Technology drives much of the modern clinical experience, which is why it’s essential for practices of all sizes to have software programs like a practice management system, electronic health record, and medical billing software. Most physicians in a small practice have evaluated software at some point, and perhaps you have also experienced one (or more) technology implementations that failed in the past.
In many cases it’s not because you chose the wrong software; instead, it’s likely because technology doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The goal of technology is to improve lives (and workflows and processes) of the people who use it so you must evaluate software from the perspective of human interaction, choosing the programs and services that are most natural, efficient, and productive.
We reviewed tens of thousands of medical software installations and compiled a guide with the most common mistakes clinicians and staff make in selecting software.
The 7 Mistakes You Want to Avoid
- Missing the “global” view of how it all works together. Medical office software must meet the needs of everyone – clinical employees (EHR), front and back office, claims and billing, and patients – but too often software evaluations focus heavily on one or two groups to the detriment of other pieces of the puzzle; the end result is software that doesn’t work for everyone and a lot of frustration and finger-pointing.
- Making patients-as-consumers an afterthought. People increasingly view healthcare through the same consumer lens as other goods and services they buy. Technology should help you put patients first and create convenience that leads to positive experiences and high levels of patient loyalty.
- Recognizing reporting and analytics blindspots. When you don’t know what you don’t know, you could be missing out on critical analytics to help your practice grow. Very few software solutions have the right reporting and analytics capabilities off the shelf or right out of the box. A software partner with expertise can show you reports and data to make better decisions for your practice and your patients.
- Creating more chaos with siloed solutions. Healthcare delivery is complex, but good workflows allow for efficient and personalized care. A patchwork of siloed software solutions often creates more chaos than streamlined care. Choose a unified system with built-in workflow management that you can customize for your needs.
- Failing to account for future change and growth. If the past few months have taught us anything, it’s that things can change quickly in medicine. Practices that survive future changes will be built to scale up and shift operations as needed to continue providing exceptional patient care.
- Checking the box for “cloud-based” systems. Everyone wants software that operates in “the cloud”, but many legacy medical office software programs (built when location-based servers were the norm) use patches and workarounds to operate in the cloud. Unfortunately, this leads to performance, data sharing, and data transfer issues, or other limitations on the features you want. Don’t just check the box for a cloud-based system, make sure your software is built to efficiently run in that environment.
- Overlooking revenue-generating advanced billing capabilities. Medical billing is complex, and most software programs are only designed with basic billing capabilities. More innovative solutions help you optimize billing to collect more of your billed charges, provide actionable insights through reporting, and integrate seamlessly with other software to minimize manual processes that lead to errors.
Download the AdvancedMD full guide with these seven costly mistakes for more detail, and actionable insights to avoid making these mistakes in your own practice.
