Five key functions to look for in practice management software

Practice management software is becoming increasingly important, particularly for eye care practices that are seeking to optimize their workflows, automate processes, and get more done with less.

Optometry practice management software can handle several key factors, from scheduling to billing and more. As practices compete in increasingly competitive markets and seek to relieve the need for critical employees to spent time on repetitive, laborious tasks, practice optometric management tools like eye are practice management software are gaining renewed focus.

This blog looks at practice management software, its benefit for your practice, and what features to look for and consider as you choose an optometry practice management software solution. Let’s get started.

What is practice management software?

Practice management software is a type of software program that can be used to operate many of the functions of your medical and healthcare practice. Many systems are designed specifically for eye are practices to function flawlessly in eye care settings.

Practice management software is usually used for financial and administrative tasks, although advanced systems can also tie into electronic medical record systems (EMRs) and incorporate electronic health records.

Eye care practice management software is typically sold as a software as a service solution, meaning that eye care practices purchase the system and pay a monthly fee for its use. These systems are easily scale as your practice changes or grows, meaning that as you add staff, add patients, add locations, or acquire new practices, your practice management software tool can easily grow with you.

Why is practice management software important?

Practice management software can offer a range of benefits for health care providers. These benefits can make your practice more efficient and help you to deliver a higher quality of care.

These tools acknowledge that running a practice can be complicated and difficult, particularly for physician owners who may not have a strong business background, and also for smaller and mid-size practices that lack the resources needed to handle many of the office’s more complicated or time-consuming tasks.

Practice management solutions notably allow for improved organization. This is key for providers who have more important concerns – the health and wellbeing of their patients. Practice management software can be used to free up time, cut down on paperwork, and be more organized.

Being more organized, of course, can be a massive efficiency boost for eye care practices. With one of these systems in place, many tasks are handled automatically, and others are vastly simplified, meaning that you can get more work done with less staff. Overall, everything will be easier since the software takes care of many of the tasks, especially those that are complicated and tedious. Further, there are fewer errors in documentation since many human factors are removed from the workflow.

Better organization, fewer errors, and more time to focus on patients can lead to one major boost for your eye care practice – it can lead to improved patient satisfaction. Patients will have an easier time making an appointment, get automatic reminders of upcoming visits, be seen faster, have more face-to-face time with their physician, and may even benefit from reduced costs that you can pass along to them.

What are the most important features to look for in practice management software solutions?

There are many practice management software solutions on the market today that are specifically build for eye care practices. This wealth of choices means that those in the market for a system have many features to choose from. What features are most important for your practice will depend on what degree of specialization you already possess in your workforce, your budget, the level of automation that you are looking for, and other factors.

Some of the main features to look for in practice management software include:

• Simple scheduling: Many practice management software tools have excellent scheduling functionality, including access to drag and drop appointment scheduling and clear calendars. Good systems will also send out automatic reminders of upcoming appointments and even send follow up text messages asking for a positive review of the practice on social media or search engines. These reminders are key as they help to reduce no-shows or late arrivals and can be programmed to send direction to your office. Automated reminders eliminate the need for staff to make phone calls for appointment reminders or send out emails.
• A secure online patient portal: An online patient portal is a dashboard that patients can use to access a wide variety of features, including secure communication from health care staff, notes about their care, requests for prescription refills, details about past and upcoming visits, information about medication, and more. This portal can also be used for scheduling.
• Integration with electronic health record (EHR) workflows: You are likely already using an electronic health record system, and a good practice management software system will integrate with it to seamlessly handle appointments, billing, medical coding, and billing. This will reduce data errors, cut down on duplication, and easily capture billable charges.
• Insurance verification: Insurance verification, of course, is a key function of your office, and a good eye care practice management solution will organize and manage insurance information effectively. It should securely store the insurance information of your patients and make it easy to determine if a particular insurance policy will cover a specific care routine or medication prescription. Top systems will also be able to compare claims against an existing database to ensure consistency and even change necessary data fields automatically.
• Secure communication function: You probably use your text messaging function more than you make actual calls and more, and this is how many of your patients may wish to communicate with you, too. But all communication, of course, must comply with HIPAA confidentially rules. A good practice management system will securely connect patients and healthcare professionals for simple and secure communication.

How can I learn more?

Eye Care Leaders is an established leader in the eye care field, with practice management solutions that are comprehensive, effective, and affordable. To learn more about how Eye Care Leaders can modernize your practice with a practice management software that meets you needs, contact them today.