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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.stratapt.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Patients can be created in StrataEMR in three ways: through the Patient Menu for a full setup flow, directly from the Schedule for a quick add at time of booking, or by Cloning and existing patient’s case for a new episode of care or discipline. All methods create a patient account and case — the full setup flow is recommended when you have time to complete all required details before a new patient’s first visit.
Access: All staff can create new patients.

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Before You Start

StrataEMR uses a red asterisk (*) to mark fields required to save the patient record, and a red dollar sign ($) to mark fields required for charge submission. You don’t need to complete everything at once, but billing cannot proceed until the dollar-sign fields are filled in. Minimum to save a new patient: First name and last name. Required for charge submission (marked with a red dollar sign $):
  • Date of birth
  • Gender
  • Address and phone number
  • Home Facility
  • Service Location
  • Treating Therapist
Service Location options include: Office, Home, Telehealth (Patient Located in Home), Telehealth (Patient Not Located in Home), School, CORF, and Assisted Living Facility. Select the option that reflects where the patient receives treatment — this affects the Place of Service field on the charge advice of clinical documents.
Insurance policies cannot be added until date of birth and gender are entered. Complete those fields first if you need to add a policy immediately after creating the account.

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Adding Via the Patient Menu

This is the recommended path for new patients when you have their information ready. It walks you through each section of the patient setup in sequence.

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Step 1 — Demographics

Click Add New Patient in the Patient Menu to open a blank new patient case. The page defaults to the Demographics tab. Fill in the patient’s demographic information. Required fields are marked with a red asterisk. When complete, click Save & Continue to Case Info at the bottom of the page.
Save & Continue is the only way to save a page. Each section has a Save & Continue button at the bottom that saves the current page and navigates to the next section in the sequence. The sections can be completed in any order, but you must use Save & Continue to save your work on each page.

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Step 2 — Case Info

The Case Info page captures clinical and billing details for the patient’s current episode of care:
  • Diagnosis codes — Enter ICD-10 codes for the patient’s condition. The order you enter them here is the order they appear in clinical documentation. Codes cannot be reordered within notes so it is important to preserve the correct order at the case level.
  • Script date — The date of the physician’s prescription or referral.
  • Referring physician — The referring provider. Required for all Medicare patients. Once a referring provider is added, they can be selected for future patients.
  • Treating therapist — The primary therapist assigned to this case.
  • Service scope — Select Habilitative (helping a patient keep, learn, or improve skills) or Rehabilitative (restoring skills that have been lost or impaired). Some payers (notably Humana) require this to apply the correct modifier (96 or 97) to claims.
When complete, click Save & Continue to Patient Engagement at the bottom of the page.

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Step 3 — Patient Engagement

The Patient Engagement page is where you set up the patient’s digital touch points before their first visit:
  • Intake forms — Select any forms the patient needs to complete (registration, health questionnaire, consent, medication list) and add them to the queue. Send the forms via email, text, or share the portal link directly. Completed intake forms auto-populate the corresponding demographics and policy fields.
  • Appointment reminders — Subscribe the patient to text, email, or voice reminders. Patients are unsubscribed by default.
  • Balance alerts — Set the frequency for automated balance notifications.
When complete, click Save & Continue to Policies at the bottom of the page.

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Step 4 — Policies

Add the patient’s insurance, self-pay, or financial arrangement using the Add a New Insurance Policy, Self-Pay, or Financial Arrangement button. Follow the prompts and complete all required fields. Policy verification runs automatically when the policy is saved. Correct any verification errors and save again if needed. Once saved, click the Benefits button on the policy to open the benefit verification screen. Fill this in as completely as possible — this information is used when submitting claims. If the policy requires authorization, an Authorization button will also appear; use it to enter the authorization limit.

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Adding Via the Schedule

When scheduling a brand-new patient on the fly, you can create their account directly from the schedule without leaving the scheduling screen.
  1. Click into an open appointment slot on the schedule.
  2. Click Add New Patient to the right of the Choose Patient field.
  3. Enter the patient’s key demographic information: first name, last name, home phone, wireless phone, and email address.
  4. Complete the scheduling details, then click Save Changes.
The patient is now scheduled and a basic account is created. To complete the full patient setup, click the patient’s name from the appointment to open their case and follow the steps from the Patient Menu flow above.
Quick Add creates a minimal record. The schedule Quick Add captures only what’s needed to get the patient on the calendar. The full demographics, Case Info, and policy setup still need to be completed before the first visit.

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Cloning an Existing Case

If a patient is already in StrataEMR but needs a new account for a different discipline (e.g., adding PT to an existing OT patient) or a new injury, you should Clone the case. This saves time by carrying over demographics and insurance info.
  1. Open the patient’s existing case.
  2. Navigate to Patient Info > Case Info.
  3. Scroll to the bottom and click the red Create New Case button.
  4. Optionally, set a Custom ID: Enter a label (e.g., “PT - Left Shoulder”) to distinguish this account from the original.
  5. Select Items to Copy: Check the boxes for the Policies, Stored Documents (like insurance card photos), and Clinical Documents (like Consent forms or Intake) that should carry over to the new account.
  6. Click Create Cloned Patient.
  7. Update Case Info: Once the new case is created, navigate to its Case Info page to update the Case Type (e.g., Physical Therapy), diagnosis codes, and referring physician.
Tip: Cloning ensures that universal documents like “Consent and Policies” don’t have to be filled out twice by the patient, while keeping the medical records for different disciplines strictly separated.

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When to Clone a Case

StrataEMR uses a separate account per case — different injuries, disciplines, or episodes of care each get their own account. This is not optional: billing requires that each account have its own specific diagnosis codes, script date, and referring physician tied to the specific condition being treated. Create a separate account when:
  • A patient is being treated for multiple injuries simultaneously — each injury must be billed under the correct referring physician and diagnosis codes.
  • A patient is receiving PT, OT, and/or Speech services at the same time — these cannot be documented in the same account. Separate accounts ensure claims are billed under the correct rendering therapist’s credentials.
  • A patient is returning for a new episode of care — use Create New Case from the existing Case Info page to clone the account for the new episode, then update the diagnosis codes, script date, and referring MD.
For Medicare patients, separate accounts by discipline also allow StrataEMR to correctly track each specialty’s accumulation toward the annual therapy threshold and update the Medicare Tracker accordingly.
Use the Custom ID field to label multiple accounts. When a patient has more than one account, add a label in the Custom ID field on each Demographics page to distinguish them — common options include injury type, date of injury, specialty, or treating provider. This prevents staff from working in the wrong account.

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Patient Identification Number (PID)

StrataEMR automatically assigns a unique PID (Patient Identification Number) to every account at creation. The PID displays next to the patient’s legal name on the Demographics page. When a patient has multiple accounts, each account has its own PID — StrataPT uses these to identify specific accounts when you contact support.