Nitin Chhoda shares how modern technology such as EMR, and having a good vision about your staffs’ efficiency help you provide better health care for your patients and good management for your practice.
If you ask anyone working in health care practice management, they will probably say that their main goal is to help patients who need medical attention.
The jobs of clinicians, doctors, nurses, and even receptionists revolve around the ability of everyone in the practice to take care of the patients that come through the doors.
And yet, the way that most health care practice management are run does not align with that primary goal.
The Technology of Today
Today, healthcare practice management professionals must put their focus elsewhere; someone has to be watching the income and expenses to make sure that the practice will continue to run.
Most recently, medical EMRs have surfaced as one tool that health care practice management professionals have implemented in an effort to streamline the practice and become more efficient.
Staff members are taught to be focused on time management, and medical billing and coding staff have to constantly fight to improve their rates of accepted medical claims so claims submission is not just a job of futility.
EMR of Health Care Management
Medical EMRs of health care practice management certainly help staff members, who are often set in their ways, to adjust workflows and become more efficient and more effective at their jobs.
But how does this affect the way that patients experience healthcare at your practice? Will improvements in technology really benefit patients? Can health care practice management clinicians care for patients more attentively if they’ve got a tablet computer in front of them rather than a file folder full of paperwork?
The truth is that everyone in the health care practice management, including patients being treated, benefits when the practice runs more smoothly.
Transitioning to new technology is never simple or easy, but once staff members settle into new rhythms, they may find that they are faster and that they feel more confident about their jobs as a result.
Everything Should Be At the Right Time
Of course, it takes time and a lot of very attentive and well-planned health care practice management to get to that point, but in the new economy, this kind of investment may be the only way to survive into the future. Anything that slows down the practice will reduce competitiveness, and the medical community is trending towards switching to medical EMRs.
For health care practice management where the implementation of a medical EMR seems like too much work and not worthwhile, it may take a little bit of visioning for everyone to get on board.
But imagine a practice that has an integrated medical EMR already installed and functioning properly.
Vision Is the Key
Imagine that the entire staff is already comfortable with the way the program works. Imagine that patients know how much they will pay for each visit, and they even pay up-front because the billing staff knows what their insurance company will pay.
Imagine that health care practice management clinicians have more time with each patient, even though appointments stay the same length, because it is easier and more intuitive for clinicians to review a patient file using the medical EMR.
Everyone benefits, and that includes patients. A confident, happy, and productive health care practice management staff will improve the patient experience. A medical EMR can improve productivity and bring a bit of extra confidence to the staff.
