4 Signs it’s time to Upgrade Your Practice Management System
Using practice management systems that are out of date or unreliable can impact your business in a number of ways, from staff productivity to patient experience. The idea of changing or upgrading your systems can be understandably daunting but it may be worth the short term pain for the long term gains of greater efficiency, cost-savings and flexibility.
Here are four signs it might be time to take the plunge and upgrade your software and systems.
- You’re getting bogged down in slow processes. If your staff are getting frustrated at how long it takes them to complete simple tasks, this is a clear sign that something isn’t working. Software that’s out of date can often become glitchy and slow and this can have a significant impact on your staff’s ability to perform their day to day tasks. Many newer practice management systems are designed to maximise efficiency, improve workflows and run faster on most devices so you can reduce downtime and get more done in a shorter space of time.
- You’re not meeting your patients’ expectations. Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve seen a dramatic shift in the way healthcare is delivered with remote consultations and telehealth at the forefront of the changes. These changes look set to stay and that have left many practices scrambling to keep up.
Along with telehealth, many patients have other expectations like the ability to book appointments online, receive SMS reminders and get receipts via email. If you’re not delivering the level of service your patients want, there’s a risk they may go elsewhere.
- You’re worried about data security. Cyber attacks are on the rise in Australia and as a healthcare provider you have a responsibility to keep your patients’ data safe. This is not only a matter of ethics, there are serious legal ramifications including hefty fines for practices that don’t keep their patients’ data safe and secure. Unfortunately, if you’re using an on-premise practice management system with a physical server, data security is up to you and this usually means paying a third party IT provider.
If you want to take security seriously, you may want to consider moving to a cloud-based software platform where there is a team of security experts dedicated to monitoring your systems for threats and ensuring everything is as safe and secure as it can be.
- You’re paying too much for IT costs. With many traditional practice management systems, you need to pay an additional IT provider to maintain your software, handle upgrades and fix any problems. You might also need an external data security solution to manage your security and data backups.
Many newer practice management systems are based in the cloud and don’t require any external IT support. Instead everything is taken care of by the software provider including backups, security, upgrades, troubleshooting and maintenance. This means you can roll all your costs into one subscription payment with no unexpected surprises.
If your existing practice management systems are out of date you don’t need to struggle. There are plenty of great new solutions out there that can help you improve your efficiency, meet your patient expectations and save costs.