Before buying a physical therapy software, make sure you know what your practice needs. Nitin Chhoda shares the one question every practitioner should ask first, before they can choose the best software that is right for their practice.

physical therapy softwarePhysical therapy software system affects your entire experience depending on what type of EMR you choose.

For some practices, price is a dominant factor. But cutting corners can backfire, and most cheap physical therapy software is going to cut some corners.

Before you decide what you can spend, think about what you need. If the EMR you choose doesn’t work for you, it probably won’t be worth any amount of money.

Look at Your Practice First

The first step towards choosing the right web-based physical therapy software is looking at what your practice will need. You’ve likely heard that EMRs for physical therapy software and services can increase efficiency and improve your bottom line. That’s only true if you’ve got some inefficiency that can be reduced with an EMR.

Ask yourself a few questions. Is your medical billing conducted on a regular and timely schedule? What is the percentage of rejected or denied claims you receive? Is your staff slightly overwhelmed with paperwork? How often do errors occur that upset your patients?

If you are having trouble in any of these areas, and most practices have more than one of these problems, it is very likely that physical therapy software can help. Scheduling, billing, and patient management are integrated in good PT documentation software. Does that sound like something that will reduce the number of steps each staff member has to take to do their job? Good.

Understanding the Benefits

physical therapy software best choiceAs soon as you know what you need, you can develop some goals. These goals for your practice should be independent of whether or not you get physical therapy software.

But if you design your goals around what will improve efficiency and your bottom line, then you will be ready to ask the most important question: will this physical therapy management solution help us to meet our goals?

If billing is your main concern because you get a lot of claim rejections and denials that need to be re-filed, then make sure that the billing system is integrated and comprehensive in the physical therapy software you are considering.

If one of your goals is to improve the professionalism in your office with a sophisticated system, make sure that the system actually provides improved consistency in billing, patient care, and communication.

Choose the Best Physical Therapy Software for Your Practice

Remember that EMR implementation can be taxing and frustrating for staff. Make sure that the physical therapy software company offers training and instruction for staff, both before, during, and after implementation.

Lastly, no matter what kind of physical therapy software you choose, make sure that it is intuitive to use. The most important thing about any physical therapy software is that it will be easy for your staff to use. You want the staff to become more efficient, right? Do not sacrifice intuitive interfaces and useful tools for a better price, because you will not get the results that you want if your staff can’t use the software.