Posted by Jamicah Chan
Expanding your practice to multiple locations opens doors to a number of advantages over running a solo office setup. Expanding your services can lead to more profit and productivity, but it also brings the challenge of organizing and coordinating work in multiple locations.
That being said, there are hurdles that come with running multiple locations. Keeping everything organized can be hard when your staff and the number of patients you see keeps growing. But having a dependable Electronic Health Record (EHR) system that meets your everyday needs can make a big difference.
You need a strong and reliable system to expand your practice to multiple sites. Let's explore how to choose an EHR system that can support your growing business.
Unified Patient Care With Cloud-Based EHR Solutions
Cloud-based medical EHR software has surged in popularity, and for a good reason. Cloud EHR systems don't need hardware at your place, cutting upfront costs and making it easier to manage servers. Clinics everywhere can safely get patient data from the cloud with an internet connection.
This ease of access ensures care continuity and supports telehealth services. Other benefits include:
- Ensuring patient information is updated in real-time. This allows healthcare professionals to access the most current data at different sites.
- Preventing breaches and protecting patient confidentiality with systems that adhere to HIPAA regulations.
- Letting everyone involved in a patient's care share insights, notes, and updates ensures that all staff are on the same page.
- Scaling with your practice means you pay for what you use, and your EHR system can easily grow with you as your practice grows.
Incorporating a cloud-based EHR system into your practice promises significant improvements. It encourages teamwork, ensures care stays consistent, and meets the needs of today's healthcare workers who want mobile, secure, and easy-to-use tools.
Read More: The Benefits of Cloud-Based Practice Management Systems
Essential EHR Features for Multi-Location Practices
Incorporating a cloud-based EHR system into your practice promises significant improvements. It encourages teamwork, ensures care stays consistent, and meets the needs of today's healthcare workers who want mobile, secure, and easy-to-use tools.
1. Telehealth Integration
Multi-location practices often have patients who visit different facilities within the same network. Telehealth keeps care consistent by letting patients see their usual doctors remotely, no matter where the doctor is. This smooth addition of telehealth to the practice's routine helps keep treatment plans, medicine, and follow-up care steady, which helps patients get better results.
Integrated telehealth features allow healthcare providers to schedule, start, and conduct telemedicine appointments directly within the EHR platform. This means you don't need separate telehealth software, making your workflow smoother.
2. Built-In Communication Channels
For a practice to function smoothly across various sites, communication is key. EHR systems include built-in messaging and alert systems to streamline communication among providers and staff.
Take IMS Chat, for example. It's an EHR-integrated messaging system designed for convenient information sharing. Instead of using multiple systems or handling paper files, you can easily share important information within the same system and among different care teams. It's secure, follows HIPAA rules, and ensures smooth communication without needing manual input or data transfers.
3. Consistent and Convenient Billing
When billing processes are centralized in a cloud-based system, practices can make sure billing is accurate and the same at all places. This helps to avoid mistakes or differences that may occur with separate billing systems for each site. Whether a patient goes to one site or another in the practice network, the billing info stays the same and dependable.
More importantly, a unified system makes it easier to track revenue cycles as a whole. You can create reports from different locations in one system to compare easily. This helps you find trends, address bottlenecks, and maximize your bottom line.
4. Specialty-Specific Features
Look for EHR software that fits your specialty practice's needs. Choose systems with customizable workflows and features that match the unique requirements of different medical fields.
For instance, in cardiology, the workflow might focus on heart assessments and tests, while in dermatology, it could center on skin exams and treatment plans.
Customization helps providers efficiently record patient visits and adhere to specialty-specific protocols, leading to more accurate and consistent clinical documentation.
Read More: Specialty EHRs: Why You Shouldn’t Settle for Anything Else
5. Patient Portal
With a patient portal, people can schedule and manage their healthcare appointments online, reducing the need for phone calls. This is especially useful for practices with multiple locations, where patients may visit different sites in the network. Patients can easily find available appointment slots at any location, making it easier to access care and avoid scheduling conflicts.
Harmonize Operations With One EHR System
The future of healthcare is in the cloud, and it’s time to move toward a more connected and efficient medical record system.
Choosing the right EHR system for your multi-location practice is an important decision that requires careful thought. You need to assess things like features, how easy it is to use, support and training options, and how well it works with other systems.
Great software will match how your practice works, improve what you can do for patients, and keep up with changes in healthcare.
Explore our medical EHR features made for top health clinics. Contact us to find out how we can make your clinical work smoother and improve patient care.
References:
- Vos, J.F.J., Boonstra, A., Kooistra, A. et al. The influence of electronic health record use on collaboration among medical specialties. BMC Health Serv Res 20, 676 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05542-6
- Fox. (2022, September 21). Physician EHR satisfaction varies by specialty, says KLAS report. Healthcare IT News. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/physician-ehr-satisfaction-varies-specialty-says-klas-report
