Author: Attune Technologies

Cracking the code to access and save the heart of medical care

Medical records are undoubtedly the lifelines of medical care today. You don’t just need them to treat the patient correctly and follow-up well but also to ensure that you have documented it and have a record.

These are not just some paperwork requirement of the process; they are also legal documents and have come a long way,from being mere bundles of files to an important requirement in the medico-legal environment.

The change in the stature of patient records in the entire system has led to many strategies being developed to ascertain tracking and maintaining of patient records of both new and old patients effectively.

Here we list for you some foolproof and effective ways of doing the same at your clinic.

1. Unique Clinic Identity Document (UCID)

UCID is a unique alpha numeric or numeric code generated by the Clinic Management software for each new patient at the clinic. The software can be customized to generate such an ID ensuring every record of the patient going forwardis stored under this ID. Being a unique code this will not be assigned to any other patient ever and this code becomes equivalent to a personal locker of the patient in the software. To access the records of any patient at any time irrespective of how old or new the patient is, all you need is the UCID and login rights to access it, and lo and behold, all relevant information will be displayed on your screen.

2. Integrate Accurately and Completely

While the Clinic Management software can be customized to generate a UCID for every new patient, old patient records need to be integrated into the system while implementing the software. This is precisely the reason why integration is an important factor to be considered while buying Clinic Management software because you cannot, in any way, afford to lose the medical records of your old patients. They need to be manually or otherwise digitized and saved on the server, to be accessed in exactly the same manner as the new ones.

3. Record Only Through EMR

Discontinue the option of physical recording of patient records at your clinic. Recording in the software puts into use the EMR module of the software and with only one format of patient records available, tracking and maintaining patient records is easy. If both manual medical record keeping and EMR are running parallel to each other at your clinic, patient records can never be maintained effectively and the tracking or access will never be easy or complete.

4. Patient Records On Cloud Is Better

In the battle between in-house servers vs. cloud-based server as far as patient records and their access is concerned, cloud-based server will win hands down. The in-house server may be down for maintenance or due to some technical glitch and in that down-time no patient records can be accessed or recorded; while on cloud-based servers, continuity in tracking and maintaining the patient records is a key feature. Using cloud-based server is a better option to effectively track and maintain patient records.

While there are many more ways to effectively maintain and track the patient records of both old and new patients at your clinic, these 4 strategies address the most pertinent issues – maintenance and access to patient records easily.

A big part of being successful is to stay successful and improve various business metrics. If you manage a string of clinics spread across geographies, the big challenge is how to manage all of them effectively offering a consistent quality of experience and care for your patients. For entrepreneurs losing sleep over tracking multiple centers, the answer can be as simple as effective automation for better control.

Here are 5 simple tips to effectively manage your multi-center clinics:

1. Automate and Put It On the Cloud

Automate all your centers with a single Clinic Management System. It is important that the processes at your different centers’ are able to communicate with each other and therefore you should use one solution to integrate it. Data access is of paramount importance to reach decisions, analyze trends and compare performances. Using a cloud-based server at all your centers will allow you the flexibility to track all your data anywhere, anytime to have better control on the operations.

2. Institute Central Teams

Departments like HR, Accounts, Business Development or Materials form a very small chunk of the entire manpower but are in effect a critical part of the system for the simple fact that they involve money. To manage multiple centers it is better to have a central team of these departments from the head office to manage these functions at different centers. The centers can have a smaller team that will only implement the instructions from the central team. Central hiring or central purchase will help you stay  cost effective and offer you better control.

3. Common Reporting Format

For effective management and overview of the performance of various centers. it is important that you receive regular reports from all the centers. Use reporting templates from the software to get all the data you need to measure and do course correction. Or just use a Business Intelligence Solution layer on your existing software to get real time data that indicates center level performance on various metrics – Revenue, expense, inventory or anyother metric that matters to you.

4. Specialty Exchange Programs

Promote knowledge sharing actively. Some of your centers will have talented people with skills that other centers desperately need. Running a Specialty Exchange Program between centers will allow exchange and enhancement of knowledge. This knowledge exchange will also avoid monotony from setting in and will help build a good work culture, which will go a long way in effective business management.

5. Encourage Interaction On a Common Digital Platform

Employees of all the centers should feel like they are a part of the organization irrespective of their location to promote great work culture. A common digital platform like a module on the clinic management system or an app can be very effective in increasing communication between employees and building a great work place. The platform can be used as a space to talk about performances of different units, market trends, medical or customer care practices that your chain of clinics can adopt and interaction with the top management.

While there are hundreds of tips to manage your chain of clinics effectively, these 5 are not just effective but simple and long term. It will involve some effort from you but rest assured that it will be worth your time and energy.

Automating your clinic by implementing an efficient Practice Management System is undoubtedly the first step towards building a successful clinic but is it a comprehensive one?

Unarguably, you and the other clinicians at the clinic are the most important reason why the clinic will be successful but you will agree that medical care is not just about clinicians and procedures; medication is an integral part of the equation. Traditionally, the clinician would diagnose and prescribe the medicines, which are bought by the patient at her favorite pharmacy.

With software’s that allow integration of pharmacy with the operations of the clinic, medication can be made an integral part of treating the patient.

Here we take a look at the 5 most important reasons why integrating your pharmacy with your Practice Management System is a good idea:

1. Reduced Risks While Prescribing

Integrating your pharmacy with the Practice Management System at your clinic means you can choose and alter the prescription right at the point of care, which means lowered risks and effective medical care. It is a seamless process, wherein you have the entire inventory of your pharmacy at your disposal on your screen. When in doubt about prescribing a certain drug, after confirming the sensitivity and allergies with the patient, with few clicks you can easily see if it is a high-risk drug or if it can have any counter reaction with any of the medicines that the patient is currently on.

2. Easy Access To Patient Medication Information

Because you are a clinic and not a hospital, most of the medication history will not be available in your software, as they are not administered within your premises. Integrating your pharmacy with your Practice Management System will provide the clinicians with the medication history of the patient with all the past prescriptions, allergies, drug reactions, medication related complaints etc., thereby facilitating better medical decisions.

3. Facilitates Online Prescriptions

Integration between your pharmacy and your Practice Management System means better communication between the clinician and the pharmacy. The clinician can simply select the drugs,she wants the patient to take, from the pharmacy module and it will in effect become an online prescription. As soon as the clinician submits the prescription, the pharmacy will receive the order setting in motion their work even before the patient reaches the pharmacy counter. The communication is clear and immediate, with no handwriting confusion.

4. Easy On The Patient

When the patient gets out of the consultation room to the pharmacy counter, the pharmacy is already aware of her order and has most probably kept it ready. All she needs to do is pay for the medicines, compare them with the prescription and pick up the packet to walk out of the clinic. There is no question of finding a pharmacy nearby or finding a pharmacy where all the prescribed medicines will be available. This will go a long way in higher rankings on the patient satisfaction index.

5. Increased Revenue

In a traditional setup, after the clinician prescribes the medicines it is the patient’s discretion – whether to buy, how much to buy and where to buy from? Integrated pharmacy and practice management system would mean that it is one complete system and revenue leaks owing to the patient’s medicine buying behavior will come to a halt. Higher patient satisfaction owing to this hassle free system will also mean better revenues.

While the process of integrating the pharmacy module to the practice management software does not require high investment or technical hassle, the benefits it brings along is worth the little effort it takes. Looking at these benefits it is definitely an addition you will be happy to make as a doctor who wants to offer the best care for her patients.