Before switching to electronic medical records system, there are important things that a practice owner should prioritize.
Nitin Chhoda points out the stages that a practitioner needs to complete before changing from a manual physical therapy documentation to an automated EMR system.
Every physical therapy practice manager wants to know exactly which physical therapy software is the best.
Of course, which is best will depend a lot on how the practice works currently and what you are hoping to achieve.
But there are a few helpful steps that physical therapy management can take to make sure that they are selecting the best EMR, one that will work for the staff, management, and benefit patients, as well.
Long Term Goals
Before making any decisions, in fact, before you even start looking at what is available, sit down and draft a list of long term goals for the practice. Have you been frustrated by the lack of tracking in the scheduling and re-scheduling of patients?
Do you want to improve the acceptance rate of claims submitted to insurance companies? Are you hoping to improve efficiency like using physical therapy software? Would you like your practice to have a more professional and modern feel?
Setting down a few goals is going to be critical to choosing the right physical therapy software. After all, you are not purchasing the software just because you like fancy software. Physical therapy software should help your practice to reach goals that you have determined because they are important for the continued success of the practice.
Working With Staff
While reporting and analysis may be the benefits to physical therapy management, there are numerous potential benefits to staff when adopting physical therapy software. Find out what your staff would like to improve upon.
Are your billers feeling overwhelmed? Does the receptionist handle a lot of miscellaneous tasks that could be eliminated with the elimination of a paper records system?
Not only will you learn what your staff needs from an EMR, but you will also plant the seed of potential benefit with the staff.
If you start with goals, both for the entire practice and for individual staff members, you can set your sights on the things that everyone will gain from adopting physical therapy software. If everyone knows how they will benefit, they will be more willing to work to adjust to the changes they will need to make.
Asking Around
Some of the best information you can gather about physical therapy software will be from other practices like your own.
It may be hard at first, but if you can identify practices that had similar goals, you can find out which software solutions might actually help you to attain your goals.
Often managers will have a lot to say about their experiences with physical therapy software implementation. If you give them the time to talk about what they did, you may learn some very valuable lessons.
Additionally, once you have goals of your own, you’ll know what questions to ask both users of software solutions and the software developers themselves.
By preparing yourself, you will know what you need the physical therapy software to do, and you can work towards goals rather than adopt software that may or may not actually be useful for you and your staff.