While front desk staff and office managers work to ensure that operations run smoothly, the team of therapists, clinicians or doctors at any practice is meant to help optimize the delivery of care as well as gain more clinical efficiencies.
In order to do this, providers should implement software solutions that empower seamless collaboration, enable high level automation in addition to enhance patient engagement, clinical documentation, reporting, billing, and more.
That’s why identifying bottlenecks, choosing the right software, and automating the “busywork” is critical for any PT practice looking to improve.
1. Minimize Slow-Downs in Clinical Operations
When striving to boost efficiency, you should take a careful look at your existing methods of management in terms of staff productivity metrics, daily routines, patient outcomes, survey feedback reports, and more.
While software can transform your operations, you want to select solutions that are intuitive and user-friendly. Any systems that are too complicated and require lengthy training can be confusing for staff and could impede your progress.
Avoid underperforming systems that create more work or slow down your processes. If you select solutions that perform a single function but don’t integrate with other operational systems, you may find your team spending excess time on manual data transfer, which can introduce errors and waste valuable time.
Billing is another area that can slow your practice down, since staff have to continuously stay on top of checking insurance eligibility in order to ensure prompt and accurate payments. With robust billing collection software, you can revamp your financial processes with comprehensive ledger reporting filters, interoperable revenue cycle management as well as automated insurance remittance payments or verifications that can help reduce staff overhead and improve cash flow velocity.
2. Tire Kicking: How to Choose PT Software and Improve Operations
When looking to implement practice management and billing solutions, you should seek out systems that not only are budget-friendly and easy to use, but that most importantly, increase the efficiency of your practice’s ability to deliver patient payments, optimize financial reporting and collect revenue.
In fact, you’ll gain the most business value from all-in-one solutions that include scheduling, analytics and revenue cycle management tools, along with the ability to document patient visits and store electronic medical or health records (EMR/EHR).
Configuration Is Key
Each practice is unique and must adopt a software that meets its precise business needs. With the healthcare industry continuing to evolve, providers need a configurable software solution that adapts to user requirements and has the flexibility to make adjustments to certain elements of the software without needing developer intervention, such as:
- Specialty specific documentation.
- Patient/provider dashboards.
- HTML engagement narratives.
- Interactive reporting features.
Simply Comprehensive
An easy-to-use interface means something different to each type of practice (some people prefer a central dashboard while others like dropdown menus and popup windows).
When selecting software, look for a solution that is simple to learn and employ in your day-to-day operations. Also make sure to allow your staff to weigh in on the decision, since they will be the ones navigating it most often and can help determine which choice is best for their area of expertise.
Just remember, a new system may initially slow down clinical productivity as your team is learning to use it, but in the long run, it should improve the overall function of your practice.
3. Put Repetitive Tasks on Auto-Pilot
Even the most efficient clinical staff can improve their productivity with the right technology-enabled solutions. Practice management software that features automated workflows and specialized templates can help providers reduce mistakes or get bogged down.
For example, automated appointment reminders or on demand engagement campaigns can help alleviate workloads by connecting with patients in real time and staying in touch with them throughout their entire journey, which in turn, boost satisfaction rates and increase clinical retention.
Physicians can also save time with tables, forms and charts that are customized to their specialty so that plans of care for each patient are individualized and that specialty specific codes are conveniently made available in one reporting dashboard view. Additionally, providers should be able to reduce billing errors by automating claim denial management, payment posting and accounts receivable follow-up.
The Fast Lane to a More Efficient PT Practice
Your clinical staff can achieve more with an all-in-one platform that facilitates higher quality care, fosters reliable patient relationships, secures more revenue and positions your practice for long-term growth.
Want to discover more of Raintree’s capabilities? Click here to learn more about our interoperability, documentation, engagement, billing and more!
