For more than three decades, Patty Taylor documented every therapy session by hand. Filing cabinets full of paper notes was just part of the job. But when her pediatric clinic grew from speech therapy alone into a multidisciplinary practice, something had to give.
The Challenge
SPOT Blossoms opened in 2016 as a speech therapy clinic for children. By 2021, Patty had added occupational therapy and feeding therapy — and the practice was growing. But the documentation process hadn't evolved since opening.
"EMRs were not part of our field when I first started," Patty recalls. "Even here in this clinic, I have files that have my old paper notes in them."
The paper system carried a cost beyond filing cabinets and clutter. Patty recounts days from early in her career where she'd finish a full day of back-to-back sessions, then head home with needing to work on reports.
"I remember when I first started in the field, the hours of paperwork that I had to do at home because I couldn't get my reports done in the office," she says.
With her husband Gregg handling the billing side of the practice, the paper trail created tons of paperwork there too. Every note, every form, every record had to be organized by hand. As the team grew, quality control became harder to maintain.
Adding occupational therapy was the tipping point. A growing team and a second discipline meant the paper system was unsustainable.
Finding ClinicNote
Patty and Gregg evaluated five or six EMR platforms before making a decision. For Patty, who had never implemented an EMR in her own practice, the search was personal. She needed something that wouldn't overwhelm a team unfamiliar with digital documentation.
"Cost obviously played into it being such a small business," Patty says. She also wanted a system that could pull forward previous SOAP notes, letting therapists reference past sessions without digging through files.
Many of the platforms they tested were built with occupational therapy in mind. Few had the depth Patty needed for speech.
"It fit the bill for speech therapy really, really well," she says of ClinicNote. "Something that wasn't cumbersome. It was not cumbersome at all."
When asked what ultimately drove the decision, Patty's answer was simple: "Ease of use and Lana."
Lana Fox, ClinicNote's founder and CEO, made an impression from the first interaction. For someone navigating her first EMR implementation, that personal connection mattered as much as the product itself.
Implementation and Onboarding
The go-live was a conversation. Patty describes a collaborative rollout where the ClinicNote team and SPOT Blossoms worked through each piece together. "We grew together," Patty says.
Scheduling alignment, therapist setup, and billing processes were all refined iteratively. Lana brought in additional team members as needed, and the back-and-forth produced a system that fit the practice — not the other way around.
"Just being available, being very helpful," Patty says of the support experience. "Big thing is just being available. If there's a question that's put forth, you guys are pretty quick."
The rest of the team adapted smoothly. Patty attributes that to the platform's simplicity. A therapist accustomed to paper notes could sit down and start documenting without a steep learning curve.
After the initial setup period, support tickets dropped off. The system just worked.
The Results
Tighter quality control. Moving from paper to digital documentation gave Patty visibility she didn't have before. "You literally tighten things up," she says. "It was a better quality control aspect of things."
Billing in one place. Gregg saw the biggest operational shift. Instead of organizing paper records by hand, billing data lives in a single system — organized, accessible, and ready when he needs it.
Documentation during sessions, not after. Patty equipped every therapist with an iPad or laptop, and documentation became part of the session itself. Notes get done in the room, not at the kitchen table after hours.
Reduced paper dependency. The days of filing cabinets full of handwritten SOAP notes are over. "Being able to open it up, jot a few notes and be done with it for the day greatly aids in a work-life balance that all therapists strive for," Patty says.
Minimal ongoing support needed. After the initial implementation, SPOT Blossoms rarely submits support tickets. The platform runs, and when questions do come up, the ClinicNote team responds fast.
Looking Ahead
Patty sees untapped potential in ClinicNote for her practice. Digital intake forms, the patient portal, and report generation templates are all on the short list for later this year.
She's also considering consolidating scheduling into ClinicNote, replacing the separate tool the practice still uses for room management and text reminders. A refresher training session with the team is next on the calendar.
Even so, the core transformation is already complete. A 35-year veteran who spent the first half of her career buried in paper notes now runs a practice where documentation happens in real time.
"The ease of use and the availability of the staff to assist when needed has been monumental in ClinicNote being a success," Patty says. "And I have recommended it to our university here."
About SPOT Blossoms
SPOT Blossoms is a pediatric speech, occupational, and feeding therapy clinic serving children up to 18 years of age. Founded in 2016 as a speech therapy practice, the clinic expanded into occupational therapy in 2021 and continues to grow under the leadership of Patty Taylor and her husband Gregg.
"It's just amazing what this platform has done to help speed the efficiency of being a therapist."
— Patty Taylor, Owner, SPOT Blossoms