Activities of Daily Living

Which everyday activities the patient's condition affects.

Selecting activities

Activities are organised into categories, and you pick the relevant ones from Available Activities across into Selected Activities.

Only what you select is recorded — and selected activities generate into the Subjective section of the SOAP note.

This is what turns a complaint into an impairment

"Low back pain, moderate" describes a symptom. "Unable to lift a child, difficulty getting in and out of a car, cannot sit through a meal" describes a life being affected — which is what demonstrates the care is necessary rather than elective.

It is also the most persuasive material in a narrative report, because it is concrete.

Three separate lists

The activities available are not one shared list. Three exist, each tailored to where it is used:

Used by	Purpose
Subjective complaint history	Activities affected by the presenting complaint
Work injury job description	Activities the job actually involves
Work restriction notice	Activities being restricted

They are configured separately

Adding an activity to one list does not add it to the others. If your practice adds, say, "prolonged driving", decide which of the three contexts it belongs in — it may well be more than one, and each needs it added.

Keeping the list useful

The categories and activities are maintained by your practice.

Resist the urge to list everything

A list long enough to be exhaustive is a list nobody reads to the bottom of. The activities that earn their place are the ones your patients actually report and your reports actually cite.