Healthcare providers are experts in their respective medical fields. But when it comes to managing a practice, there’s a lot to consider. To have a profitable and sustainable business, the right tools, systems and processes are required. Together with the skills to run a business. Practice management is about equipping the business owner with the tools to deal with the challenges of running a business.
Firstly, what is Practice Management?
Practice management is the general term used for the process of managing the administration and business aspects of private medical practice. Larger practices may have a dedicated practice manager to perform these tasks. But for most of these functions will be done by the practice owner, receptionist or admin team.
Practice management tasks include; administration of daily operations, business planning, records management, client communications, hiring and managing staff, ordering and managing equipment and consumables, ensuring regulatory compliance, invoicing and management of debtors, and of course, appointment and calendar management. These duties are vital and form the basis of the actual therapeutic or medical services being provided by the practice.
What is Practice Management Software?
Practice management software is an application or computer system that helps you put all of the management tasks together. And manage all of the information involved with running a healthy private practice. It is designed to streamline and automate the common tasks of practice management.
While small. low-volume practices might be able to survive using manual, paper-based systems. The moment they get even slightly busy most practice owners find that they need a system to handle the day to admin of the practice. Many practice owners find that they are much more efficient and professional once they move to practice management software.
Instead of having a separate place for client contact records, treatment notes, appointment calendars, invoicing and more, all of this information is in one, integrated place. Plus, practice management software can make many tasks significantly more efficient – like appointment reminders, writing up treatment notes, and sending client referrals. The reporting functionality of the software can help you understand what’s happening in your practice so that you can make improvements.
Does Your Private Practice Need Practice Management Software?
Feel like your practice is perfectly fine as it is? Perhaps you don’t want to waste your money on practice management software? You may just want to think again. According to a recent study conducted by SoftwareAdvice.com point to a growing need for software.
Their research showed that the most common needs that practices had when starting out or switching to new practice management systems included; appointment scheduling, treatment plans and billing.
See breakdown below
If these functions are important in your practice, chances are you will benefit from a practice management tool.
Benefits of Practice Management Software
Software is designed to save you time on the tedious, repetitive daily tasks that detract from the core purpose of your business. Key aspects to look for when you are looking at practice management software would be.
Run your practice from anywhere.
With cloud-based practice management software, you can do just that provided you have an internet connection. You are no longer chained to a desk or committed to a clunky office monitor with tons of files on your desk. Your information is stored in the cloud, so you no longer need to have huge filing cabinates taking up precious office space. In other words, assuming you have a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone; you can run your practice with confidence and ease.
Your software is always updated.
With cloud-based solutions, your software is always up to date. When the development team deploys a new update your software is automatically updated, meaning you don’t need to run updates. No need to manually download new software onto your hard drive every time there is a new feature or update.
Reduce time spent on admin tasks.
Practice management software can save you and your admin team hours of work each week. Freeing up time to invest in business building activities like marketing. There’s less time needed looking for information, preparing notes, writing client communications and more.
Reduce No-shows
Using the appointment reminders, it’s easy to significantly reduce your no-shows. You can use a combination of SMS and email messages to remind clients of their upcoming sessions. Plus, you can easily see which clients have confirmed and which might need some chasing.
Practice Management Software Choice – Your Turn?
If any of this message resonated with you or made you think that you might want to consider using practice management software for your private practice. Please give us the opportunity to show you how our IsoEvolve software could be great for your practice.