As the manager or administrator of your medical practice, no one understands better than you how hard it can truly be to run the delicate ecosystem of a healthcare facility. However, the key to achieving this seemingly impossible task is to align your goal(s) with it. Your primary goal should be to relieve yourself and your staff of the burdens of running the healthcare system in any way that technology can relieve them.
This allows your staff to put more focus on their relationship (and therefore your practice’s relationship) with the patients and clients, which is great, but now the question is how exactly you can use Information Technology (IT) and other tech to grow your medical practice. Keep reading to find out just that.
Use Practice Management Software
One of the best ways to ease the administrative burdens on your staff is to use an improved clinic management system. Effective learning management software eases your burden by allowing you to validate the skills of your staff. It also helps you to find nurses and other practitioners with particular skill sets and match them to the right clients.
They can help your staff by making an online, on-demand system available through a point-of-care app on their phones. This system will not only make sure your nurses have the base requirements necessary to work with specific clients, but it can also provide them the opportunity to advance their skills if they want to.
Finally, the right management software for a clinic of your particular size will take care of
- Managing patient information
- Geofencing to ensure you know where your staff, when they are, and doing what they should be
- Clinical outcomes
- Revenue cycle management
- Medical billing
- Patient engagement
- Care coordination
- Population health management
- E-prescribing, and much more
Just consider the time your staff saves from booking appointments, organizing administrative tasks, creating invoices, billing insurance companies, and keeping track of patient records that may or may not have been accurate before. You can see how this spares your practice from costly or even deathly consequences.
So, after switching to cloud-based software, replacing your current management system is easily the best thing you can do for your practice in the technology age. Examples of this software include RXNT, Athena one, and Dr. Chrono.
Convert Everything to a Cloud-Based System
Are you still using a client-server EHR with a costly team of IT support or a remote desktop environment with several servers in several different states? Are you tired of having bandwidth issues, being vulnerable to security breaches, and being the victim of costly on-site server crashes and inaccurate patient information? Then you need to convert your facility to a cloud-based system as soon as you can.
Cloud-based EHRs will spare you costs in server repairs or having a dedicated IT team because everything is taken care of with a third-party EHR software company. If anything goes wrong, they will be the ones to fix it while you just pay a subscription fee. Meanwhile, having cloud-based management software will keep important information accurate, in real-time, organized, and easily accessible.
Acquire Telemedicine
It’s no secret that communication in a medical facility is key to the facility’s success, but are there ways you can improve the communication your staff has between colleagues and between patients? Telemedicine is a recent phenomenon where practitioners are connected to their patients through technology such as email, webcams, phone calls, texts, social media, and patient portal software.
A common concern regarding telemedicine is the question of whether the same quality of care is there. However, with telemedicine patients have the benefit of having doctors who are able to consult with colleagues with the desired skillsets regardless of how far away they are so that they don’t have to travel to the specialists themselves.
Diagnosing, treating, and staying informed about various conditions has never been easier. Not only that but giving your patients options on how to contact their practitioners will allow patients to give their doctors updates on vital health information instantaneously.
This allows doctors and other practitioners to be made aware of critical patient situations and make almost split-second decisions in emergencies. Insurance companies are even starting to pay for telemedicine expenses, so there is a reduced risk of applying telemedicine to your own practice.
Digitize the Application Process
One of the most important and most beneficial things you can do for your practice is to fill it with the most qualified practitioners available. However, what if the most qualified persons live a couple of hundred miles away from any of your physical locations? Don’t be forced to settle with local practitioners who aren’t the caring, knowledgeable, and hard-working individuals you’re looking for.
Instead, digitize the application and training processes for potential employees and clients. From the comforts of their own home, you can make it possible for an applicant to apply, go through the background check, and complete the competency tests, all done with your and the applicant’s convenience in mind.
It’s a wonderful and easy way to assist your employees by making the hiring process simple, and it saves you time by thinning out the number of people you will be having interviews with. Interviews and staff management can be especially time-consuming for you when you need to routinely change short-term assignments or fill multiple shifts, so you can see again why having the right management software can help you.
Conclusion
Health information technology is critical in order to improve health care quality and population health outcomes. When you are able to successfully utilize health IT, you achieve health equity and improve your practice’s quality of care. Even adopting just one of the tips listed above can show you dramatic improvements.
The last piece of advice to give you is to always stay updated on the latest medical technology, whether it’s an improved X-ray machine, EHR, or even better inventory software. Keeping your practice updated even in less significant ways can make all the difference to you, your staff, and your patients.
