Documentation is the backbone of therapy practices. Yet for many clinicians, it’s also one of the biggest sources of frustration and fatigue. According to a 2023 physician compensation report, physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians spend more than 19 hours per week on paperwork and administrative tasks.
The best AI scribes address this challenge head-on. By transcribing patient interactions into clinical notes, discharge summaries, and treatment plans, they can significantly reduce administrative burden while improving accuracy. The result is that more time and focus returns to the care experience.
With AI scribes growing in popularity and adoption, how do you know which solution is right for your practice? Below are four key considerations for PT practice owners and administrators evaluating their options.
1. Look for Purpose-Built, Native AI
Therapy practices have unique workflows, documentation needs, and clinical terminology. That’s why it’s essential to look for a solution designed with rehabilitation and therapy in mind.
A native AI scribe built directly into your EMR ensures seamless integration, deeper functionality, and reduced errors. Instead of toggling between platforms or relying on imports and exports, clinicians can document within their existing workflows. This streamlines processes and minimizes the need for manual corrections.
2. Choosing High-Quality, Ambient Transcription
Physical therapy and rehabilitation environments are active and often noisy. Background conversations, equipment, and movement can interfere with accuracy if a scribe isn’t built for ambient transcription.
The right solution filters out distractions and captures only the relevant clinician-patient interaction. This allows therapists to focus fully on the patient while the scribe works in the background.
3. Consider Clinician Experience and Adoption
Technology is only valuable if clinicians use it consistently. Successful AI scribes are intuitive, require minimal training, and fit naturally into daily workflows. A streamlined onboarding process boosts adoption rates, while user-friendly design ensures therapists see value from day one.
Consider solutions that allow new users to be confident within minutes, not weeks. The less time spent onboarding a new tool, the faster the return on investment.
4. Define and Measure ROI
An AI scribe should make financial sense as well as clinical sense. Beyond reducing documentation time, the right solution can:
- Minimize errors that delay reimbursements
- Optimize coding with intelligent recommendations
- Increase clinician satisfaction, preventing costly attrition
When evaluating ROI, look beyond initial cost to the long-term benefits: happier clinicians, healthier patients, and a more efficient, scalable practice.
What PT Leaders Are Saying About AI
Practice leaders are finding that AI scribes aren’t just about saving time, they’re transforming how therapists work and how practices operate. From improved documentation accuracy to better clinician work-life balance, leaders across the industry are seeing measurable results. For instance, hear from Simon Hargus, PT, DPT, OCS, MBA, Owner & CEO, First Settlement Physical Therapy, whose team has adopted Raintree’s ScribeIQ™:
“ScribeIQ™ has been fantastic. We’ve not only seen a natural increase in units per evaluation, but more importantly it’s given our therapists a significant gain in life-work balance. As a practice owner, PT, and manager, I see ScribeIQ™ as a win on so many levels.”
Dive Deeper on AI in Physical Therapy
If you’d like to see how AI tools are already reshaping rehab therapy, explore our recent virtual deep-dive, now available on demand: AI in Therapy: Using (Even) Smarter Tools for Rehab Teams.
This session, hosted by Ben Catania (Director of AI) and Ben Sachs (Clinical Solution Engineer), explores practical strategies for reducing documentation burden, improving clinician satisfaction, and strengthening patient care through smarter AI solutions. It’s designed for therapy leaders who want to see how these technologies are applied in real practice settings.
Elevating Your Practice with the Best AI Scribe
For therapy organizations, the decision to adopt an AI scribe is about more than efficiency. It’s about improving the clinician experience, enhancing documentation quality, and creating conditions for better patient outcomes.
Solutions built natively for rehabilitation and physical therapy provide purpose-built functionality, high-quality transcription, and seamless integration. The right AI scribe becomes an extension of your care team, strengthening both clinical and operational performance.
Raintree’s ScribeIQ™ was designed specifically for PT, OT, SLP, and multi-disciplinary rehab practices. Built directly into the Raintree EMR, it delivers the accuracy, efficiency, and adoption support needed to transform documentation into a strategic advantage.
