Practice Management Software

You need to manage your practice time? If so, you’re likely a coach or some fanatic, work-out crazed person who likes to micro-record every waking moment. Well, if you are the former or the latter good for you. But for the rest of us, practice management software (PMS) has nothing to do with managing practice time. Rather, it is for medical practices (see the connection) and designed to do things like capture billing data, appointment scheduling, generate reports, you name it.

Running a successful medical practice is complex. You need the expertise (the medical part), but also the back-end folks to make sure all the nuts and bolts are interacting and moving in the right direction. Nowadays much of this is captured online and in the cloud. PMS is primarily utilized for administrative and financial functions, but it will also interact with electronic medical records (EMRs) depending on the needs of the practice. A challenging task for IT professionals no matter the size is incorporating electronic records within the same PMS system. Due to the increase in EMR implementation (per U.S. law), there is now quite a bit of overlap between EMRs and PMS.

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act stipulates that patient demographics and disease data must be compiled and presented in a digital format to the corresponding state and federal public health agencies. The IT world, naturally so, is now seeing these two entities come together so one of the newer features of a PMS is efficient data extraction. Clinicians will need patient information that is pertinent to them and third-party payers will also need it for billing.

As it is apparent this type of software is highly necessary, let’s look at the players. A biggie in the game is CareCloud. User-friendly, great support and a snap to operate, CareCloud took some notes from the bigger fish and tailormade their own suite to tackle nearly any problem. The costs are minor (comparatively speaking) and it offers a practice management control center which optimizes financial and administrative processes. One of the best features however is there is no need for extensive training. One can get up to speed quickly and you’re off and running.

Eclipse Practice Management Software is another solid bet. Featuring a comprehensive set of options as well as being accessible and user-friendly, this company is known for their ability to create all-in-one software where upgrades are minimal and the upkeep cheap. This is a good option for single practices, multi-site practices or even multidisciplinary practices.

And lastly, Greenway Health. Another all-in-one service, some compare Greenway in many respects to the previously mentioned Eclipse. Yes, there is a lot in common, but Greenway sets itself apart with the customer service aspect. Staff is highly accessible, very conversant, and there are a host of customized templates which makes the work portion … not work!

In all honesty any of the three are a steal. If you’re practicing (not soccer) then get on board today. You’re back-end staff will certainly thank you!