What can a Clinic Management System do for Your Business?
A Clinic Management System is a system that manages a clinic. It has several features and uses, but its primary purpose is to help out the medical staff. Not only that, with the information going digital, it helps the environment. Also, it’s “the ideal way to store all types of info” as you can even manage an entire clinic from even a smartphone!
The people involved in Clinic Management are:
- Doctors;
- Administrators;
- Laboratory staff;
- Billing and finance staff;
- The accounting department;
- The secretary or secretaries; and
- The janitorial staff.
The success of a clinic is a collaborative effort between all of them.
The admins, head doctors, and other top brass are those who manage the clinic. In turn, they rely on the rest of the staff to do the smaller-scale tasks.
Here are the tasks a Clinic Management System can handle:
Sets up clinic appointments
Nurses or medical secretaries manage appointments. They can receive appointment requests in person or via calls and texts. They will not directly accept the patient; instead, they filter patients by assessing them.
So after the nurses and/or medical secretaries ask questions triage-style, they’ll book an appointment if the patient’s assessment clears them to visit. However, if the patient isn’t clear to visit, the staff will organize a teleconsultation appointment instead.
When booking an appointment for a recurring patient, all you have to do is pick out their record from the database and update it based on the complaints from the consultation.
A note to secretarial staff: once booked, make sure there are no overbooking nor schedule conflicts! You have to consider the doctor’s personal activities. Manage all those things well so that patients will not wait that long for consultation schedules, and the doctor will not be in a big hurry going to and from clinics.
Setting up or booking appointments is easy, especially at a clinic. With a Clinic Management System, a doctor can readily queue a patient for teleconsultations.
Prepares medical documentation in just a few clicks
The doctor handles documentation if there’s advice, requests for admission, or tests/procedures to undergo. Doctors will also manage consent forms to make sure everything else the patient undergoes is with consent.
When managing consultation results, make sure to send the findings to the correct patient. Otherwise, you’ll be in big trouble with the data privacy authorities!
Part of Clinic Management is that if a clinic has many branches that a doctor reports to, the Clinic Management System organizes data according to the clinic branch. In addition, the Clinic Management tool can collate patient data depending on where the consultation happened for inter-clinic operation.
Juggles medications and laboratory tests
When there’s an immediate need for medication, some countries’ laws state that there’s no need for consent. However, some clinics require consent — for instance, dermatological clinics. So getting their medications isn’t necessarily a matter of life or death but needs patient consent.
The doctor will manage the patient’s medication based on previous consultations and medical history. With the help of Electronic Medical Records, it’s easy for the doctor to handle the data. The doctor can also address the patient if they need follow-up checkups.
As for laboratory exams and other tests, the doctor will ensure that the patient undergoes the proper process, or is given a specific treatment.
Takes care of referrals in record time
With a Clinic Management System, the doctor can manage referrals. For instance, the doctor will work on referrals if the clinic can’t accept patients or do operations. To successfully refer the patient, the doctor will handle complaints, findings, and complicated procedures. Such documentation will be attached to the referral.
Handles clinic finances for you
As for billing, with a Clinic Management System, you can collect payments and do your accounting. In the former’s case, you can also handle alternatives to cash, such as HMO and credit card. You can do account billing accurately, depending on the available options.
Clinic Management involves records as well, specifically financial records. Clinic staff compile records of the payments if possible. For instance, a patient returned so they could get information from a previous consultation. As the medical staff, you have to ensure that they give the full info from the records. (And make sure you send the right one!)
Protects your sensitive Clinic Management System data
As for IT, make sure the IT team takes care of the Clinic Management System well. They are, after all, the ones who will ensure that everything runs smoothly in terms of internal connection and devices to use.
First, security should be in place to avoid data breaches. Your clinic is handling very personal and incredibly private data. A Cloud-based system is excellent for keeping track of all your medical documents, but you have to guard it well.
Can give insight into clinic decision-making
Overall the data, plus the processes done by each department, will be the basis for decision making. For instance, you could figure out better operation hours! You may extend or shift clinic hours based on data generated from the system. So let’s say your current clinic hours end at 3 PM. However, most patients arrive at 3 PM! Also, fewer patients come in the morning. You could change operating hours depending on the needs of your patients, thanks to the data from your Clinic Management System.
Clinic Management Systems make your practice easier
Clinic Management Systems make work easier for people in the medical industry, such as doctors, nurses, administrators, and finance staff. They handle medications and help create medical documentation. In addition, they can manage finances from payment to processing. Clinic Management Systems can even help you maximize work hours! It’s also a patient tracking system in terms of referrals and appointments!
