{"id":974,"date":"2014-11-04T09:23:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T06:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/?p=974"},"modified":"2022-08-17T07:47:50","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T04:47:50","slug":"goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/","title":{"rendered":"Goal Writing for Home Health Therapists"},"content":{"rendered":"

This comes from Palmetto GBA<\/a>, a Medicare fiscal intermediary<\/a>, and it pertains to easily the most crucial aspect of clinical documentation for therapists and, frankly, for any type of clinician. We felt that it was important to share this with our community at large as it is direct instruction from Medicare regarding the shaping of pan of care goals. This information from Palmetto is complete and succinct enough that we are presenting it as is. You can access this article straight from the Palmetto\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WRITING THERAPY GOALS<\/p>\n

The Guide to Physical Therapist Practice identifies a \u2018goal\u2019 as a remediation of impairments and uses the term \u2018outcomes\u2019 for \u2018minimization of functional limitation, optimization of health status, prevention of disability, and optimization of patient\/client satisfaction. The Guide defines \u2018function\u2019 as \u2018those activities identified by an individual as essential to support physical, social, and psychological well-being and to create a personal sense of meaningful living.\u2019 The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA)<\/a> recommends the following components:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Identification of the person<\/li>\n
  2. Description of the movement or activity<\/li>\n
  3. A connection of the movement\/activity to a specific function<\/li>\n
  4. Specific conditions in which the activity will be performed<\/li>\n
  5. Factors for measuring the outcome<\/li>\n
  6. Time frame for achieving the goal<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    O\u2019Neill and Harris proposed writing goals that contain the following elements:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Who<\/li>\n
    2. Will do what<\/li>\n
    3. Under what conditions<\/li>\n
    4. How well<\/li>\n
    5. By when<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \u2018Who\u2019<\/b> will always the patient. The goals should never be written as \u2018the therapist will do\u2026.\u2019 The behavioral statement must reflect the beneficiary performance. Caregivers may be involved in the beneficiary\u2019s care, but they are not the focus of the goal.<\/p>\n

      \u2018What\u2019<\/b> is the activity the beneficiary will perform. The activity should be observable, repeatable and have a definite beginning and end. Statements like \u2018the patient will get stronger\u2019 and \u2018the patient will show improvement\u2019 are poorly written.<\/p>\n

      \u2018Under what conditions\u2019<\/b> is the condition under which the beneficiary\u2019s goal achievement is measured. These may be environmental factors such stairs or grassy surfaces or may be beneficiary factors such as\u2019 with a cane\u2019.<\/p>\n

      \u2018How well\u2019<\/b> describes the assistance needed. This may be maximum assistance, moderate assistance, minimal assistance or totally independent. This should relate to the baseline assessment information, i.e. \u2018requires maximum assistance to ambulate. Experiences SOB on exertion after ambulating 10 feet with cane\u2019.<\/p>\n

      \u2018By when\u2019<\/b> is the target date to achieve the goal. Goals should be short or long term. A long term goal is the outcome the patient is expected to achieve. Short term goals are goals which lead to the accomplishment of a long term goal. It is helpful, but not required, to label the goals with the word short and long, but the goals should be written in a manner where there are measureable time frames that indicate whether they are short or long. There is no set time frame that defines short versus long. If both short term goals and long term goals are not applicable, the documentation should specify this and explain.<\/p>\n

      Beneficiaries generally have more than one goal. A good way to assess the medical necessity of each goal is to ask \u2018What difference does performing this activity mean to the beneficiary?\u2019 The documentation of the beneficiary encounter should relate back to the goals. Willard and Spackman recommend the RUMBA test:<\/p>\n

        \n
      • Relevant:<\/b> functional goals and achievement; patient-specific<\/li>\n
      • Understandable:<\/b> legible and avoid jargon; use of accepted standard terminology<\/li>\n
      • Measurable:<\/b> includes frequency and duration, how long it occurred or how many times<\/li>\n
      • Behavioral:<\/b> measurable occurrences<\/li>\n
      • Achievable:<\/b> reasonable<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        References:<\/p>\n

