How Using an EMR Will Help Grow Your Private Practice

As you're already aware, inefficiencies dramatically hinder the performance of your practice and negatively impact the level of success. At the end of the day, when your practice isn't operating at full speed, you're not generating the amount of revenue you would if you were operating at optimal efficiency.

Physical therapy management software has been proven to help solve these common issues and drive practice growth by providing you with the tools you need to improve physical therapy management and the overall growth of your practice. If you're on the fence about whether or not a physical therapy EMR will help you grow your practice, here's some "food for thought" to take into consideration as you ponder your decision.

You'll Gain Access to Information You Never Had Before

Using an EMR system that's designed specifically around physical therapy workflows will provide you with the data you need to make sounder business decisions, operate more efficiently and reduce your operating costs. With a physical therapy EMR, you'll gain access to in-depth information on the most important aspects of running a physical therapy business so you can strategically plan for the future with a robust business plan in your back pocket.

You'll Save Time and Reduce Costs

With an EMR, you'll eliminate many unnecessary expenses and save yourself and your staff time to focus on more important things - your patients!

EMRs eliminate the need for paper documentation, file cabinets to store patient charts or cumbersome appointment books. By "going green," you'll put more "green" in your pocket and help the environment. Physical therapy EMR systems pay for themselves almost immediately. Even a modest improvement in charge capture alone typically results in a 2 to 5 percent improvement in reimbursements. Also, with an EMR system that includes physical therapy scheduling and physical therapy billing, you and your entire time will efficiently move through your day with quick and easy access to schedules, SOAP notes and charges.

Managing Your Schedule will be Easy as 1,2,3!

If you're feeling a bit apprehensive about jumping on the EMR bandwagon, starting with physical therapy scheduling software is an easy way to start implementing automation in your practice.

Electronic scheduling simplifies scheduling and will free up your front desk staff so they can focus more on patients. Automated scheduling boosts efficiency by allowing schedulers to quickly and easy reschedule appointments with drag-and-drop functionality. Multiple schedules can be centralized so schedulers can easily access schedules for all therapist and locations, if you're running more than one location. So, say good-bye to bulky scheduling books, and empower your front desk staff with automated scheduling.

You'll Stay One Step Ahead of Insurance Authorizations

EMR systems automate the insurance authorization process from start to finish. There are some pretty sophisticated physical therapy management systems out there that are pretty smart and capable of telling you if a patient is authorized with a quick and simple click of a button. With an EMR that contains an authorization module, your front desk and billing staff can easily check if a patient is authorized for treatment and manage the number of authorized visits for each patient that walks into your practice.

Documentation will Become Streamlined and Thorough

Using an EMR for clinical documentation may not speed up the documentation process; however, the quality of your documentation will skyrocket! EMRs help keep everyone in your practice documenting on track and leaves no room for missing charges. Electronic documentation is conducted at the time of treatment with minimal interruption to the patient's visit. In fact, many therapists who use electronic documentation feel their charting is more thorough because physical therapy EMR systems are designed with preconfigured templates that help therapists efficiently document as they treat their patients.

You'll Get Paid for All Your Hard Work

When your documentation is thorough, your billing will be thorough as well and you'll get paid for all your hard work. Plus, an EMR that includes physical therapy billing software allows you to submit your claims electronically which means you'll get paid faster! Another nice thing about EMRs is they can help make insurance eligibility a snap and displays required co-pay for every patient that checks in. That way, your front desk can collect co-pays before a patient receives treatment and avoid the hassle of trying to collect payment after the patient has left the office.

There are many EMR options available in the market. Choosing the one that's right for your practice is critical to your success. Going with an all-in-one solution will be the best option for an all-encompassing practice management solution that improves efficiency, boosts revenue and results in practice growth.