receive related to litigation of motor vehicle accident or personal injury claims.  Many of these requests present themselves to clinicians who are already dealing with significant amounts of clinical reporting requirements associated with carrying an active patient caseload.  Use of this service allows the clinician to have a professional report prepared on their behalf allowing them to stay current with their regular reporting.    Clinic owners may wish to have more control of the uncomplicated medical reporting out of their offices.  Dealing with a single source having the staff therapists simply make final reviews and edits results in timelier turnover of report requests to the office improving the revenue stream.  This would also allow therapists to dedicate more time to the completion of reports related to more complicated cases.

When a report request is received at your office and you decide to use Report Medics ... secure copies of the report request, a copy of the relevant patient file records, and the contact information of the attending practitioner is forwarded to Report Medics.  Once received you will be notified a file review is in progress.  You will receive an email with an estimated time to completion, the estimated cost, and an engagement letter for signature to finalize the request.  There may be questions requiring clarification before or during preparation of the report draft.  The attending therapist on the file may be contacted directly by the author of the report in these cases.  Once the report draft is completed it will be sent by return email for review.  The documents are completed in MS Word or pdf formats so they may be fully editable by you for submission of the final working document.  It is expected you will need to make final revisions and edits to reflect accuracy of the information and the nature of your opinion.  With uncomplicated files this will be minimal.  Report contents are based on the quality and comprehensiveness of the information provided.  Records need to be organized and legible.   Please NOTE:   Report Medic reports prepared for you are ultimately YOUR reports.  The final document will contain your signature and therefore you are responsible for the report content.  Report Medic functions to draft the framework for the final document with an expectation it will be reviewed by you to ensure accuracy and completeness.  In most circumstances final revisions by you to the draft copy will be required.  The final contents of the report and opinions expressed are ultimately yours. You need to ensure the document is reasonably accurate before releasing it to the requesting agency.

Only the information appropriate to address the substantial needs of the report request should be sent.  This includes copies of the report request itself, patient registration records, all relevant intake questionnaires, accident/history questionnaires or records, therapists clinical chart notes related to the accident or injury in question, historical chart records only relevant to the current request, insurance AB reports, home programs, diagnostic imaging reports, communication with insurance company and/or physicians, specialist reports, or any other reporting/testing relevant to the generation of the draft document.   Remember all of this should be sent securely.  Preferably as MS Word and PDF documents or files as these both offer encryption features.  Large files can be sent in a zipped file format.

Physiotherapy report requests are written by /FCAMPT qualified physiotherapists.  The draft document is generated from the information obtained from the confidential copy of the patient file records provided by you or your office. 

All documents and file information should be transmitted via email in MS Word or PDF formats.  All sensitive information needs to be secured by either password protection and/or file encryption.  Please refer to the Alberta College of Physiotherapists for specific information on the minimum standard.  File encryption with password protection are available in both MS Word and PDF document formats. Adobe Reader can not provide document security. Free software downloads such as LibreOffice are available for use to secure files. Once secured all information should be forwarded via email to:  intake@reportmedics.com including the initial report request.

Once Report Medic receives ALL the relevant records and completes a file review you will be contacted with an approximate completion date.  At the same time you will be requested to send your signed agreement to the terms of the service and the process begins.  Typical time to completion is based on the volume of report requests Report Medic has at any one time and is subject to variation.  The client list will therefore be limited to maintain timely turnaround.  The goal for uncomplicated case reports to be returned is 14 days.  Urgent requests can be made and may result in an elevated fee?

You can expect a fee of approximately $150-200/page for the body of a draft report.  Typical report lengths vary based on complexity and the nature of the opinions requested.  On average the vast majority of the reports will be 3-5 pages in length.  If you know the answers/opinion/s you wish the report to reflect then a separate document briefly summarizing these in writing should accompany your report request.  This will enable the author to tailor the narrative in the document to support your opinion/s and minimize further editing.   If you wish the report to be completed without an opinion then this is completely your decision.  This will consequently reduce the necessary time, and fee, for the draft document. Remember … this is YOUR report.   Once you have your draft report document you are free to edit and make revisions as you see fit.  Simply add the incremental fees associated with your editing time and submit the final report and invoice to the requesting agency.

If you indicate the nature of your opinion when submitting the report request it will minimize any misrepresentation.  Report opinions and prognostic statements are based on physiological principles of wound healing. It is unlikely there will be a significant, or relevant, disagreement. Opinions regarding any ongoing patient disability or impairment may be altered at any time. If, for any reason, you do not agree with an opinion or are uncomfortable with a statement in the report … you have the ability to edit or remove any statement partially or completely.  Remember, this is your report.

In some circumstances it may not be possible for the author of your report to fully appreciate every aspect or subtleties of a patient-therapist relationship.  If you feel the report is incomplete in an area you are free to relay this to the report author asking for further comment, or simply add the relevant content yourself.  This is your decision to make.  Ultimately, there is more time spent on the document whether this is by Report Medics or yourself. The choice is yours.  If Report Medics is asked to complete further revisions then there may be an additional fee.

Report Medics is a service available to assist you in making your time more efficient.  It is not for every and all report requests a therapist or clinic may receive.  As indicated above it is not always possible to fully appreciate every aspect of a patient-therapist relationship from written chart records.  This is particularly true for cases that would be considered complex.  For example cases spanning several years that may involve multiple collisions, surgeries, specialist consultations, and/or extensive multi-disciplinary care would not be appropriate. The author of your report is basing the contents of the document on your clinical chart records.  He/she will need to have the ability to understand the nature of the care pathway and the relationship established with your client to properly reflect this in the draft report.   Report Medics conducts an initial file review when your request is received.  One of the main functions of the file review is for this purpose as well as to provide a timeline on report completion.  Not all report requests may be accepted.

Once the file review is completed and Report Medics receives your signed confirmation the draft report process preparation begins.  You will be responsible for any time spent on your file until notified otherwise.

As soon as the draft report is returned and reviewed by the therapist an acknowledgement from you that no further involvement in the report is required by Report Medics. At this point the file will be officially closed and the entirety of the patient record destroyed.  Any physical printed materials are shredded and recycled.  There are no records kept by Report Medics of patient information other than those in use by an active file.