Lessons from Prompt’s 2026 Rehab Therapy Report: AI, Growth, and the Real Bottleneck in PT

The conversation around AI in physical therapy has shifted. It’s no longer if practices should adopt it, but where it belongs—and when it actually helps.

According to Prompt Health’s 2026 Rehab Therapy Industry Report, most practices are already experimenting with AI in some form, primarily around documentation. But the data also reveals a quieter truth: the practices seeing the biggest gains from technology aren’t the ones chasing tools. They’re the ones fixing their operations first.

AI doesn’t create efficiency on its own. It amplifies whatever system it’s layered on top of—for better or worse. And in many clinics, the most fragile system isn’t documentation or billing. It’s the front office.

Growth Is Still There. The Strain Is in the System.

The report shows that demand for rehab therapy remains strong. Roughly 8 in 10 practices reported year-over-year growth, and 1 in 5 grew more than 20%. On the surface, that sounds like an industry doing just fine.

But beneath that growth is mounting pressure. Reimbursement remains flat. Staffing is tighter than ever. Nearly half of practice leaders cite burnout as a moderate or major concern, and administrative friction continues to rise. The practices that are struggling aren’t short on patients—they’re short on operational clarity.

This is where technology either helps—or hurts.

AI Doesn’t Fix Broken Workflows. It Exposes Them.

One of the clearest findings in the report is that high-growth practices are twice as likely to automate administrative workflows beyond documentation—things like intake, scheduling, reminders, and follow-up. These practices aren’t just using AI; they’re using it within connected systems that reduce handoffs and manual work.

By contrast, clinics relying on disconnected tools see higher burnout and lower returns from automation. The reason is simple: AI can speed up tasks, but it can’t resolve ambiguity. If leads arrive through faxes, phone calls, website forms, and referrals—and no one owns the workflow—automation just accelerates the chaos.

This is why many practices feel disappointed after adding “smart” tools. The underlying process was never designed to scale.

The Front Office Is Where Efficiency Actually Starts

The report repeatedly highlights a pattern among high-growth and super-growth practices: they run the clinic from a single, connected system. Intake feeds scheduling. Scheduling feeds reminders. Reminders feed plan-of-care compliance. Everything is visible, measurable, and consistent.

That starts at the front door.

When referrals and inquiries are centralized—rather than scattered across inboxes, spreadsheets, and EMR add-ons—teams respond faster, prioritize better, and stop losing demand before visit one. Automation works because the workflow is clear, not the other way around.

This is also where practices begin to see compounding returns:

• Faster follow-up increases conversion
• Clear ownership reduces staff stress
• Consistent handoffs improve patient experience
• Better visibility enables smarter decisions about growth

None of this requires futuristic AI. It requires operational discipline.

High-Growth Practices Automate the Journey, Not Just the Task

Another key insight from the report is that automation is most effective when applied across the entire patient journey, not isolated moments. Nearly all practices use reminders—but high-growth practices extend automation into intake, scheduling, plan-of-care tracking, and re-engagement.

This matters because growth doesn’t break at a single step. It leaks slowly:

• A fax that isn’t followed up quickly
• A voicemail that doesn’t get returned
• A patient who never completes their plan of care
• A past patient who drifts away silently

When those moments are managed manually, results depend on memory and heroics. When they’re managed through a unified workflow, outcomes become predictable.

The Real Question Isn’t “Should We Use AI?”

It’s where AI belongs.

The practices winning in 2026 aren’t using AI to replace people or patch gaps downstream. They’re using it to support well-defined processes—after they’ve clarified how work should flow.

That’s the difference between automation that relieves pressure and automation that adds it.

Before layering in more intelligence, the smartest practices are asking:

• Do we have a single system of record for demand?
• Can every team member follow the same front-office process?
• Do we know where referrals stall—or disappear?
• Can we see conversion from referral to discharge?

If the answer is no, AI won’t fix that. But fixing it creates the conditions where AI actually delivers value.

Where This Leaves Practice Leaders

The takeaway from the 2026 data is not that technology is optional—it’s that sequence matters.

Operational clarity comes first. Automation comes next. Intelligence follows.

Practices that invest in a clean, centralized front office today are positioning themselves to adopt more advanced tools tomorrow—without burning out staff or breaking workflows. That’s how growth stays sustainable, even as reimbursement tightens and expectations rise.

Want to see where your front office might be holding you back?

Start by auditing how referrals enter your practice, how they’re tracked, and where follow-up depends on people instead of process. The fastest gains often come from tightening what’s already there. Schedule a demo with our team to see how Second Door can help your practice today.