6 Benefits of Digital Practice Management for Office Staff and Patients

6 Benefits of Digital Practice Management

Still going back and forth about investing in a new practice-management system? So what’s holding you back? Are you afraid of the cost, or possible lost productivity in the transition? But on the other side of the scale, aren’t you tired of having multiple systems that don’t “talk” well to each other or, worse yet, still doing so much work by hand? And isn’t that inefficiency expensive?

Here are some of many reasons why you should take the plunge to digital. Trust us… the water’s more than fine!

There’s a whole other world of fully integrated solutions in the PracticeQ cloud-based solution that can easily transform your operations. And at a cost — and, especially, a value — that has to be experienced to be believed. That’s true whether you’re a solo practitioner or a large, multi-site group practice. (We’ll cite real-world examples in a bit. Keep reading.)

A Few of the Many Benefits

1. Optimizing Day-to-Day Operations

Fully automate processes to keep your practice paper-free and as efficient as possible. Forms, reminders, birthday messages, journal entries and many other tedious-but-necessary staff tasks can be automated, freeing your team to perform other, more-rewarding functions. And you’ll all be far more likely to go home on time!

2. Improve Communications and Engagement

Let your clients book appointments from anywhere, anytime. (Yes, you can easily set parameters regarding what slots you show as open, or what particular patients or classifications of patients need to make a request for an appointment, not book an appointment per se. It’s still way easier than endless phone calls!)

Also, having your online scheduling capabilities visible on your website or linked on your social media shows patients that you’re client-centric — that you’re sensitive to their schedules and whenever it’s convenient for them, the healthcare consumer. Again, you’ll get rid of the hours they and your front-desk staff spend on the phone booking, rebooking and “playing” phone tag.

Plus, a robust, digital PM solution will automatically check the latest insurance and profile information pre-appointment and generate superbills post-visit. Patients can easily upload important documents, pay invoices, or message back and forth with your team. That’s all consumer-centric and leads to greater satisfaction of patients and staff alike.

PracticeQ’s patient portal enables you and your team to communicate with clients securely, including reminders, last-minute updates such as road closures, traffic or parking issues and more. With that timely information, patients will be empowered to help keep your schedule running on time while improving customer satisfaction. These integrated tools also enable your staff to generate superbills, and your clients to pay invoices, upload important documents and message your team.

3. Get Paid Faster

According to a survey by U.S. Bank, healthcare consumers are 44% more likely to pay their medical bills faster when they receive digital or phone notifications and links regarding billing, and 49% would pay by text if available. As noted by a bank vice president, “by communicating with patients in consumer-centric ways, providers can speed payment collection and spend less time following up on overdue accounts.”

4. Grow Your Practice

Set your digital system to send patients requests for an online review shortly after their appointment, when impressions are fresh. You know the old saying: if you don’t ask, you don’t get! Reviews on Google and similar sites — and which can be easily linked to and promoted on your own website — help elevate your credibility and visibility. Most patients/shoppers read at least one review prior to choosing a service or other product; today it’s increasingly rare that people make a blind decision without reviewing online reviews. Healthcare is no different.

5. Time to Really Focus on Care

If you don’t have to do a very quick review of your patients’ intake and other records right in front of them — or have your day run late because they’re finishing up paperwork in the reception area — you can better focus on delivering optimal patient care. You can review intake and consent forms as the information comes into the patient’s record in PracticeQ ahead of the visit. In fact, you can even schedule time between appointments to review intakes before any patient arrives at your front door, let alone the treatment room. This gives you a head start on appointments, and makes you rightfully appear professional and fully prepared to address their needs and concerns.

As the Boy Scout motto has been for well over a century, “Be prepared.” From a purely marketing and image perspective, we’d add “…and get credit for it.”

6. Analytics and Reporting: A Goldmine for Growth

PracticeQ enables you to run questionnaire and appointment analytics that deliver invaluable insights into data, and data into actionable information. This helps prevent you from making business decisions only by gut instinct. With the cost of running a practice, you need this information to make educated business decisions that help your practice survive and thrive.

Compiling data and then wading through endless spreadsheets by hand takes forever, but the insights an analysis of this data can provide is essential for growth. Why make this strategic process that painful when you can automate it from within your digital practice-management solution?

An example: With digital analytics and reporting you can easily see a trend of your busiest and slowest days and times for each office or provider. If Tuesdays are your most-hectic days, perhaps you should consider extending hours that day. Shifting your hours to your market’s needs might also help you take Fridays off…or Friday afternoons, at least!  

Digital analytics and reporting also enables you to determine which types of patients tend to require a longer or shorter average appointment slot. Then you can (A) adjust your schedule accordingly and, depending on reimbursement, (B) consider some target marketing to attract more of the types of patients who tend to consume less time on your schedule.

The proof

We continue to interview clients who have great stories to tell about how PracticeQ's digital practice-management solution is helping them succeed. Here are just a few quotes, and some links to interviews:

“When I say that PracticeQ has saved me tens of thousands of dollars a year, I am not exaggerating. We are truly paper-free and truly virtual. We also have a much better work-life balance, which helps make us better clinicians. It’s really been a lifesaver.”

VIDEO, Tabitha Henson, LCSW-R
Owner, Mosaic Clinical Services, Kingston, NY

“I attribute my success to having [PracticeQ] and Google. They’ve enabled me to take my business to the next level. Filing a claim now has gone from half an hour to 3 seconds. Why every practitioner isn’t using this software is literally beyond me.”

VIDEO, Jean Koncos, LMT
At Vancouver Massage, Vancouver, WA

“As a small practice, I value the flexibility of defining my own workflows and want to keep my overhead as little as possible. This enables me to pass along savings to my patients and do more work in my community. I really couldn’t do it without PracticeQ. It’s a whole end-to-end practice management platform that enables patients to schedule their own appointments, sends them reminders, handles my billing, and seamlessly integrates with Zoom, so I can also continue to do telemedicine as well as in-office visits.”

Joey Nichols, MD, MPH, FAAFP
Canopy Family Care, Takoma Park, MD

Digital possibilities are limitless

Digital practice management can, indeed, transform your practice, helping improve administrative, financial, satisfaction and — most importantly — clinical outcomes.

Take our solutions for a spin with a free trial of our fully integrated practice management solution.

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This article was originally published on intakeQ.com.