How can occupational therapists use an AI scribe to write NDIS reports?

The short answer: get the participant's consent, then record the assessment. Say your observations and reasons out loud, or type them into your notes, and have the scribe fill a report template whose headings match what the NDIS asks for. A scribe can draft the functional observations, the participant's goals in their own words, and the recommendations you made. The reasoning that makes a recommendation reasonable and necessary is still yours to write, and so are any scores you didn't state. You sign the report, so you check every line.

This is for Australian occupational therapists. We build Hanah for occupational therapists, so read this with that in mind. If you're still choosing a scribe, start with our guide to AI scribes for OTs. The NDIS is changing, so we've linked its pages for you to check.

What does the NDIS ask for in an OT report now?

It depends on the report. Here's what the NDIA currently publishes:

• Plan reassessment reports. The NDIA's guide for allied health providers asks you to outline the service: its type, your therapeutic approach, duration and frequency, and the goals you've been working towards. You then summarise functional capacity at the start of the plan period, name the assessment measures you used to quantify it, and show progress using those measures. Barriers, risks and recommended supports come next. Any recommendation for more or different NDIS supports needs a justification: what it should achieve, and any risks or effects on other supports. The NDIA says this evidence helps it decide whether your recommendations meet its reasonable and necessary criteria.
• Assistive technology. Mid-cost items ($1,500 to $15,000) need an advisor's written evidence: what the participant needs, why it's the best value, how it helps with their disability support needs and plan goals, and roughly what it will cost. High-cost items (over $15,000) need an assessor's assessment, usually from the past two years. That assessment also covers the effect on other supports, training and risks. Either way, say what you trialled and why the recommended item is the best option. The NDIA's assessment templates are Word documents and aren't mandatory.
• Home modifications. The home modification assessment page has minor and complex templates. You don't have to use them, but your assessment has to include all the information they ask for, along with supporting documents such as floor plans, photographs and drawings.

Two broader changes affect all of these. First, since 3 October 2024, NDIS funding can only be spent on NDIS supports. These are defined by a list of what counts and a list of what doesn't, with approved replacement supports as the exception.

Second, new framework planning is arriving in stages. The NDIA said it aimed to start with a small number of participants from mid-2026, with the process built around a support needs assessment done by a trained NDIS assessor. Current plans stay in place until a participant moves across. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing says the rules are still being developed, with further consultation from August 2026. We haven't found guidance on how OT reports will feed into that process, so we haven't guessed.

What can an AI scribe draft from an assessment?

It can draft what was said or written down. For an NDIS report, that covers a lot:

• Functional observations. Self-care, mobility, meal preparation, community access: what you saw and what the participant told you. Narrate as you go: "She needs two attempts to stand from the couch and pushes off the armrest" gives the scribe something to write. An observation you make silently doesn't.
• Goals in the participant's words. "I want to shower on my own on the days my partner works" is better evidence than "improve independence in personal care". In Hanah, the Use quotes setting lets a draft keep direct quotes where they're clinically relevant.
• Recommendations and the reasons you gave. If you explain aloud what you trialled, why you prefer one option and what's likely to happen without it, those reasons make it into the draft.
• What you type. Hanah drafts from the visit transcript and from the notes you add in the visit's Context tab. Measurements, scores and costings typed there are included.

NDIS assessments often run over more than one session. A Hanah document can draw on several visits at once and, if your practice uses Cliniko, on earlier treatment notes too. If recording in the room isn't practical, you can record yourself dictating a summary after the visit.

What can't it do?

• Make the reasonable-and-necessary case. Explaining why this support, for this person, is effective, good value and linked to their goals and disability takes clinical reasoning. A scribe can organise the reasons you gave. It can't supply the ones you didn't.
• Know scores you didn't state. If you ran a standardised assessment and never said or typed the result, the scribe doesn't have it. Hanah is instructed to leave a field blank rather than invent a figure, a date or a diagnosis.
• Decide what's fundable. Checking a recommendation against the NDIS supports lists, the participant's plan and your scope of practice is your job.
• Sign. Hanah leaves signature fields on PDF forms for you.

How do you use your own report template?

An OT's starter library in Hanah has SOAP notes (initial assessment, progress note, discharge summary) and a referral letter. There's no NDIS report in it, so you bring your own: your practice's report, or one of the NDIA's Word templates.

Upload it as a Word (.docx) file or a fillable PDF. In a Word document, Hanah turns blanks, underscored lines and empty table cells into fields. You can also add your own {{Field name}} tags in Word. A PDF needs real form fields. A scanned or flattened PDF has none for Hanah to fill. Each field comes with an instruction you can edit. For example: "The participant's goals, in their own words. Leave blank if none were stated."

When you generate the report, the fields fill in on screen as they're written. Hanah is told to tick a form checkbox only when the session clearly supports it. If you added photos to the visit, such as the bathroom you assessed, Hanah can place them in a Word report. Afterwards the form stays editable in Hanah, and you download the filled file.

The first time you use a template, read through the fields Hanah found. If it missed one, add a tag in Word and upload it again.

What does a draft look like?

Illustrative only. The participant and the report section below are made up. This is not real Hanah output.

Functional observation: bathing. Sam reports he only showers when his sister visits, "because I'm scared of going down in there." He stood from the bath edge on the second attempt, using the vanity for support, and needed standby assistance to step over the bath hob.

Participant's goal. "I want to shower on my own without waiting for someone to be here."

Recommendation. Over-bath transfer bench and a horizontal grab rail on the wall beside the bath. A shower stool was trialled during the visit and was unstable on the bath base.

Justification. Supports Sam's goal of showering independently. Addresses the transfer difficulty and falls risk observed during the visit. Without it, Sam will continue to shower only when someone else is present.

Standardised assessment scores. [Blank. No scores were stated in the session.]

The justification is only there because the OT said it aloud during the visit. The empty last field is what you want when a score is missing: a gap you can see, not a plausible-looking number.

What should you check before you sign?

• You have the participant's informed consent to the AI scribe, and have noted their response, as Ahpra's guidance on AI recommends.
• Every observation is one you actually made, with the right side, room and level of assistance.
• The goals match what the participant said and the goals in their plan.
• Every score, measurement and date is correct, and blank fields are either completed by you or deliberately left empty.
• Each recommendation says what was trialled, why this option is best, what it should achieve, the risks, and any effect on other supports.
• Every recommended support fits an NDIS supports category and isn't on the list of supports that aren't, unless it's an approved replacement support.
• Home modification reports have the floor plans, photos and any quotes needed attached.
• The reasonable-and-necessary reasoning is yours, in your words.
• You share the report with the participant, and upload it to the provider portal only with their consent.

FAQ

Is there a mandatory NDIS template for OT reports? Not that we could find. The plan reassessment guidance lists what to cover without setting a form, and the NDIA's assistive technology and home modification templates are optional.

Does the NDIA say anything about AI-drafted reports? We haven't found any. Ahpra's guidance makes you responsible for checking the accuracy and relevance of records an AI scribe creates.

Where does the participant's data go? For Australian practices, Hanah stores records and runs AI drafting in Australia. Recorded audio goes to our speech-to-text provider in the United States for transcription, and the transcript is stored in Australia. Our data processing agreement sets this out, and it also commits that neither we nor our AI providers train models on clinical data.

To see Hanah fill your own report template from an assessment, see Hanah for occupational therapists or book a demo below.