Primary Care EHR

Buyers guide

Doctors' offices may have a different end goal than most businesses, but one thing they share in common is the need for software to help make their day-to-day management easier and smoother. A wide variety of medical software exists for just this purpose, from electronic medical records (EMR) to medical accounting tools.

However, primary care physicians face unique challenges that require the implementation of software that differs from the types used by specialists or hospitals. Whether they are clinics or family practices, these primary care physicians need versatile, adaptable software that can both maintain records and help run the office, assisting with both the medical and business sides of their practice.

This buyer's guide will describe the two sides of primary care EHRs, explore the most popular features and help you figure out what key questions to ask of software vendors—and of yourself—before making a purchase.

Here are the key issues that we'll cover:

What Is Primary Care EHR Software?
Common Features of Primary Care EHRs
What Type of Buyer Are You?
Key Considerations

What Is Primary Care EHR Software?

Primary care software is a subset of medical software, which contains features that are useful both for doctors' medical work and for the daily management of their office as a business.

Though both parts should work together in integrated harmony, here's a look at these two sides of primary care software:

Electronic Health Records

Electronic health records, or EHR, is the primary type of software used by doctors to help them take care of their patients. EHRs serve as digital databases that store patient charts, while also allowing practices to track patient demographics, histories, SOAP notes, test results, medications, prescriptions and more.

The goal of an EHR is to increase doctors' efficiency so they can spend more time with patients, provide post-visit care via prescription management and check-ins on a patient portal, better support claims sent to insurance companies and generally improve the quality of patient care.

You may also see them referred to as electronic medical records (EMRs), computerized medical records or digital medical records.

Practice Management

Practice management software, on the other hand, is more focused on helping doctors and their administrative staff run the business side of a practice. It helps those practices record patient information and demographics, manage patient charts, perform billing procedures, generate reports and schedule appointments through patient scheduling applications.

The goal of practice management software is to improve physicians' workflow efficiency, allowing them to spend more time tending to patients, and often to boost the amount of reimbursements obtained from insurance providers.

You may also see them referred to as physician's office management software and medical information systems (POMIS).

Common Features of Primary Care EHRs

What Type of Buyer Are You?

Medical practices can vary widely in size, shape and form, which leads them to require different functions and features in their primary care software. Your practice is likely to fall into one of the following categories:

• Single doctor. A practice with a single doctor, and consequently a small staff, will have fewer patients to keep track of, but they may have a greater need for automation due to a lack of resources. As such, these practices may want primary care software that is heavy on practice management features, such as automatic billing, patient scheduling and laboratory/pharmacy/referral integration, in addition to a base level of EMR features such as patient history and correspondence.
  
• Small practice (two to five doctors). Practices with a handful of doctors and a moderate-sized staff will want all the features of a practice with just one doctor, plus a more robust array of features for both EMR (such as SOAP note templates) and practice management (such as claim tracking and automatic reminders).
  
• Large practice (more than five doctors). Practices with a large number of doctors and a large staff will need the most robust primary care software available, featuring all of the useful features provided by both EMR and practice management functionality.

Key Considerations

Other factors to take into consideration when picking the best primary care software for your practice may include:

• Integration with other systems. One of the key components of primary care software is integration, specifically between the EMR and the practice management sides of the software. However, it's possible that you may choose two different software systems or vendors for each aspect of your practice. In that case, you'll want to be extremely sure that those two systems can integrate with one another, so that you don't accidentally build a wall between the medical and business sides of your practice. You will also want to ensure that you can integrate with any other relevant software systems, such as those used for medical tests and results.
  
• Cloud-based software vs. on-premise software. Increasingly, software of all kinds is cloud-based and available online. Previously, the most popular method of housing software was on-premise, meaning that a business or practice would actually own the hardware necessary to run the software. This required a large amount of storage space and access to IT resources for setup and troubleshooting. Today, you're most likely to get a cloud-based primary care software solution, which is housed off-premise and requires much lower upfront costs. It also reduces your need for IT help once you have the software running.
  
• Patient portals. The easiest, most popular way for doctors to keep in touch with their patients, and for those patients to manage their prescriptions and referrals, is through dedicated patient portals that can be accessed online. These portals should integrate with your EMR so that a patient can see their records and test results, send and receive messages, manage prescriptions and make appointments. A well-maintained patient portal can save physicians and their staff hundreds of hours of administrative work, and make patients feel that they have quicker and more complete access to their doctor.
  
• Mobile support. Our world is increasingly mobile, with apps for everything from social media to banking. Medical needs are no different, and patients want to be able to send and receive messages from their doctor, manage their prescriptions and access their records and results while on the go. Similarly, physicians live busy lives, and may need to respond to urgent business when working on their phones or tablets. You will want to check the mobile support of the software that you select, so you can ensure that both doctors and patients have the high level of access that they desire.