Making the right choice in medical practice management software can dramatically increase your profitability and efficiency. PM software is a key component of the modern medical practice, but there are some software solutions that go above and beyond. What should you look for and consider as you hunt for the best PM software?
Features to Look for in Practice Management Software
Appointment Scheduling
Scheduling is one of the biggest time-sinks in a medical practice. Think of all the time it takes your staff to fill things in, contact patients in advance of their appointments, and deal with no-shows and cancellations. Great software takes all this off your plate by maintaining a master office schedule and efficiently dealing with new appointments, no-shows, and cancellations.
With the Social Patient Center (SPC) by Crystal Clear, you get this scheduling functionality and a lot more. Patient scheduling integrates with the calendar system, sending automated appointment reminders by text and email and giving you an up-to-the-second view of the scheduled status of every patient, room, provider, and piece of equipment, even if you have multiple locations. The SPC keeps your clinical workflow clear with the visuals and notifications you need to stay on top of everything that’s happening.
Document Management
In the modern era, paperwork and red tape can cause some of your biggest headaches. Insurance companies and government regulations require more and more while imposing ever more stringent compliance regulations. Nearly every practice these days is on board with using electronic health records, but in too many cases, EHR is separate from any practice management software system.
With the SPC, you can be sure your document storage and medical notes are all HIPAA compliant. The same is true for photo storage, two-way texting, and video consent storage. Keep track of your referrals and generate the forms you need with ease and the peace of mind that comes with knowing everything is standardized, secure, and in compliance.
Billings and Claims
Great practice management software should streamline your billing process and make it easier to follow up on claims. It should make it easy to add ICD codes. It should stop revenue leaks by making it simple to generate invoices at the moment a client receives services and alerting you whenever clients don’t follow up. One of the biggest benefits to PM software for the small practice is in eliminating the need to hire a special coding or billing specialist.
Our system allows you to easily generate quotes and bills and even includes integrated credit card processing so it’s convenient for your patients to pay. The billing model goes even further by allowing you to offer package deals for services your clients most want or typically ask for at the same time. You can also use it to offer membership subscriptions so you can track usage while increasing patient loyalty. To further encourage loyalty, use the software to design a loyalty rewards program that makes sense for your practice and keeps patients coming back.
Demographics
Good PM software should make it easy for you to track your patients by demographics so you can better serve them and grow your practice through more effective marketing strategies. Get a grip on the big picture of both patients and practice by tracking things like insurance eligibility, medication lists, appointment histories, and more.
The SPC from Crystal Clear Digital Marketing allows you to use demographics and other information to generate reports so you can see at a glance how your practice is performing, which patients are most attracted to your services, and where there could be missed opportunities to improve the patient experience or generate more revenue.
What to Consider When Choosing Software
On-Site or in the Cloud?
This could be the biggest decision you make in choosing software that’s right for your practice. For all but the largest practices, software-as-a-service, cloud-based solutions are almost always best. On-site solutions have a very high upfront cost and require you to have room for the necessary hardware. You’ll also need the IT expertise to keep it running and will be entirely responsible for ensuring your on-premise software is up-to-date and completely secure. You also have to worry about backups if there’s a power outage, fire, flood, or other issue with your servers.
Cloud-based software takes the day-to-day maintenance chores off your plate while ensuring you always have constant, uninterrupted access to your data. All the burden of maintaining the software and hardware needed to host the servers falls on your provider, and you’ll never keep patients waiting for the IT guy again.
EHR or Practice Management Software With EHR?
While it can be tempting to stick with an existing EHR and jump for a cheaper PM software that doesn’t include EHR integration, the end result is often unsatisfactory. Existing standalone EHR systems are fast becoming obsolete, and they may not talk nicely with your new PM software, causing unexpected headaches. An integrated PM solution that offers everything you need to keep your clinic running smoothly and in compliance is the best choice.
PMS Alone or a Full-Service Provider?
You can purchase serviceable PM software and plans that offer most of what you need to simply run your practice, or you can go a step beyond and work with a PM software provider who also deals in digital marketing and consulting for medical practices. When you choose a full-service provider, your PM software does more than just billing and document management.
Instead, your software becomes a key tool in gathering the data you need to effectively grow. You also get the benefit of working with just one provider who really knows your business inside and out rather than with various standalone consultants who aren’t working together to design solutions tailor-made for your specific situation.
How Crystal Clear’s Social Patient Center Goes Above and Beyond
An Intuitive Task Management System
The SPC task management system makes it simple for you to generate tasks for your staff and automate follow-up tasks so everyone is always using their time efficiently. You are able to keep an eye on all tasks right from your device or computer and get notifications when tasks are completed or a new task gets picked up.
You can also see the historical timeline of any task to get an idea of how long each type takes to finish or learn how to most efficiently assign staff to the tasks they are best suited for. Most importantly, you’ll always be on top of everything that’s happening at your practice.
Integrated Marketing Tools
There’s so much power in a PM software system and so much data that shouldn’t be going to waste. When you choose the Social Patient Center from Crystal Clear, it never does. Instead, the software uses all that patient information to integrate with your online presence and uses robust analytics to guide your marketing efforts. Use the software to automate about 85% of your patient communication. This frees you up to put your time and energy into your patients themselves while ensuring patients have a great experience and get the information they need.
Use the software to target your marketing efforts. You can reach anyone in your patient base with emails, texts, or social media outreach, but you can also craft your communications so they reach patients at the perfect point in their life cycle or with offers they are truly interested in. The SPC also makes it easier to get the valuable feedback from patients that you need by sending out automated reviews or survey requests and generating reports.
Reporting and Analytics
If you’ve ever felt in the dark about the true financial health of your business or made changes that you worried weren’t based on sound data, you’ll never have that feeling again with the SPC. Instead, you’ll have access to clear, easy-to-understand reports you can personalize to ensure you’re seeing the data that’s most meaningful to you. With it, you can track where your marketing dollars are going, which efforts are successful, and where you need to change strategies.
You can get a quick bird’s eye view of your overall financial health at any moment or drill down into the details and account for every penny. Use reporting and analytics features to keep track of your staff and see where they’re most productive. Then use this information to ask each staff member where they can do the most productive good.
What Is the Best Practice Management Software?
At Crystal Clear Digital Marketing, we have the best PM software solution for the modern medical practice. Our software has everything you need plus features you may never have realized you could use. And our commitment to you goes beyond providing software: we’re a full-service digital marketing partner with contracts and plans that work for every budget.
If you’re ready to streamline operations, increase revenue, and enhance the patient experience, schedule a free virtual demo with Crystal Clear Digital Marketing. See for yourself how our powerful software is the solution you need to thrive in a digital world. Contact us today to get started!
