Best Practice Management Features for Chiropractors
Sound practice management is half the battle when it comes to running a successful chiropractic clinic. Chiropractors have to move efficiently through their day, and they need an intuitive practice management software to ensure administrative tasks do not slow them down. With the help of a mobile, cloud based EHR with a full suite of practice management features and third party integrations, the administrative side of your chiropractic clinic can operate more effectively than ever.
When Dr. Jonathan Adams was starting his chiropractic practice, The UnBroken Body, he found that a powerful practice management solution was necessary to ensure he had the time he needed to tackle his administrative workload.
“I actually chose DrChrono, because I found myself not having enough time to do all of the other little tidbits like making the phone calls, answering the emails, writing the papers and all of the things you have to do when you’re an independent doctor,” said Dr. Adams.
However, knowing which features to prioritize in medical software can be difficult. Balancing a wide breadth of features with an easy-to-use interface is an important equation for each practice to solve in their chiropractic EHR software search. This article examines the most beneficial features in practice management for chiropractors.
Clean Appointment Scheduling & Profiles
As a chiropractor, keeping a constant flow of patients coming in and out is essential. You want to be sure that you have enough patient volume throughout the day. With online appointment scheduling tools, your clinic will make it much easier for patients to schedule their appointments and avoid double bookings or an overly clogged calendar.
Online scheduling through your EHR and practice management software also cuts down on the workload for your administrative staff. If you are the sole provider and staff in your practice, it will make managing your calendar easier as well. Many patients want to be able to schedule their chiropractic appointments without sitting through a phone queue, and those clogged phone lines can bring a lot of unnecessary stress onto your staff.
To avoid this, sign onto a software with an easy-to-use appointment scheduler that can integrate into your website. If your practice conducts telemedicine appointments, be sure that the system you use allows patients to schedule those online as well.
Clinics can further optimize the appointment scheduling process with appointment profile templates. If your electronic medical record software has this feature, you can pre-determine how long an appointment should be based on the type of encounter. Whether it be new patient consultations, injury assessments or standard adjustments, you can customize appointment length and the necessary intake forms for each visit.
Chiropractors can also preload the most common medical billing codes and notes associated with that type of encounter into the profile. This will both save time on charting and cut down on errors in data entry.
Automated Appointment Reminders
No-shows are a consistent problem for many clinics. They result in wasted time and lost revenue for your practice. To reduce your no-show rate, look for a practice management software that allows you to send automated reminders to patients for their scheduled appointments.
On top of slashing your no-show rate, having appointment reminders sent directly from your practice management system will save you or your office staff a significant amount of time on trying to contact patients for appointments. Ultimately, removing unnecessary administrative burdens is what you need from your EMR and practice management software.
Online Check-In
The next time saving feature to look for is online patient check-in. This will cut down on wait times in your office, and it will help your clinic be completely paperless. Since many chiropractic clinics have either small, part-time staff or are completely operated by the chiropractor alone, data entry tasks required by check-in can really cut into the already limited time available to them.
With a web-based check-in process, your patients can fill out any paperwork needed for their appointment before they even walk in your door. This information is then automatically input into your electronic health record for that patient upon approval.
If your EHR platform works on iPad, your patients can further expedite the check-in process by simply taking a picture of their insurance information on the tablet and adding it to the chart. The check-in feature will quickly move patients through lengthy paperwork tasks, so that they can spend more time getting the chiropractic care they need.
Patient Portal
An easy-to-use patient portal is the thread that ties many of these features together. Patients should be able to access this portal through an application on their phone or tablet or via website. In the patient portal, they will be able to schedule appointments, view wait times, conduct their check-in process and more.
This feature is a great medium through which you can communicate with patients. HIPAA compliant messaging in the patient portal makes it easier to quickly explain things to patients, share exercise videos with them, and even receive videos from patients for movement assessments. It is also a patient’s main hub for finding their personal health care information.
Third Party App Integrations
Finally, if you want a truly customizable practice management tool, look for a vendor with a secure, open API featuring third party app integrations. As the description suggests, this feature is open-ended and can really be what you make of it.
If you need certain features that aren’t native to your chosen software, you could integrate an app that covers those features. For example, Dr. Adams wanted certain features in appointment scheduling that were not quite there in DrChrono.
“I integrated Holly by Nimblr into my EMR because it was so useful for not just scheduling appointments but managing appointment reminders on top of that. It’s an AI powered software that just does all that work for me, and it really rounded out DrChrono for me,” he said.
The practice management features outlined in this article will put you on the right track to having a more streamlined chiropractic practice. Although providers can certainly look for several different solutions to serve as their electronic medical record, practice management and medical billing softwares, it’s advisable to find one fully integrated platform that can do it all. To get a better understanding of what to look for in an all-encompassing solution like that, check out this blog.