How your EMR & Practice Management Systems Play a Part in Contingency Planning Disaster. Catastrophe. Crisis. Most of us do not like the think about these things, and we often neglect to plan for them until they are upon us. But in the midst of recent events—Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, wildfires in California and one of the largest earthquakes in Mexico—it is important to recognize that contingency planning is something that should not be overlooked, waiting until a threat is imminent and we must react.

Trying to organize your schedule of patient appointments can be a lot like driving with a cup of hot coffee between your thighs—it can be a refreshing pick-me-up when the cup is filled to a proper level. If the cup is too full, however, you’ll more than likely just get burned (not to mention you’ll have to spend the day with coffee stained pants). Okay, on second thought, that might not have been the best simile for this particular situation.

We’ve had a lot of discussions on this blog about how to keep your practice’s computers safe and secure. While performing regular cybersecurity tasks (such as keeping your antivirus software up-to-date) is undoubtedly important, there are also some other routine PC maintenance tasks that you should be performing in order to keep your practice’s computer running smoothly and efficiently.

Between scheduling patient appointments, building a strong brand identity in your local market and ensuring that all the administrative odds and ends are taken care of on a daily basis, running a medical practice can be extremely hard work. Throughout this process, however, it's important to remember that one of the most inhibiting factors can be the poor scheduling habits that medical professionals fall into. More specifically, we should always be reevaluating the ways we go about organizing and managing our practice to find the optimal series of actions that keep our business running smoothly. If you find that things have become a bit cumbersome or slow around your office, consider these three tips for bettering your practice management techniques:

It is a routine the front desk staff of a doctor’s office experiences tens, maybe hundreds, of times a day. A patient walks through the door, goes up to the front desk and proceeds to go about checking in for their appointment. There was once a time when most patients carried reliable healthcare plans and checking in for an appointment with their physician was simple. Today, with shaky economic times and a continuously evolving healthcare system, making sure that patients have the necessary health coverage to cover the cost of their office visit is harder than ever. According to a study published by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), the single, most important piece of technology a doctor’s office can have is an electronic eligibility verification tool. With an increase of more than 35% of patients being underinsured today, NexTech and Gateway EDI partnered to bring joint clients the ability to check the eligibility status of patients before they walk through the door. NexTech’s Practice Management and Electronic Medical Record solution integrates with Gateway EDI to verify eligibility through their nationwide network of thousands of payers in just seconds.