If you run a private medical practice, chances are you’re using EMR, or electronic medical records, as stipulated by the HITECH Act, Meaningful Use. In their rush to become compliant with the new legislation, many clinics implemented systems that digitized their existing manual patient records. In contrast, Nextgen EMR offers much more than basic recordkeeping functionality.
With this tool, you can automate your entire billing process and your financial records, which ultimately puts you in a better position to map out your practice’s profitability. Optimizing your Nextgen EMR usage can boost patient engagement and help you get a better grasp of your practice’s financial side.
NextGen Software Solutions
If you’ve already implemented a Nextgen’s EMR system, you’ve already experienced firsthand how efficient the systems are. EMR systems take virtually every aspect of running a clinic into account. It allows you to meet industry standards in how patient records are kept while emulating your clinic’s unique workflow. Navigating medical records is easier, hence the time required to retrieve a patient’s history, for instance, is significantly reduced.
Nextgen’s EMR makes for deeper patient engagement, enabling you to better attend to their unique medical issues based on their history. Since the system fosters an efficient practice, patients are likely to be satisfied, return, and recommend your services to others.
NextGen’s solution also provides a seamless exchange of data between you, your patients, and other parties (like insurance providers). You will be able to better focus on attending to your patients.
If you’re using NextGen EMR solutions and services but have not yet realized the system’s full potential, consider bringing consultants on board. They can train you and your team on how to integrate EMR into every aspect of your practice. A number of these consultants have their proprietary systems that integrate into NextGen’s and enhance its functionality.
Here is how NextGen consultants can ramp up your EMR so you can better serve your patients:
EMR Templates
Templates can enhance the functionality of your EMR in several ways. For instance, a model standardizes the information received from every patient that comes in. It will list their symptoms, concerns, and medical history. Each record is set up the same with the same type of information in the same location for each. This reduces confusion, lack of information, and time spent. Doctors often don’t have much time in their day for nuance tasks. These brief overviews enable physicians to skim a summary.
From the same template, your biller can get a summary of charges, open orders, etc. for payment follow-ups, and you can also get a bird’s eye view of your practice’s profitability.
Establishing Workflows
Your consultants can help you use your EMR to realign your workflows so you can identify and iron out bottlenecks that cause inefficiencies in processes like patient check-in and check-out. Reorganizing your workflows can also help free your staff to dedicate more time to patient engagement.
A workflow is a series of actions required to complete a task. For instance, at check-in, you acknowledge the patient’s arrival, then capture their billing and medical details. With your consultant’s help, you can map out your existing workflows to identify opportunities for optimization.
Optimizing your EMR workflow can streamline patient registration, make the procedure paperless, and introduce patient self-registration.
Assistance with Billing
There is potential for numerous loopholes in the billing cycle of any medical practice. You may have experienced cases of unlodged patient claims, erroneous patient statements, and unposted payments, among other oversights. These may have even resulted in disputes between your office and health insurance providers or, worse, your patients.
Optimized NextGen billing can help improve your profitability by decreasing the time items spend in accounts receivables and cutting down the backlog of unapplied credits.
Data Analytics
As a medical practice, you are the custodian of medical and financial data of your many patients. This data changes and should be shared with other stakeholders in the course of providing healthcare. Those organizations may change in the future, but the data both you and they have needed to be consistent.
NextGen data conversion keeps the data in a centralized source. No matter which system you use to access data from the NextGen EMR, it will be up to date and consistent. This means both medical and financial decisions regarding patients will be based on accurate data.
Implementing Telehealth
Advances in technology and increased access to the internet have given rise to the prevalence of telehealth. You may already be holding remote consultation sessions with your patients. However, if you aren’t, Nextgen consultants can help you get it up and running. They can help improve your telehealth system’s efficiency while integrating it into your EMR.
Healthy Systems for a Healthier Practice
Optimizing your NextGen platform can streamline your recordkeeping while increasing the productivity of your staff. Your patients also stand to gain from improved outcomes thanks to more accurate data. You will also be able to seal revenue leakages and forestall billing disputes. It is a win-win for all healthcare stakeholders.