Plan of care

Plans of care are the backbone of every patient’s treatment journey. Penciled helps clinics automate the scheduling and tracking of these plans so patients stay on course — and front offices stay focused on people, not paperwork.

What was the process before Penciled?

After their initial exam, patients prescribed a frequency of follow-up visits had only one option for scheduling: through the front office. For each patient, staff would manually schedule sets of 8–10 visits. Some even printed lists for patients to take home, check against their calendars, and call back with changes.

This process was painful for everyone. Patients who had just finished their first visit — and were eager to get back to their day — were asked to plan out weeks of future sessions on the spot. For anyone with a busy or unpredictable schedule, guessing the best times weeks in advance was unrealistic. The easiest option? Take whatever times were offered, grab the printout, and reschedule or cancel later.

For front offices, this repeated process consumed valuable time for every new patient. It added to the growing list of tasks competing for attention — from answering phone calls and processing intakes to completing insurance verifications.

When Penciled first launched its waitlist system, front offices started creating fake cancellations just to trigger mass texts to patients and fill open slots faster. It worked temporarily — but it wasn’t sustainable. Patients received multiple notifications for every new opening, leading to frustration and message fatigue. Clearly, clinics needed a better system.

Front offices needed a way to show patients all available times without manually booking 10–12 visits. Patients needed an easier, self-serve way to schedule their prescribed visits and track progress across their entire plan of care.

How does Penciled solve this?

Penciled’s plan of care system automatically reads therapist notes to pull prescribed visit frequencies, compares each patient’s existing schedule, and messages patients to book remaining visits.

Teams can generate plans of care at any time — even before the initial evaluation note is complete — helping front offices schedule care plans faster and giving patients more options to fit their availability without added stress.

The result: front offices can focus on real conversations with patients, while Penciled’s AI handles the repetitive scheduling work that used to slow everyone down.

Shoutout

Penciled’s plan of care system was inspired by the operations team at Functional Performance Center in Littleton, Colorado, and developed in collaboration with the operations and growth teams at Marketplace Physical Therapy and Wellness Center in Los Angeles, California.