EMR and HEP Showdown: Reviewing TrueCoach
Today we're going to take a look inside TrueCoach. This has been super helpful ever since I started my practice. I think this has probably been the best way that I have figured out to do my home exercise programs. It is pretty universal as far as whatever kind of practice you have, whether it's mobile, gym based, home-based, Telehealth, etc. It's a really easy platform to learn. There's almost no learning curve and my patients have also really liked it. It's been really easy for them to follow for a lot of different reasons.
Let's take a look inside of this program. I'll show you how it works, how I like use it, and what features can be super helpful to your business!
Homepage/Dashboard
1) You can see your news feed in the center. This is where you'll see the most up-to-date information on what your clients have been doing with their programming. They're able to leave comments here and then I am also able to comment back or leave internal notes on their exercises.
2) On the left you can see if you have any reminders, you can leave like notes for yourself, (for example when their next appointment is, when you want to start a new part of their programming, etc). You're also able to categorize whether you want to see updates from in-person, remote, dual, (these are all my own different groups of clients).
3) On the right, what I do really like about this program is the fact that there are actual compliance rates, rather than having patients come in and I ask them if they did their exercises. They may or may not have done them, you know how often, etc. I can actually see week to week and day to day what my clients have been doing and if they were able to get to all their exercises or not. At least for me I usually try to tell my clients that I'm looking for at least a 50% compliance rate. Of course if they can do all of it great, but I don't expect that so it's also helpful for the client to know where they stand with their exercises too. TrueCoach will tell you overall and per patient the seven day, 30 day, and 90 day compliance rates which is cool. You can see whatever clients you have and what program is coming up that needs to be edited. The program will also show you who hasn't gotten to their exercises in a little while and probably needs you to reach out to them and see what's going on.
Client List
On the next page is the active clients list. There's also an archived clients list. Within TrueCoach they have different levels of your subscription. You pay based on how many clients you have. One thing that I do really like that at least they've done for me in the past, is the first couple levels on the subscription you could pay for either having five clients at a time or up to 20 clients at a time. A lot of the time I'll have about 12 and I didn't want to pay all the way up to 20 clients, so I did reach out to them and asked if they had any plans that were anywhere in between. They gave me a custom rate at one point.
If that is something that you might be interested in, definitely reach out to them because they've been super helpful for me in the past. You can always work with as many people as you want. The people who are in the archive list don't count towards your monthly client count. It's only the active ones. A lot of times I'll have patients who are discharged and leave for a little bit and then a new person comes in. Then that new person is discharged and somebody in the past comes back to work with me. All I have to do is unarchive their program and everything is still there. I don't have to go searching way back to try to see what we did the last time that we worked together.
You can see the patients or clients are listed out, and then the due date are where their programming goes up until. For example, the two people with due dates on Monday tells me that I need to update their programs and make sure that they have stuff for next week. However, the two people with later dates I won't need to update until later this month.
Then you can see their compliance rates. It looks like their compliance rate is not great right now, but I do have a few people who will only mark off one part of their exercises but actually do all of it. That is one little downfall. Sometimes the client actually follows through and checks everything off, but at least it gives us a starting point and a ballpark of how active they've been on their exercise program.
This is the grouping where you label your clients. I'll label what I'm working with them on: whether it's PT or Fitness or wellness, and then where they're from. If they're specifically gym clients from the gym that I'm going to. Then, in the messages feature you can message one label of clients too, so if I had an announcement to make for people at the gym specifically I wouldn't have to message every single person. I would be able to just send out one message to that entire label. That's really helpful!
The Library
Ever since I have used TrueCoach they've continued to update the library and add new exercise lists to it. They already have a super in-depth exercise library, but you're also able to add your own. You can also click which brand or company of exercises you want to see here and you'll be able to see on the side what companies the exercises are from as well. I use a lot of the Central Athlete ones. Those are the ones that they had when I first started, but they also started adding in for example the USAW. If you're somebody who works with weight lifters or Crossfitters like I do that could be really helpful as well.
If I wanted to look up like hip abduction, I can type that in and I can see different exercises that I've added myself. Then also the different exercises that Central Athlete has along with a bunch of other data and information to help me choose different exercises.
Inside each exercise there is a video with the YouTube link and there are instructions. Everytime that this is given out to one of your athletes/one of your clients that you're working with, they will see the video and see the instructions along with any custom instructions that you have. It's almost like with a click of a button you can give out an entire program and a bunch of exercises, but not have to spend the time of typing everything in for every single exercise every time. This is super helpful when I know what plane of motion I want my athlete to work in or I know what muscle group I want them to work, but for some reason that day I am just not on my game with coming up with exercises.
