Physiotherapy clinic software: following a course of therapy from the first session to the last
Physiotherapy clinic software has a job most clinic programs were never built for: following one patient through ten or twelve sessions, so that everyone can see whether the joint moves further and hurts less. This guide sets out what a course of therapy needs from its record, follows one course through OPALEVI, and lists the questions to ask before you choose.
Key takeaways
- Book the course, not ten separate appointments: the whole series at once, each booking showing which session it is.
- Measure the same things the same way every time: range of motion in degrees, active and passive, and pain from 0 to 10 before and after.
- A pain chart is only as honest as the numbers typed into it. OPALEVI draws what was recorded and leaves the reading to the therapist.
- Test any program with one real course during the trial.
Why a course of therapy outgrows the appointment book
A physiotherapy practice rarely sees a patient once. A painful shoulder or a knee after surgery comes back two or three times a week for a month or more, and the value of the treatment lies in the difference between the first session and the last. A paper diary and a general clinic program each hold part of that story; neither holds the course. The signs are familiar:
- Ten sessions booked one at a time, and one Thursday slips through.
- Nobody knows which session this is. The patient cancelled the fourth, and the note still says “session 6”.
- Progress written as prose. “Better today” cannot be compared with anything three weeks later.
- Home exercises on a photocopy, so nobody can say afterwards what the patient was given.
Physiotherapy clinic software exists to keep the course in one place: the plan, each session as it happened, and the numbers that show where the patient is heading.
One session shows how the patient is today. The course, measured the same way each time, shows whether the treatment works.
What a physiotherapy record has to hold, session after session
Whatever you use, paper included, agree on what each session must record. The test: could a colleague pick up the course at session seven without calling you?
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Referral and reason | Who sent the patient, with what question, and who expects a letter back. |
| Segment treated and side | So that every measurement refers to the same joint. |
| Session number and planned total | Where the patient is in the course, and when to review the plan. |
| Range of motion, active and passive | Degrees per movement, measured the same way, so that session one and session ten compare. |
| Pain before and after | One number on a fixed scale at each end of the session: the simplest trend a course has. |
| What was done | Modalities, manual work and exercises as a list, not twelve paragraphs. |
| Posture, gait and walking aid | The function a patient notices: how they stand and walk, and with what. |
| Home programme and review date | What the patient does between sessions, and when you look at it again. |
Many functional questionnaires are licensed, and their questions belong on the official form. Keep the completed form as the source.
A record, not a treatment plan
Software should keep what the therapist measured, did and advised, and never pick exercises, doses or precautions. OPALEVI does not: every line of the home sheet is the therapist's own.
Booking a course of sessions in one step
In OPALEVI for rehabilitation centers the calendar comes straight after Today in the menu, because a course begins there. Bold words are labels as they appear in the program; in a rehabilitation center the clinician's role reads Therapist and the visits menu Sessions.
Book the first session
Press Add appointment and choose the patient, the service, the therapist and the time.
Make it a course
Open Course of treatment, tick the Days of the week and type How many sessions, from 2 to 30, all at the same hour.
Let the calendar check each date
Every session is checked against the therapist's own working hours and other bookings. One clash refuses the whole course and names the busy day, so nothing is left half booked.
Remind the patient
For a patient whose email address is on file, tick Email the patient a reminder the day before; it covers each session of the course.
Follow and adjust
Each session is an ordinary appointment, labelled “Session 4 of 10”. Cancelling one cancels only that one. When treatment ends early, Stop the course cancels the chosen session and all later ones, and marks the course Course stopped.
One detail: the diary's number counts the sessions still standing, so a cancellation never leaves the count wrong. The Session no. and Out of boxes on the session record are typed by the therapist; OPALEVI does not copy the diary's count into them.
One session, from arrival to the home sheet
The third session of a shoulder course, in the order a therapist works:
Arrival
Reception presses Send to the therapist. An assistant may record vital signs; the clinical record belongs to the treating therapist.
Before treatment
Under Segment treated, write the joint and choose the side, then record Pain before (0–10) and the session number.
Measure
Fill in Range of motion (degrees): drag the protractor's arm on screen, or type what your goniometer reads.
Treat
Tick the Therapy modalities used, from TENS and therapeutic ultrasound to shockwave, laser, manual therapy, kinesiology taping and dry needling, and describe the exercises under Exercises and therapies applied.
After treatment
Record Pain after (0–10), the Session tolerance and Progress notes, then Book a follow-up appointment if the course needs another date.
Range of motion, pain, posture and gait: the physiotherapy tools
Range of motion in degrees
The goniometer holds six movements, from flexion to external rotation, each with an active and a passive reading. With both entered, the screen shows the passive–active gap, a plain subtraction: OPALEVI never calls a range normal or reduced, and a reading beyond the dial is kept as typed.
Pain across the course
Under Therapy progress, the Pain across sessions chart plots pain before and after for this patient's sessions in the department. It appears from the second measurement, prints on the session report, and has no target line or “improving” arrow. Range of motion is not charted across sessions; to compare degrees, open an earlier session or its report.
