What are the key ways in which private practice management software can help improve productivity?
It can be hugely beneficial in improving the productivity of the practice as well as the efficiency of core administrative functions such as billing, sending out reminders to patients and helping process insurance claims. The bottom line for me is always the bottom line; better software will help you make more money by increasing the percentage of fees that actually get paid and reducing the frequency of unreasonably aged debts. Only instant access to your financial position, which goes hand in hand with easy year-end reporting, can help you achieve this.
How does this kind of software help your practice communicate with patients?
The key to communication is information. Once you know who your patients are and have their records, treatment history and contact details to hand you have taken the first big step. If you can tie this in with billing data, invoicing and statement production then you have at your fingertips everything you need for good communication of the administrative and financial side of your practice.
This level of organisation is one of the key ways that practice management software can help a consultant and his secretary bring in fees more effectively, whilst at the same time improving service delivery.
However, another benefit is the ability to draft letters, send secure e-mails and send text messages directly from the software itself. The result can help reduce the level of missed appointments as well as improving customer retention and helping solidify the brand of the practice in the mind of the patient.
Private practice management software is a productivity tool that will benefit both sides of this relationship and not only in the obvious ways. One evident advantage is that the smooth running of the practice will reduce the levels of stress experienced by both parties, but the benefits do run more deeply than this.
For instance, there will be a couple of occasions every year when the secretary and the consultant want to go on holiday. Hopefully these occasions will not be concurrent! When this occurs, its good practice to prepare a handover document, detailing things like invoicing practice, the location of important patient files and other key administrative details. Naturally, a well equipped practice management suite makes this process an easy hour’s work instead of a laborious late night before the holiday season.
What are the key patient care factors to look for in a software suite?
I think that one of the essentials is pre loaded CCSD and Bupa codes and fees. This will save a lot of time for the practice manager or secretary and make things faster from the patient’s point of view.
The software should also be EDI compliant, to allow the user to send claims via the Internet and should easily produce medico-legal reports.
Another nice option to have is the facility to integrate with TDL (The Doctor’s Laboratory). This allows electronic requests for any TDL pathology tests to be sent ahead of sample receipt. In turn, the results are imported directly into the patient record. This enables you to receive results as soon as they have been processed, without waiting for the fax machine or the post. This can be done on screen in the clinical setting, again improving the patient’s perception of care.
Of course, I think it goes without saying that you should be able to easily analyse records of procedures carried out and diagnoses made within the software as a core function of the package.
What questions should a practice manager, consultant or secretary ask a software provider before signing up to the service?
One of the key things to consider is technical support and how it is provided. In an ideal world your supplier should have a ‘no query too small’ approach and offer an installation and set up package as standard. It might seem tempting to opt for a vanilla box solution offering a ‘do it yourself’ ethos but ultimately this will cost substantially more in terms of practice time spent on integration.
The basic functions you should be looking for include Microsoft integration, a diary capability and the ability to scan in documents and catalogue digital photographs and so on.
Finally, one last question to ask is whether you are buying software that is hosted on your own servers or whether the software is hosted elsewhere. There are advantages and disadvantages to both so in an ideal world the vendor should be able to give you the choice between the two.
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Tom Hunt, PPM Software Ltd
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About PPM Software: PPM Software designs, develops and distributes Private Practice Manager, software that provides a complete solution for the administration and financial control of a private medical practice. The business was founded in 1992, when the first ever DOS version of Private Practice Manager was developed and the inaugural copy was installed in March 1994. There are now well over 1800 licences in use across the UK and clients include the Spire (previously BUPA) hospitals and the Nuffield Group, as well as countless individual practices.
Ref: PPM010/11/10