Adding an exercise
If you want to add an exercise all you have to do is put an exercise name, put a link to a video, and you can upload your own video file. I know sometimes I've had patients in the past that I will film while we're together at their appointment and then upload the video here into the exercise library so that I'm able to put it on their program. They can see themselves doing the actual exercise and access the instructions at the same time. A lot of times I do put YouTube videos in here that I found with that specific exercise that I want. You can also add in other information.
There's also a bunch of warm-ups. This is great if you are programming in not just rehab exercises, but actual workouts for the people that you're working with. You can put a variety of different warm-ups into the library so that you don't have to keep retyping them every single time. The same goes with cooldowns as well. Then, you can keep track of certain Metric Sets if you'd like. You're able to do this for each of your clients, and you're also able to upload different documents that all of your clients are then able to access from their TrueCoach. That's been great too to be able to share information.
Programs
The next part is called Programs. You are able to put together a whole calendar or program of different things.
This this one isn't necessarily a program. I wouldn't give this entire calendar to somebody, but it's sort of like a sub library of different workouts or sets of rehab exercises that I've given to clients. If I am working with somebody who we are going to be doing core and pelvic floor stuff, I can come into this little sub library that I need and find the exercises that I am looking for. Again, I won't have to retype everything or come up with it from scratch every single time. You can put a ton of stuff in here.
Then I've also done this one which was more of like an actual program. I've had some people try it out and I've used this myself for my own shoulder and it's a full program. What I could do if I wanted somebody to go through this program specifically I would click on "assigned to client".
You add it to a certain client and figure out what day you want it to start, and then click "Assign program". It would then copy and paste all this stuff straight into the client's profile. Super easy! Then you can always go in and take a look at each client's profile specifically and customize anything that you feel the need to.
I've also used it as a questionnaire and for scoring. You can ask the patient to leave comments or leave their actual score for things in TrueCoach, and it will track it in the metrics section. Then every day you can set this so the client gets an email with a reminder to work on their exercises. That way you know that you don't have to remind them and they don't have to remember themselves. They can just have the reminder there. It will also send out reminders if you don't do your workout. Then it will email you and tell you that you miss your exercises, so that can be helpful with compliance as well.
Then just to show you the inside of a patient or client's profile as an example. The red means that the exercises weren't done, (or at least they weren't checked off). The green means they did them.
Each exercise has the name and then I can type in the actual sets and reps that I want them to do. Then I'm also able to add a video to all of them, so all of the exercises have both instructions and a video to go with it. It's really easy to use this if I wanted to copy and paste from week to week. You just click the copy button and paste and then I paste the entire thing and then I can always go in and edit the text.
You can add goals too which has been helpful in the past with programming. I can list out the goals right here in TrueCoach and make sure that their exercises are lining up with that. I don't work on nutrition specifically with my clients, but you could add nutrition to this.
The metrics section is really cool. You can decide on a lift for example that you want to track, (how much weight somebody is doing or for some of the athletes I've worked with where we are working on doing Double Unders without any incontinence we'll keep track of the number of Double Unders that they do). Over time you'll see the graph go up with the number of Double Unders that they can do. That's really cool for the patient to see and of course for us to track objective measures! It's really good in keeping the client motivated. If there are any limitations that they have you can take notes on that.
Planning
You can plan. I can add a skeleton and have chest/leg/back day, whatever, or I could say I want my client to work on their hips on Monday, work on their shoulder Wednesday, etc. It will label out Monday through Sunday what needs to be done on each day. Then, when it comes to actually programming exercises I can see what the day is labeled as and make sure that our plan corresponds.
Equipment
The equipment section is helpful! If my client is going to be mainly doing their exercises at home I can keep a list of the equipment that they have available in TrueCoach. You can also add pictures if you want to so that while I'm typing my exercises, I can refer to the equipment list.
Payment
You can charge clients through TrueCoach. I don't personally, but if you wanted to set up products or subscriptions, (i.e. selling programs), in here you could.
Referrals
This is awesome. You're able to share this program with other people. It's why I'm doing this blog (and video) because I really love TrueCoach and it's been super helpful for my practice. They do have a referral program.
Teams
In teams you can have other therapists or other trainers on your account. Then you can assign clients to the different trainers and the different professionals so that they don't just have to be under yours. This is also how you can see who's with who, and you can see the compliance rate depending on the different professional. There is also just a message center so you can direct message all of your clients.
That is the inside of TrueCoach. I hope this was helpful to read through and see. If there's anything that you have specific questions on, or you're wondering if you are able to do a certain function, or you want me to test anything out you can contact me at hello@morganmeese.com.
Also, don't forget to use my referral link if this is something that you are interested in! You may even get something off your first month!
Sorry fam, no podcast for this one, but make sure you check out the YouTube video to help you walk through TrueCoach better! Click below to look through our other podcast episodes for more helpful resources!
