We all know that it’s not easy running a successful private medical or healthcare practice. As the practice grows, there are records to keep and maintain. And if you are not careful, you may find yourself buried underneath a whole pile of patient records with no means of retrieving them easily. Here is how the scenario usually plays out. The practice starts out small with a few staff and a handful of patients.

So there is no need for computer technology to help keep the records organized. Everything is managed manually by the staff. Daily tasks such as recording the day book, scheduling appointments, issuing cash receipts, tracking patient records, etc. are all done by the staff. When the practice is still small, performing these tasks is relatively easy.

he problem is that the practice continues to take on new patients everyday. Plus existing patients return for additional treatment. There is a cumulative effect. And soon, before you realize it, your staff is taking too much time retrieving the records that you need. You realise that your practice is growing, and you hire full time staff to handle the administrative issues.

With practice management software, most of your operational issues will be well taken care of. Forms that previously were giving your staff nightmares can now be managed by the system. You can create custom workflow processes that take advantage of what your IT system can offer.

There is a facility for recording patient demographics, which is great for when you have to retrieve patient information very quickly. Information such as medical aid contact details, ICD10 codes, tariff codes are literally just a touch of a button away.

And when it comes to billing, your practice management software will make it easy to bill and claim either from the medical aid or patient in a way that is legally compliant, and complies with all the statutory requirements. For example, a good medical billing software package such as Medinol, will calculate all the charges correctly to the exact cent.