Your practice should run like a well-oiled machine. When one component lacks efficiency, everything else in the practice suffers. Learn how to improve workflow in a medical office so that you can efficiently run your practice.
Missed communications, gaps in productivity, and slow claims submission are just a few hindrances that can occur in any busy medical practice. A high-grade practice management system lets your staff manage and complete daily operations more quickly and transforms the way you operate your practice.
Impacts of a Quality Practice Management System
Implementing a practice management system streamlines communication, billing, scheduling, and other office tasks in one central location. By integrating effectively with your other practice software, providers are able to streamline their practice workflow, utilize fully automated processes, drastically reduce time spent on documentation, and better help their patients.
Tools like digital patient intake, automated text reminders, and online scheduling help you patients avoid long wait times while improving front-line interactions.
The impact of a world-class practice management system infiltrates multiple areas of your practice to streamline the workflow of your front-line staff, improve clinical decision making, and develop your bottom line. Not every practice management software is the same, though. Providers should make sure they find these features if they want to see real change in their practice.
Features to Look for in Practice Management Systems:
1) Scheduling
Shopping for practice management systems requires looking for features to improve efficiency without sacrificing patient satisfaction and patient engagement. A practice management software should be a comprehensive solution that streamlines scheduling, simplifies patient communication, and improves your bottom line. Quality practice management systems should feature online scheduling that allows the patient to schedule or cancel their appointment when they have the time. This will reduce frustration experience when your patients call and struggle to find an appointment that works for them. An online scheduling and reminder feature from your practice management system improve patient satisfaction by offering your patients more options to help them plan ahead.
2) Appointment Reminders
The practice management system your practice chooses should offer communications sent via text, email, or phone call to better inform patients of an upcoming visit. These reminders will give patients time to cancel or reschedule if they find their original appointment no longer works for them. By giving patients consistent communication, you increase the chance they appear and pay for their appointment while reducing the cost of no-shows for your practice. Each no-show can cost an estimated $100-$200 per patient and negatively impacts your bottom line. When you offer text/email/phone call communication to your patients, you not only help them better engage their providers, but also improve your revenue cycle.
3) Billing Integration
Patient encounters require billing and when your practice management system does not integrate with your practice billing, you will have many problems. Each bill involves inputting the right billing code, insurance verification, and collecting payment before services are rendered. Practice management systems should include built-in billing tools to improve processing and ensure correct coding to increase your clean claims rate. The software offers easy encounter documentation so bills can be produced promptly. Code libraries ensure codes are entered correctly so bills are accurate for increased approval. Claims will be processed more efficiently without a backlog or lag. If your office has a separate medical coding specialist and a billing department, both parties can easily access the information they need.
4) Custom Reporting
To keep a practice running smoothly and identify any issues, it’s crucial to run reports for data on financial performance, billing code usages, and any other pertinent data. Practice management systems should offer the ability to generate customized reports, not just pre-set reports. This better aids your upper-level staff to keep track of things like productivity and compliance.
Practice management systems are a streamlined solution that address multiple areas of concern for providers. Simplifying billing, reporting, patient engagement, and patient satisfaction in one system allows for improved efficiency and an increased bottom line. Providers should turn to a practice management system that offers each of these capabilities in order to grow in the right direction.
To learn more about a practice management system that can help your practice, click here.
