Medical Office Software

by Houston Neal
Director of Marketing, Software Advice
May 9, 2012

The medical software market is very large (1,000+ vendors) and complex. Vendors have customized applications for just about every provider designation (MD, DO, OD, DC, PT, PhD, LSCW, etc.) and type of provider organization, including outpatient, inpatient, and home health care. Years of development and company consolidation have led to a daunting market. We have written this buyer’s guide to help visitors understand how the medical software market breaks down and how they can identify the medical office systems that best meet their needs.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

What Is Medical Software?
Deployment Strategies
Application Categories
Recent Events

What Type of Buyer Are You?
Market Forces and Trends
Recent Events You Should Know About
Benefits & Potential Issues

What is Medical Software?

Medical software includes a wide class of systems that manage the clinical and administrative functions of healthcare organizations. Systems have been tailored to automate just about every healthcare process, including billing, patient scheduling, creating and managing patient records, picture/image archiving, prescribing medication, and more. Since different specialists have unique requirements, software companies address the different needs through both broad and narrowly-focused solutions. 

Deployment Strategies

When selecting a system, buyers will have the choice of implementing different applications for specific tasks, or a complete suite of tools to address all their needs. The decision that most providers will need to make is whether to implement a standalone electronic medical records (EMR) system or replace an existing practice management (PM) system with a complete EMR and PM program. We hear from many buyers facing this decision as practice management systems have been ubiquitous since the 1990s and EMRs are increasing in adoption, primarily due to the ARRA HITECH Act of 2009. It is important to note that many vendors offer applications in more than one category, and that the lines between many categories have become blurred. 

Application Categories

What Type of Buyer Are You?

Before evaluating doctor office software and queueing up a formal comparison, you’ll want to make sure you know what type of buyer category you belong in. We have found that almost all buyers fall into one of the following four categories:

• Integrated suite buyers. These organizations are investing in medical office management software to manage two or more aspects of providing patient care in one single system. Most commonly, these buyers are looking for integrated EMR, billing, and scheduling systems. 
• Best-of-breed buyers. These buyers are focused on applications to address a specific need. Most often, buyers in this category are looking for a billing, EMR, RIS, or PACS system. 
• Outpatient organizations. Ambulatory care providers such as family medicine physicians and specialists will share common feature requirements to support “walk-in/walk-out” care. They are usually looking for EMR, practice management systems, or both. 
• Inpatient organizations. While similar in scope to systems designed for outpatient care, inpatient care provider centers such as hospitals will require systems to support bed management, UB-04 billing, and potentially long-term patient stays.

Market Trends You Should Understand

Buyers should keep the following trends in mind when researching medical office software programs. How a vendor fits within these trends could have a big impact on its viability.

• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The trend towards cloud computing is impacting many industries, and healthcare is certainly one of them. Providers are beginning to show increasing affinity towards the lower upfront costs, monthly pricing model, lack of IT infrastructure, and remote accessibility associated with web-based applications. 
• Mobile computing. Going hand in hand with SaaS, healthcare providers are finding themselves increasingly on the go and accessing systems from multiple offices, home, and mobile devices. iPad and iPhone support are becoming increasingly common. 
• ONC certification. As most healthcare professionals are aware, the HITECH Act of 2009 requires the use of electronic medical records systems by 2015. Eligible providers can subsequently qualify for $44,000 in stimulus funds by demonstrating “meaningful use” of ONC-ATCB certified EMRs. This ONC-ATCB certification is going to be nearly essential for EMR vendors to survive, unless their target customers will not qualify for stimulus funds. 

Recent Events You Should Know About

The medical practice software market is continually evolving. Medical office software companies are rolling out new features and functionality to meet federal requirements, to keep up with competition and to meet customer demand. Here are a few updates to some of the best rated medical software products:

• athenahealth - athenahealth, developers of athenaClinicals and athenaCollector, is one of the leading medical software companies in the market. They are getting a lot of recognition for their web-based (i.e. cloud) electronic health record and practice management software. Most recently, they were named to MIT Technology Review's 2012 TR50 List of World's Most Innovative Companies.
• NextGen Healthcare Information Systems - NextGen recently announced several product updates at the 2012 HIMSS Annual Conference. They redesigned their popular NextGen Ambulatory Electronic Health Record (EHR) system with a new user interface, improved disease management workflows, automated outcomes reporting and new content for 25 specialties.
• Waiting Room Solutions - Waiting Room Solutions develops clinic management software for small and mid-sized practices. In February 2012, the company was awarded the Surescripts White Coat of Quality Award for their high-quality electronic prescribing processes. The award is part of Surescripts quality program to foster EHR and ePrescribing safety standards.
• eClinicalWorks - eClinicalWorks is a top patient management software company with a customer base of 60,000 physicians and 370,000 medical professionals. They recently announced the availability of their Care Coordination Portal for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and Patient-centered Medical Homes (PCMH). The tool facilitates coordination of care and helps organizations comply with regulations.

Benefits & Potential Issues

The primary benefits of any medical system are to increase efficiency, improve collections, or improve the quality of patient care. These benefits are created by different applications and impact organizations in different ways. Increased back-office efficiency streamlines administrative tasks associated with patient encounters, enabling providers to see more patients and hire fewer staff. More rigorous documentation of these encounters and a more organized claims submission process lead to increased collections. Automated alerts prompt providers with potential issues or risks, while automated reminders help patients return to the office when necessary. 

While most systems are expensive, the high costs of delivering improper care or delaying receivables can often justify the investment. While trends such as software-as-a-service help make purchasing medical diagnosis software a bit easier, government stimulus funds are providing a lot of the necessary funding to cover the costs of implementing most systems. 

Have an opinion on this guide? Email the authors. We appreciate the feedback.