Nitin Chhoda shares the best tools that can help the healthcare practice management succeed. He emphasizes that the tools should cover the four areas of the practice; Marketing, Scheduling, Documentation and Billing.
Healthcare practice management is no easy task, but the right tools will make it considerably easier.
Integrated EMR
An integrated EMR provides the resources to address customer service, finances, human resources, patient care and risk management for a whole practice solution.
Healthcare reform and the mandatory implementation of an EMR are changing the way therapists conduct business and practice owners must have the appropriate tools to meet the challenges of operating a 21st century practice.
There are dozens of EMRs available, with more than 150 healthcare practice management tool options that encompasses everything from patient portals and billing, to disease management and disaster preparedness.
From Scheduling to Billing
It’s essential for an electronic system to integrate within the office infrastructure. At the very least, therapists require healthcare practice management tools in four areas that address billing, marketing, scheduling and documentation.
Those four areas serve to increase revenues and offer a higher level of customer satisfaction, both key facets of a successful practice. Those tools allow therapists to cater to a clientele that’s mobile and assists in attaining the highest level of efficiency and staff productivity.
The technology exists through EMRs to automate tasks, interact with patients and assign staff where they will be most effective.
The process begins with scheduling when a client contacts the practice. There are only so many hours in the workday and each available appointment should be filled.
Efficiency of Technology
Modern technology provides the means to fill openings more efficiently, based on whether the client’s visit is their first or a follow-up, the reason for the patient’s visit, and the clinician’s notes.
EMRs for healthcare practice management can be automated and streamline the entire process.
Documentation is an essential part of every practice, affecting treatments, ongoing care and payments to the clinic. EMRs are compatible with tablets for optimum portability and offer the ability to create custom documents specific to individual practices.
Documentation is the key ingredient for correct coding and billing of health care practice management. The financial stability and profitability of practices relies on submitting the right codes for reimbursement and EMR systems keep errors and rejections to a bare minimum.
Whether funds are collected from self-pay patients or insurance companies, it’s a time consuming process. It’s much easier with an EMR and provides coding and billing experts with access to therapists’ notes and medical information to assist in the billing process.
EMRs Provide Complete Information
Payers want to know the full story behind a client’s complaints, treatments and the steps taken to return them to health. Electronic documentation of healthcare practice management provides that information, speeds the billing process, and ensures quicker reimbursements.
Integrated electronic systems capture a wide range of information that can be used to devise more effective marketing campaigns. Advertising and marketing a physical therapy business or other healthcare practice management is more complicated than in decades past when a clinician would simply run an ad in the local newspaper.
Today’s therapists must be able to reach patients using multiple modes of communication that includes email, voice and text messaging. EMRs provide the information needed to target specific groups utilizing a variety of demographics.
Every aspect of a physical therapy practice is interconnected. Healthcare practice management tools that recognize that symbiosis provide an integrated solution that facilitates the tasks associated with each individual department, connecting them in a meaningful way for the overall efficiency, productivity and financial stability of the business.
Clinicians avail themselves of new breakthroughs in equipment and treatment methods, and electronic systems are another tool in a therapist’s arsenal of healthcare practice management.