Where it hurts, how they stand and walk
Pain map on the diagram is a photographed figure whose pins carry an intensity from 0 to 10 and a character (mechanical, inflammatory or neuropathic); Findings on the limbs shows the hip, knee, ankle, shoulder and elbow close up. Postural assessment grades eight segments in two planes, Gait pattern takes several choices at once, and Walking aid takes one, from a walking stick to a wheelchair.
The home programme
The Home exercise sheet lists up to 20 exercises with their sets, repetitions and how often, plus Precautions and when to stop and a Review on date. The Home programme button prints it with a Practice log underneath: a box per exercise for each day of the week, which the patient ticks and brings to the next session.
Working with reception, referring doctors and the money
- Referrals. Print referral letter prints the addressee, the urgency and the reason, with the session's diagnosis and therapy added. Inside the practice, Refer to a department puts an orthopaedic patient on the physiotherapy worklist.
- Privacy. Physiotherapy records start open to everyone in the clinic who may read clinical records; under Record privacy you can narrow them to The department or Only the clinician. Whether reception reads clinical history at all is a separate clinic setting.
- Money. Each session carries its services and is paid at the desk or billed with Invoice this session; anything unpaid waits under Outstanding balances. There are no session packages that count down as the patient attends.
- A rehabilitation center also gets Programmes (post-surgical or neurological rehabilitation, outpatient, aftercare) with goals and a key worker, Groups for exercise, back school and balance classes with attendance, and Incidents for a fall in the gym.
For patients sent on after an operation, read hospital surgery and ward software; for residents whose mobility is followed, nursing home software; for the desk that books each course, clinic reception software; for a psychology practice that books its courses of sessions the same way, mental health practice software.
Questions to ask before choosing physiotherapy clinic software
Ask every program these, and answer them with one of your own courses.
| Question | What to look for | OPALEVI |
|---|---|---|
| Can a whole course be booked at once? | Days and a number of sessions, checked against the therapist's hours. | Yes: Course of treatment, 2 to 30 sessions. |
| Does each booking say which session it is? | A count that survives a cancellation. | Yes: “Session 4 of 10”. |
| Can you follow pain across the course? | The same scale at every session, charted. | Yes: pain before and after. |
| Is range of motion charted across sessions? | A line per movement. | No: compare earlier sessions. |
| Does the record fill in its own session number? | The diary's count carried over. | Partly: the diary counts; the record's number is typed. |
| Can it hold functional questionnaires? | The instrument's own form. | No: attach the completed form to the session. |
| Can you predict next year's bill? | One thing counted, known before you sign. | Yes: it counts staff seats, not patients or sessions. |
Prices and a team calculator are on the pricing page; everything else OPALEVI does is on the features page, and the department in one line on physiotherapy in OPALEVI. For a wider checklist, see how to choose clinic software.
Your first week: one real course, from booking to the third session
Register as a rehabilitation center, or as a private practice with a Physiotherapy department if you work alone; the First steps list on the Today screen guides the setup, and four steps matter most for a course:
Set each therapist's hours
The calendar checks a course against each therapist's own working hours once they are entered, so enter each person's week first.
Add your services and prices
An assessment and a therapy session at least, so that every session can be billed.
Book one real course
Take a patient starting this week and book the whole course with Course of treatment.
Record three sessions in full
By the third, the pain chart has something to show.
Measure the same way every time
Agree which movements you record for each joint, and note the patient's position. Session ten compares with session one only if both were measured alike.
Frequently asked questions
What is physiotherapy clinic software?
A program that books courses of sessions, keeps what each session measured, applied and advised, and bills sessions as they happen. One record per patient follows the course from the first assessment to the last session, in place of a paper diary, a treatment card and a cash book.
Can I book a series of physiotherapy sessions at once?
Yes. In OPALEVI, Course of treatment in the booking dialog places 2 to 30 sessions on the weekdays you tick, at one hour, after checking each date against the therapist's working hours. Each booking then shows its place in the course.
Does it work on a tablet in the treatment room?
Yes. It opens in a web browser on a tablet, phone or computer, and there is nothing to install. The range of motion protractor can be dragged with a finger, and each reading also takes the number your own goniometer shows.
Can reception see the session notes?
Only if your clinic allows it: reception's access to clinical history is a clinic setting, and physiotherapy records can be narrowed further, to the department or to the treating therapist. Either way, reception can still book courses, receive patients and take payment.
Is there a free trial?
Yes. Registering asks for no payment card. If the trial ends without a plan being chosen, the account turns read-only: you are not charged and none of your records are removed. Use it to book one real course and record its first sessions.
How is OPALEVI priced for a physiotherapy practice?
You pay for each member of your team with an account in the clinic; the number of patients, sessions or departments does not change the bill. One more therapist adds one seat, while a fuller diary adds nothing. Today's prices, with a calculator, are on the pricing page.
