05/30/2026
Every 10 visits, Medicare requires a progress note for outpatient therapy. That means repeating objective outcome measures to monitor progress.
This was this clientโs fourth round of outcome measures, so you could say he knows the routine pretty well. I always start with the self-report measures before the performance-based assessments so the testing itself doesnโt influence the responses.
โOkay, weโll start with the fear of falling questions.โ
He looked at me like I was crazy.
โIโm not scared of falling anymore.โ
Cue me tearing up a littleโฆthen laughing because we still had to do the assessment anyway.
As much as outcome measures can sometimes feel like another insurance requirement, moments like this remind me they do have value. They donโt always capture the โlivingโ part of life though, but his response did.
Weโve gone from:
โI canโt leave the house.โ
โI have to use my wheelchair.โ
To:
โI visited my son. I did the three steps, it was fine.โ
โWe went out to brunch for my birthday. I used the walker.โ
โDo you think we can try fishing?โ
The shift in confidence is just as important and in this case maybe even more important than the improvement in physical abilities.
Progress is:
โIโm not scared anymore.โ
Also the nerd in me loves data so we have charts ๐ค
