Mountain Land Physical Therapy cuts overtime costs and increase clinician satisfaction with Sidekick

Founded in 1984, Mountain Land Physical Therapy has grown into a leading multi-clinic organization, expanding from 38 to over 70 clinics in just 5 years. With a relentless focus on clinician support and patient care, Mountain Land views technolgoy adoption as a means to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and prevent clinician burnout, not just to speed up note-taking.

"We have to sign the note for the claim to be sent out and paid for that service. When our therapists don't complete documentation on time, it can throw off our authorization count; we could be over-treating a patient without approval, leading to compliance risks and financial challenges," said Madison Splan, DPT and Director of Operations for Mountain Land.

Madison says that billing and AR were just one of the functional areas the organization sought to improve when they began exploring AI scribing.

The challenge: Balancing productivity and clinician well-being

When Mountain Land acquired 2 new clinics in 2024, leadership saw an opportunity to use AI scribing to address some critical operational challenges: 

• Productivity: The goal was to align therapist productivity with national benchmarks without increasing workload stress.
• Clinician retention: Therapists were spending hours outside of work completing documentation, contributing to burnout and staff dissatisfaction.
• Hiring and recruitment: Documentation burden was a concern for potential hires, and something even PT students were already concerned about.
• Labor and overtime costs: Mountain Land needed to better manage their labor expenses while maintaining high-quality patient care.
• Revenue cycle and compliance: Delays in documentation sign-off were causing billing inefficiences and increasing write-offs.

The solution: Sidekick AI scribing

Madison led a rigorous evaluation of multiple AI scribing vendors, searching for a solution that could seamlessly scale across all their clinics while meeting Mountain Land's strategic priorities:

• A true partnership: More than just a vendor, Mountian Land was looking for a technology partner that aligned with their values and growth strategy.
• Flexible licensing: With fluctuating clinical needs, the ability to adjust licenses periodically was critical.
• Cost-effective model: A per-user licensing structure was more viable for them than a volume-based pricing model.
• Seamless EMR integration: Ensuring frictionless adoption within their existing digital ecosystem was a must.

After a pilot period and clinician feedback, Prompt Sidekick (formerly PredictionHealth's Sidekick AI Scribing), emerged as the clear choice, offering the best combination of efficiency, compliance support, and scalability.

From pilot to full-scale rollout

Mountain Land launched an initial 20 clinician pilot program, gathering feedback before expanding access to the rest of the clinic. To encourage engagement, Madison introduced Sidekick as a performance-based benefit, offering it to PTs and PTAs who maintained over 12 daily visits, and clinic directors who maintained over 10 daily visits.

With 63 providers now using Sidekick, Mountain Land therapists have been able to sustain productivity levels without additional stress or burnout.

Key outcomes and impact

Sidekick has driven transformational improvements across Mountain Land's operations:

Clinician satisfaction and work-life balance

Since implementing Sidekick, Mountain Land therapists have seen 50-75% time savings on initial evaluations and 25-50% savings on daily notes.

The clinic has also seen 58% reduction in weekly overtime hours, saving $177 per provider per month, a total of $11,000 a month saved in overtime costs.

"Clinicians have gained better work-life balance and improved mental well-being," Madison said. "They see that we're investing in this technology for them because we appreciate their hard work. It has strengthened our relationship with boots-on-the-ground clinicians."

Productivity and operational efficiency

Faster documentation allows therapists to see more patients per day. The clinic has also seen a 69% reduction in time to sign notes, improving their revenue cycle efficiency.

Enhanced recruiting and talent acquisition

When Mountain Land lists AI scribing in their job postings, they get more applicants to those posts. PT students and prospective hires expressed greater interest in joining Mountain Land because of this benefit.

Revenue cycle and compliance optimization

Faster note completion reduces the amount of aging AR that Mountain Land has. They've also improved their ability to collect patient payments before discharge.

"We're seeing a significant reduction in time to sign, which reduces our AR aging significantly," Madison said. "Our ability to collect payment responsibility before discharge is also improving because we can send clean claims out quickly."

Keys to success: What made Sidekick work

Madison credits several key factors in Mountain Land's successful adoption of Sidekick:

• Strong leadership buy-in: Having an internal champion who also treats patients helped drive adoption.
• Alignment with company culture: Choosing a vendor that shared Mountain Land's values ensured a true partnership, not just a transaction.
• AI as performance incentive: Tying access to Sidekick to productivity benchmarks encouraged engagement.
• Scalability and flexibility: A dynamic contract structure allowed Mountain Land to optimize their resource allocation.

"We try to choose what we call strategic partners at Mountain Land where the relationship benefits both parties. We want to bring something to the table too, and have a more symbiotic relationship than a transactional one. That's what we're doing with [Sidekick]," Madison said.