        Guide to Physical Therapist Practice. Rev ed. Alexandria, Va: American Physical Therapy Association;1999
        O\u2019Neill DL, Harris SR. Developing goals and objectives for handicapped children. Phys Ther.1982; 62:295\u2013298
        Randall, Kenneth E., and McEwen Irene, R. Writing Patient centered Functional Goals. Physical Therapy December 2000 vol. 80 no. 12 1197-1203
        Willard & Spackman\u2019s \u2018Occupational Therapy\u2019, 11th Edition (2008)
        APTA: Defensible Documentation for Patient\/Client Management: Components of Documentation within the Patient\/Client Model (2011)<\/p>\n

        P.S.<\/b> Don\u2019t forget that therapyBOSS enables home care therapy companies to set up goal AND intervention templates very easily. These templates can be customized in any imaginable way and they become available to home health therapists to choose from in their patient care plans.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        This comes from Palmetto GBA, a Medicare fiscal intermediary, and it pertains to easily the most crucial aspect of clinical documentation for therapists and, frankly, for any type of clinician. We felt that it was important to share this with our community at large as it is direct instruction from Medicare regarding the shaping of […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[18,20],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGoal Writing for Home Health Therapists<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Goal Writing for Home Health Therapists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This comes from Palmetto GBA, a Medicare fiscal intermediary, and it pertains to easily the most crucial aspect of clinical documentation for therapists and, frankly, for any type of clinician. We felt that it was important to share this with our community at large as it is direct instruction from Medicare regarding the shaping of […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"therapyBOSS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-04T06:23:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-17T04:47:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/writing-therapy-goals.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"456\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"390\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gennady\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gennady\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/\",\"name\":\"Goal Writing for Home Health Therapists\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ec2-52-26-225-185.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/therapyboss\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-04T06:23:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-17T04:47:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ec2-52-26-225-185.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/therapyboss\/#\/schema\/person\/d18ad97b2414eb0f1b24853eb42e8811\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ec2-52-26-225-185.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/therapyboss\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Goal Writing for Home Health Therapists\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ec2-52-26-225-185.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/therapyboss\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ec2-52-26-225-185.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/therapyboss\/\",\"name\":\"therapyBOSS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ec2-52-26-225-185.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/therapyboss\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ec2-52-26-225-185.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/therapyboss\/#\/schema\/person\/d18ad97b2414eb0f1b24853eb42e8811\",\"name\":\"Gennady\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/author\/gennady\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Goal Writing for Home Health Therapists","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Goal Writing for Home Health Therapists","og_description":"This comes from Palmetto GBA, a Medicare fiscal intermediary, and it pertains to easily the most crucial aspect of clinical documentation for therapists and, frankly, for any type of clinician. We felt that it was important to share this with our community at large as it is direct instruction from Medicare regarding the shaping of […]","og_url":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/","og_site_name":"therapyBOSS","article_published_time":"2014-11-04T06:23:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-17T04:47:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":456,"height":390,"url":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/writing-therapy-goals.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Gennady","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gennady","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/","url":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/","name":"Goal Writing for Home Health Therapists","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ec2-52-26-225-185.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/therapyboss\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-11-04T06:23:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-17T04:47:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/ec2-52-26-225-185.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/therapyboss\/#\/schema\/person\/d18ad97b2414eb0f1b24853eb42e8811"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/goal-writing-for-home-health-therapists\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ec2-52-26-225-185.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/therapyboss\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Goal Writing for Home Health Therapists"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ec2-52-26-225-185.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/therapyboss\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ec2-52-26-225-185.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/therapyboss\/","name":"therapyBOSS","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ec2-52-26-225-185.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/therapyboss\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ec2-52-26-225-185.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/therapyboss\/#\/schema\/person\/d18ad97b2414eb0f1b24853eb42e8811","name":"Gennady","url":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/author\/gennady\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=974"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3161,"href":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974\/revisions\/3161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pragmait.com\/therapyboss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}