Top EHR features for practice management

For most healthcare practices, providing care to their patients may be one of the least complicated tasks the organization will need to tackle. Although it may seem counterintuitive to consider practicing medicine as simple, when compared to the financial side of healthcare, most providers would likely tell you that they would rather treat even the most difficult patient than attend to the many intricacies of running the business side of a healthcare practice.

To state that managing the administrative side of a healthcare practice is difficult would likely be characterized as an understatement - given the financial pressures created by government efforts to contain healthcare costs, and downward pressure from the public and private payers to contain reimbursement rates.

These problems can also be compounded by competitive pressures in the healthcare market, forcing practices to struggle to carve out a viable place in local healthcare markets. Fortunately, with the development of healthcare technology related to the clinical side of medical practice software, vendors have long been offering practice management software to assist healthcare organizations in optimizing the administrative side of their practices.  

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Practice management software offers users an array of tools, unlike EHRs whose function focuses primarily on clinical tasks, practice management enables practices to provide better clinical care by making the administrative side of a practice more efficient.

Contents:

1. What is practice management software?
2. What is the difference between EHR and practice management software?
3. Do practices need both EHR and practice management software?
4. Integration of practice management into the existing EHR
5. Revenue cycle management (RCM)
6. Financial dashboards
7. Customer relationship management (CRM)
8. Other key features of practice management software

What is practice management software?

Practice management software is a specialized tool designed to handle the administrative tasks of healthcare practices. From managing patient scheduling and billing to streamlining office workflows, this software serves as the backbone for practice operations.

While EHR (Electronic Health Records) focuses on clinical documentation and patient care, practice management software supports non-clinical functions. These include:

• Appointment scheduling
• Patient check-ins and communication
• Insurance eligibility verification
• Billing and coding management
• Financial reporting

By addressing these administrative areas, practice management software ensures healthcare providers can focus more on patient care, improving overall efficiency and satisfaction.

Just like an EHR, practice management systems do not offer all the functionality that covers all of a practice’s requirements. Although many practices can function quite well without a fully integrated practice management solution, there are several compelling reasons why one should select a fully integrated EHR and practice management solution.

What's the difference between EHR and practice management software?

Practices commonly raise questions regarding what the differences are between EHR and practice management software. The difference between the two types of software rests in the type of information each handles. EHR software manages clinical information whereas practice management software handles all other data that a healthcare practice would use. Effectively, the former is for recordkeeping for clinical care, and the latter’s purpose rests in handling the administrative (nonclinical) side of a healthcare practice.

Do practices need both EHR and practice management software?

Healthcare offices often debate whether both EHR and practice management systems are necessary. While it may seem efficient to use one system, these tools serve distinct purposes.

Key differences

• EHR software: Focuses on clinical documentation, treatment plans, and patient health records
• Practice management software: Handles administrative workflows such as scheduling, billing, and reporting.

Why use both?

Integrating these systems reduces redundancies, enhances operational efficiency, and creates a holistic view of patient care and practice performance. A combined solution simplifies workflows, from front-desk operations to back-office financial management.

Integration of practice management into the existing EHR

Besides the practical benefits of only being required to manage one system and one vendor, the most compelling reason for selecting a fully integrated practice management system involves the removal of barriers to data sharing and analysis within a practice.

An integrated EHR solution allows clinical and practice data to be managed by administrators and clinical staff seamlessly, thus offering the ability to monitor and analyze performance across the entire organization. The ability to remove data silos that occur between the administrative and clinical side of the practice is even more valuable to practices with complex organizational structures or operate from multiple locations.

Black Book Research conducted a survey of hospital systems and physician practice organizations regarding their feature requirements in practice management systems. Respondents noted that when considering practice management systems, the most important feature that can be integrated into their revenue cycle management and EHR systems.

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The main reason for buying a practice management system was to streamline financial and clinical systems. Moving away from non-integrated EHR and practice was driven by financial pressures that an integrated system could help alleviate and, as the survey notes, “allow leaders to strategically design alternative reimbursement and payment methodologies that will improve physician engagement and advance patient care.”

Revenue cycle management (RCM)

Data indicates that hospital-owned and employed physician practices on an integrated EHR, practice management, and RCM platform collect 29 percent more on billed charges when compared to nonintegrated practice management and RCM platforms

RCM software employs technology to track revenue streams within a practice and offers the ability to manage revenue flows by proactively avoiding potential revenue drains by verifying patient insurance eligibility and claims monitoring. In addition to features to ensure consistent revenue flows some RCM software allows users to engage in analytics which can help a practice address potential revenue stream problems and strategically plan accordingly.  

Financial dashboards

Practice management software should provide users with the ability to analyze a practice’s performance through easy-to-use and understand dashboards.  To further assist in performance analysis, many practice management software packages on the market today allow users to view and generate reports on several clinical and financial metrics.

With a user-friendly interface that allows individuals who may not have a deep background in analytics, management, or finance to conduct analyses and understand them easily, key stakeholders in a practice can take ownership of understanding the challenges and opportunities present in an organization.  

Customer relationship management (CRM)

Although CRM is traditionally associated with business in the retail or service sector, for better or worse, customer relations is an important aspect of a healthcare practice. Given the recent push by regulators emphasizing the quality of care metrics, customer relations should matter to practices from a quality or clinical care perspective and a business perspective.  

One aspect that practice management software can assist practices in is improving their operations involves patient scheduling and the management of wait times.  A nationwide study of over 34,000 Google+ reviews of doctors, group medical practices, clinics, and hospitals found that 35 percent of complaints were related to long wait times.

Customer relations management software features found in practice management software can offer practices the ability to manage administrative and clinical workflows, and also monitor patient processing which, when taken as a whole, can provide practices with the ability to reduce wait times and processing times.

Other key features of practice management software

In addition to managing wait times, some practice management software includes features geared toward enhancing patient engagement. These features provide an upgrade for practices who wish to enhance their ability to interact with patients through sending automated alerts, updating contact information, and integrating with patient portals to enhance the patient engagement experience. Given that quality monitoring is now being emphasized in emerging reimbursement schemes, an extra focus on patient engagement should be an integral part of a practice’s overall mission.

Conclusion: why choose an integrated solution?

Practice management software bridges the gap between the clinical and administrative sides of a healthcare practice. By investing in an integrated EHR and practice management system, practices can streamline workflows, reduce redundancies, and ultimately improve patient care and operational efficiency.

The benefit of viewing these systems as being mutually beneficial allows practices to leverage their data in a way that enhances all aspects of performance.