New in Fusion: Custom Assessment Sections for faster PT, OT, SLP documentation 

Your evaluation template silently decides more about your day than you do. 

It nudges you toward certain questions, dictates the order you document in, and often keeps you staring at a screen long after your last client has gone home. The result is extra clicks, workarounds, and the “pajama time” documentation every therapist knows too well. 

For many outpatient rehab teams, the problem isn’t documentation itself — it’s templates that don’t match how therapists actually evaluate. That’s why Fusion is introducing Custom Assessment Sections: flexible, reusable building blocks for PT, OT, and SLP evaluations. While we already offer discipline-specific, AI-supported documentation – we’re making it fit your clinical flow even better. 

Why standard eval templates feel so off 

Most therapists have had the same experience: you open a “standard” evaluation template, and within minutes you’re fighting it. 

Professional bodies like APTA, AOTA, and CMS clearly outline what needs to be documented in outpatient rehab — history, systems review, tests and measures, clinical impression, plan of care, and so on. But they don’t hand down a single, universal eval template. That leaves software vendors guessing at layouts that might fit most people, most of the time. 

When one template tries to cover pediatric feeding, school‑based speech, adult orthopedics, and neuro rehab all at once, you end up with a cluttered form that doesn’t really fit anyone. You either skip half the fields because they don’t apply or type critical information into a generic “Notes” box because there’s no specific place to put it. 

Over time, that mismatch drives documentation burden. You build workarounds just to make the template usable. But every workaround adds friction and minutes to each evaluation — minutes that tend to show up after hours. 

What are Custom Assessment Sections in Fusion? 

Custom Assessment Sections are reusable chunks of evaluation content that your practice designs and manages directly in Fusion. Instead of relying on a single mega‑template, you compose each evaluation from the sections that actually matter for that client. You can build your own sections from scratch or import preconfigured assessment sections to get started faster.  

An administrator can create targeted sections like: 

• Pediatric Sensory Profile 

• School Participation Snapshot 

• Falls Risk Screening 

• Swallowing History and Diet 

During an evaluation, the therapist simply adds the relevant sections to their note. If something doesn’t apply to that client, it doesn’t have to appear on the screen at all. 

So instead of letting a rigid form quietly drive what you capture, you: 

• Build evaluations around the actual PT, OT, or SLP workflow, and 

• Document in the order that matches your clinical reasoning, not the software’s default. 

The result is documentation that feels like it’s finally keeping up with how you think in the treatment room. 

Making Custom Assessment Sections feel natural in your day 

You don’t have to tear down your existing templates to benefit from Custom Assessment Sections. 

Most practices see the best results by starting small: 

1. Pick one high‑friction evaluation per discipline. 
   For example, neuro PT intakes, peds OT evals, or voice/swallow SLP evaluations. 
2. Co‑design sections with the therapists doing that work every day. 
   Ask them: “Where does the current template fight you? Where do you rely on workarounds?” 
3. Build one or two focused sections first.  
   As you refine your sections, you can duplicate and adjust them instead of rebuilding from scratch — making it easy to create slight variations for different disciplines, subspecialties, or payer requirements. Capture both: 
   – The payer‑required elements you must document, and 
   – The clinical reasoning flow your therapists actually use. 
4. Pilot for a week, then refine. 
   Have therapists use the new sections on real clients, then ask: 
   “What still feels clunky?” 
   “What do you still have to type in free text?” 
5. Roll out more broadly and build your library over time. 
   As your team sees the time savings and reduced friction, you can add more sections for other eval types and sub‑specialties. 

Admins maintain control over which sections exist and how they’re structured, so you can standardize best practices across locations while still giving teams the flexibility they need. 

Are custom therapy evaluation templates still compliant? 

A common worry — especially for practice owners and admins — is that “custom” will mean “non‑compliant” or inconsistent documentation. 

In reality, Custom Assessment Sections are a way to structure evaluations so they capture what payers already expect to see, but in a pattern that fits your practice’s real workflows. 

Here’s how practices typically approach compliance with these tools: 

Align sections with CMS and professional guidelines. 
You can design sections to reflect documentation elements highlighted by CMS for outpatient rehab therapy and by professional organizations like APTA, AOTA, and ASHA — such as medical necessity, skilled intervention, clinical reasoning, and a clear plan of care. 

Make required elements harder to miss. 
When you build specific sections for common eval types (e.g., Falls Risk, Pediatric Feeding), you can include fields that map directly to known payer expectations for those visit types. That makes it easier for therapists to consistently capture the right information in the right place. 

Preserve space for clinical judgment. 
Custom Assessment Sections can still include narrative fields for clinical impressions and reasoning, so therapists are not reduced to checkboxes — and reviewers can see why a service was provided, not just what happened. 

What to do next 

If you already use Fusion, start by choosing one evaluation that always runs long and make that your pilot. Partner with your therapists to design one or two Custom Assessment Sections for that eval, try them in real visits, and see how much “pajama time” you can cut. You can learn more about using custom assessments sections here. 

If you’re still considering Fusion, ask your rep to show you Custom Assessment Sections during your demo. Seeing your PT, OT, and SLP workflows laid out as flexible sections is often the clearest way to understand how much gentler evaluations can feel when the template finally matches the way your practice works.