Patient Management Software
Today patients are demanding more from their healthcare professionals. Quality of service, more information, and faster results are just a few things that patients are demanding. Your primary responsibility is taking great care of your patients. Daily tasks such as patient scheduling, billing, and miscellaneous paperwork can quickly interfere with that. That’s where the implementation of a patient management software can help.
Patient Management
Patients want their providers to focus on building a strong relationship or bond, manage each patient as an individual with their own distinctions, concerns and needs.
When providers manage the whole patient, it results in greater fulfillment of overall well-being. This in turn, leads to an exceptional experience for the patient and true gratification for your organization.
When your organization achieves excellent patient management, patients will be healthier, more content and trusting of your practice.
Patients will tell family, friends of their exceptional experience with your organization. This leads to more patients joining the practice which will mean a greater profit for you.
Patient Information
Having a patient management system encompass your entire clinic, each team member will have patient information at their fingertips. This is important for work flow in the office.
Knowledge of patient appointments, clinical notes, prescriptions, lab work are just a few examples.
All of this information would be organized in one location, which helps with well-planned transitioning from one step to the next of patient care.
There are less mistakes to worry about and this well planned care gives patients an increased feeling of individualized care.
Clinician Benefits
Whether your organization is small or large, there are many benefits to be realized with a patient management software system. Let’s look at some of the few benefits of using a patient management system in your organization.
Daily Operations
Quite possibly one of the best reasons to support installing a patient management software system are to streamline daily operations. It’s important to make certain care is always conveyed in a timely manner. Not just for the patient, but to help staff by easing burnout.
Value-Based Care
Patient Management systems aid the clinicians in providing value-based care for their patients. The key focus of value-based healthcare is to help the healthcare organization create more value for the patient. This value is generated when a person’s health outcome improves.
Administrative Tasks
The administrative staff must communicate with the patient, schedule the appointment, and take care of all the new patient paperwork and insurance. If the patient intake is organized, the patient flow can mean the difference of a relaxed, professional waiting room and one that is filled with frustrated and irritated patients. Once the patient enters the office for their appointment, the clinical department must update health information and keep the process going.
Patient Billing
There is much to do for everyone on the team, there is no extra time, so many responsibilities and much patient data to organize. The billing department is responsible for the billing of services. The goal of the organization is to keep the operation moving, get through the hurdles and at the same time never compromise quality of care.
Reducing Errors
When you have an efficient patient management software system in place, you can reduce unessential steps, which will essentially reduce errors.
Improved Communication
With improved communication, besides a reduction in errors, patients are able to take a more active role in their healthcare process through patient portals. Freeing up valuable staff time and resources will allow the team to focus more attention on care for their patients.
Quicker Reimbursements
Making the reimbursement process as quick as possible is another added benefit to your organization. With insurance information and claim information readily available, the billing department can expedite the process. This equals faster reimbursements and profits into the organization.
Software Options
There are many patient management software options for you to consider.
When searching you will likely come across a variety of terms. The most popular being “patient management software”, followed by “medical patient management software” and “medical practice software”.
Some of the biggest companies in the patient management software market include:
- Henry Schein MicroMD
- Allscripts
- AdvantEdge
- Cerner
- GE Healthcare
- McKesson
- Athenahealth
- Epic Systems
- Accumedic Computer Systems
- NextGen Healthcare
- eClinicalWorks
- CareCloud
- Kareo
- AdvancedMD
- DrChrono
- CollaborateMD
- Office Ally
Not All Are Created Equal
Not all are designed equal. Remember, compliance is a huge concern, make sure your choice strictly complies with HIPAA rules and regulations. Once you have determined that the system adheres to HIPAA, there are other areas to consider.
The patient management software should have a backup plan and a solution for disaster recovery. Additionally, an abundance of storage space, secure encryptions, ability to analyze any patient data that is used in your organization, and it must be user friendly.
Other areas to consider when choosing a system are various channels of communication, real time touch point tracking, patient records that are easy to record and retrieve, and speedy medical record transfer.
When asked, about 82% of patients said that quick access to dependable medical records was very important to them.
Digital storage is more secure than paper files, helps comply with HIPAA privacy rules, and saves physical space in the office, making for a neater, cleaner appearance.
Many patients also feel that easy online access to their providers (patient portals) is of significant value to them. These features motivate patients to communicate with your organization. Which will help build that critical provider-patient relationship and all-inclusive care for the patient as a whole.
Approximately 80% of people say that electronic capabilities in a healthcare system are important to them and 74% of people would rather receive reminders via email or text message.
Quick Facts
In 2021 United States Practice Management system market size was approximately 7.4 billion and is expected to increase to 8.2 billion in 2022.
From 2022 to 2030 United States Practice Management systems are expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 4.5% and reach 11.5 billion by 2030.
Market growth in the United States is driven by: need to implement cost-effective high quality care; the increasing pressure to curb healthcare costs while changing hospital and clinic dynamics; development of new added-value patient services such as installing patient management software; and the addition of Computerized Physician Order Entry and Laboratory information systems.
Patient Management Software
Getting right down to it, your patients and your staff have very similar needs and goals. They both want an efficient clinical system that will result in best patient outcomes with streamline communications.
With a patient management software system that meets all your requirements, your patients and your staff will experience less frustrations, save time and resources, and it will take away excess costs.
You will be very pleased because your staff will be happy and patients will have found a provider and an organization that has given them a team that provides healthcare that exceeds their expectations.