6 EHR Features for Acupuncture Clinics

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Acupuncturists are delivering time honored, ancient care to their patients, but that should not stop them from embracing modernity with their health records system. A cutting edge, customizable EHR software can streamline the clinical workflows that often detract from your time spent actually treating patients. If your clinical documentation processes are impeding upon the patient experience, it may be time to reassess your EHR.

However, there are many acupuncture EHR options available, and it can be difficult to parse through the most impactful features and the fluff. This article breaks down the top acupuncture EHR features to prioritize during your EHR search.

Free Draw

One significant hurdle for many acupuncturists is educating patients on acupuncture treatments, especially with patients who are new to acupuncture and may be somewhat skeptical initially. As an acupuncturist, you can either give verbal explanations, or you can provide a more visual demonstration for your patient. If you have an electronic health record software with a free draw feature, walking patients through a treatment will be much easier.

With a free draw feature, you can annotate clinical images, diagrams or even pictures that you capture on your iPad directly in the patient’s file. You can even securely share these annotated images with patients as a reference if needed. This allows you to better explain what areas will be most effective for needle placements and why those placements will help them, which can help put patients at ease. Many new patients will need more thorough guidance and education on acupuncture procedures, so free draw is an excellent tool for acupuncturists.

Customizable Templates

Acupuncturists should be able to develop the clinical workflows that make the most sense to them while capturing all of the necessary information. That is why an EMR with customizable templates is such an asset for acupuncture clinics. When working with your chosen electronic medical record platform, you should have access to a library of clinical note templates that you can either use out of the box or customize to your own specifications. Furthermore, you should be able to create a template from scratch if needed.

Persistent Forms

Persistent forms allow you to get the complete narrative on a patient as you continue to work with them over the course of their full treatment plan. Instead of having to re-enter the same information repeatedly every time you see your patient, you will be able to easily apply relevant information from one encounter to the next.

This way, you can focus on delivering excellent acupuncture treatments without the unnecessary data entry that would otherwise accompany it. Ultimately, features like this that minimize time spent in your EHR are crucial.

Medical Speech-to-Text Dictation

Ideally your clinical notes will effectively convey the narrative of each patient encounter, however, some things can be lost when manually entering notes. Moreover, manual note taking is time consuming, and it can lend itself to mistakes.

When deciding on the right EHR for your acupuncture clinic, consider a system with intelligent medical speech-to-text dictation capabilities to streamline note taking and more accurately represent the conversation with your patient during their appointment.

Integrated Acupuncture Billing Software

Your acupuncture clinic does not need to be bogged down in complicated medical billing workflows that require you to jump from one application to another with a bevy of clicks in between. Billing software that integrates with your EHR will make the entire process much simpler for you, and because many acupuncture clinics are smaller operations, you will likely appreciate a less laborious billing and coding process.

Billing information should flow smoothly from the EHR into the billing system where you should be able to tap through streamlined workflows designed to reduce data entry errors. Integrated medical billing software can work wonders for your acupuncture practice’s revenue processes just by making it more intuitive.

Cloud-Based EHR

Finally, you should be able to use your EHR from anywhere, at any time via mobile devices, tablets or computers. Mobile EHRs are a must-have for a modern practice, and they can even improve your ability to connect with patients during appointments.

Instead of turning away to type information or lecturing from a chart or diagram, you can sit with them while using your EHR application on an iPad. Being able to spend more time face-to-face with your patients is a powerful way to foster more trusting relationships.

Conclusion

Not all acupuncture clinics will have the exact same needs out of an EHR, and they may not have the same financial resources to accommodate every software on the market. Still, using these six EHR features as a guide during your search will help your acupuncture clinic find the right system to enhance your clinical workflows.