AI by industry · Health and wellness
AI for physical therapy clinics: what to automate first
A physical therapy clinic can use AI for the work around the treatment: catching referrals quickly, getting the full plan of care onto the calendar, reminding patients about their home exercises, and trimming paperwork. Treatment decisions and clinical notes stay with your therapists. Start with the step where patients most often drop away.
Talk through your clinic with the person who builds it
A free 30-minute call. You leave knowing which part of your physical therapy practice to hand to AI first, what we would build, and roughly how long it takes.
Pick what you want AI to take off your plate
Where a PT clinic leaks patients
A referral arrives, nobody reaches the patient for two days, and they book somewhere else. Or a patient comes twice, feels better, and quietly stops before the plan of care is done.
Those two moments, the referral and the mid-plan drop-off, are where help from AI pays off first.
What stays with your therapists
Evaluations, progressions and anything clinical are your call. AI can remind and organize. It should not decide what exercise a patient does.
Patient information is private health information. Ask how any tool stores it before you connect it.
Picture this
Examples of what it can look like. Illustrations, not clients.
A referral from a physician’s office comes in at 4:50 on a Friday. By the time you open Monday, the patient has already been contacted and offered an evaluation slot.
A patient with a sore knee misses their third visit. A friendly message asks if they want to find a better time.
After discharge, a short note asks how they are doing and where to leave a review.
The rules that apply, in their own words
“A covered entity or business associate may not use or disclose protected health information, except as permitted or required by this subpart”
Sources
- 45 CFR § 164.502 (HIPAA Privacy Rule): When patient information may be used or shared, including by vendors.
- NIST AI Risk Management Framework: The U.S. standards body’s framework for using AI responsibly.
- 15 U.S.C. § 45 (FTC Act, Section 5): The federal ban on unfair or deceptive business practices, ads included.
Talk through your clinic with the person who builds it
A free 30-minute call. You leave knowing which part of your physical therapy practice to hand to AI first, what we would build, and roughly how long it takes.
Questions
Can AI write my treatment notes?
Some tools help with drafts. You are responsible for the record, so every note needs a therapist’s review.
Will it work with referrals from doctors?
Often it can help organize them. How depends on how referrals reach you today, which we would ask about on the first call.
Who is Westward?
A small AI and software firm in Venice, California. We work in person across Los Angeles and Orange County, and remotely across the US.
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