Practice management software generally serves as a complementary tool to an EHR system that focuses more on the administrative work in a medical practice. While an EHR software at its core is used for clinical workflows like medical charting, e-prescribing, and things of that nature, a practice management system handles appointment scheduling, patient check-in, appointment reminders and other such administrative tasks.

These are especially useful for medical practices that lack enough administrative staff, have very large patient volumes, or simply would like to streamline their front desk workloads. For example, family practice management software will allow those family medicine practices to avoid long phone queues for patients by giving them the option to schedule appointments online.

Often you will find that EHR systems have their own practice management solutions built into certain plans because the two work well together to solve the many inefficiencies that can arise in medical practices.

Practice management software can encompass a wide swath of features, some more useful than others depending on the practice. However, there are several key features that you can look for as a baseline in a practice management solution.

The first tool to look for is online appointment scheduling. This one is a no-brainer, and it will cut down on long phone queues while making it easier for patients to schedule appointments. However, it is also important that those patients show up for the appointment, so your practice management software should be able to send appointment reminders via text, phone or email.

That software also needs to make it easier for your practice to get paid. Look for a practice management software that lets your practice accept credit card payments and save the card information for future appointments.

Check-in can also be an overlong process, but the best practice management software will have an online patient check-in feature. This would let your patients complete their check-in paperwork before they even set foot in your office. Another time saving feature is real-time insurance eligibility checks. Cut down on phone calls with insurance companies with a tool that automatically checks a patient’s insurance details for deductibles, co-payment and co-insurance.

There are certainly more features to look for in a practice management software, but these are the most essential to streamlining your front office workflows.

Each specialty has their own quirks when it comes to operating a medical practice. The needs of an urgent care clinic are not going to line up perfectly with a podiatry practice or a chiropractic clinic. Overall, many of the key features mentioned above are applicable, but as a provider, you should make sure your EHR and practice management software address your individual needs.

For example, many chiropractors get a lot of use out of an appointment profile feature. With that feature, you can determine the aspects of commonly used appointment types, such as the general appointment length or billing codes, and have those automatically assigned to the patient chart when the appointment is scheduled.

Practice management software is included in all DrChrono plans. DrChrono has four tiers of plans: Prometheus, Hippocrates, Apollo and Apollo Plus. Even on Prometheus, practices can utilize appointment scheduling, appointment reminders and other practice management features in addition to the EHR features. One tier above in Hippocrates, you can take advantage of more advanced features like insurance eligibility checks, advanced scheduling and others.

DrChrono has a very large suite of features that work for most practices, but your practice might have further needs than we cover. That is why DrChrono created our partner marketplace powered by our open API.

In the partner marketplace, you can find a wide variety of third party applications that integrate seamlessly with DrChrono to solve your specific needs. Whether you need more specific scheduling widgets, a reputation management system, a remote patient monitoring software, or another solution, DrChrono’s partner marketplace can likely accommodate your needs.