Top 7 Popular Patient Scheduling Software for Health Administrators

While some patients and providers may be slow to keep touch with patient scheduling software, overall the operation of most organizations are tending to apply technology. So equipping patient scheduling software is a necessity for physicians as well as clinical offices. First of all, you should be well aware of its features, benefits, potential issues and more to take advantage of it effectively.

What Is Patient Scheduling Software?

In order to avoid conflicts and delays, a medical practice must manage patient schedules. However, more work needs to be done such as make the receipt to the patients and submit insurance claims, etc. Patient scheduling software aims to support practices with these works.

Patient scheduling software is supplied by vendors allows patients to schedule their appointments online or through a mobile application. Commonly, patients will receive automated reminding message or individual care providers are supported scheduling by some special software. Patients and employees can see when each provider is available. Plus, there are some additional functionality such as billing support, new patient registration, claim submission, and financial reporting.

Basic Features and Capabilities of Patient Scheduling Software

• Patient scheduling
• Care provider scheduling
• Make the receipt
• Register new patients
• Automated reminders for patients
• Send patients message
• Financial reporting and analysis tools
• Mobile applications for patients

The Importance of Patient Scheduling Software

The medical office is filled with dozens of patients every day. Your clinic will quickly become a chaotic, unorganized mess without if there is no obvious scheduling. This makes both your staff and your patients stressful. Therefore, each clinic must own the patient scheduling software and take advantage of it to keep daily tasks simple.

Benefits of Patient Scheduling Software

Save time

Doctors can search appointments matching patient requests in a significant easily by intuitive, easy-to-use tools. Without the burden of scheduling, staff can save time and focus on more key tasks and functions.

Reduce no-shows

The appointment reminder feature in most medical scheduling systems is effective in keeping appointments of patients.

Cost Savings

Medical scheduling software helps eliminate the need for costly servers, networking, and software as well as the need for staff members to work overtime such as scheduling patients and managing provider schedules.

Centralization

Patient scheduling software focuses on collecting demographic information, medical history, and payment information at the first encounter. Changes occur in patients’ insurance or coverage are updated easily.

Simplify process

An efficient and streamlined appointment scheduling process is fewer steps and less hassle for patients. Patients needn’t wait and staff needn’t call to confirm an appointment time that is mutually agreeable for both patient and provider.

Updates in real-time

To make sure that all parties are working with current information, information about co-pays, cancellations and schedule changes are updated continuously.

Flexible

Users can access the schedule and its features at home, on the road, anywhere through mobile devices or others.

Top 7 Patient Scheduling Software Programs for Clinical Offices

#1. Power Diary

Power Diary is an online practice management software designed specifically for health clinics to manage their patients, individual practitioners, multi-location practices. It includes some features such as calendar management, automated appointment reminders, treatment note templates, client database, client invoicing, waiting lists, online bookings, 2-way SMS chat, etc.

In addition, it is also popular with physiotherapists, psychologists, speech therapists, podiatrists, massage therapists, naturopaths, osteopaths, chiropractors, counselors, and other health practices. Power Diary is a tool helping health practitioners run a health practice easily and simply by integrating with Xero, Mailchimp, Stripe, Physitrack and others directly.

Pros

• It uses the old system User friendly Great software.
• Some strong points are integration with Medicare, Stripe, and the ability to create templates for notes.
• Ability to create multiple reports, set up a calendar and client simply.

Cons

• Down server at times without prior warning especially on busy weekdays.
• On the calendar, limited functions do not allow viewing a single day of the week for multiple weeks.
• Unable to limit who access notes and profile information, anyone can also access client notes and view client profiles regardless if who is allowed or not.
• Unable to create an overall number of sessions used in a session pack per year so users still have to track manually.

#2. DrChrono EH

DrChrono’s iPad and iPhone compatible EHR and medical billing platform allow users to manage patient intake, clinical charting, billing, and revenue cycle management.

It operates in the customizable medical forms such as e-prescribing, scheduling tools, real-time patient eligibility checks, and a patient portal. The DrChrono App Directory also provides healthcare app developers with a multitude of apps and a medical API.

The DrChrono EHR offers fully customizable forms or prebuilt forms. Any prescription, including Electronic Prescribing Controlled Substances can be sent electronically on iPhone, iPad, or the Internet. Lab orders can be sent electronically to over 40,000 labs around the USA, results can then be directly uploaded into the patient’s chart. Ability to create baseline health data and monitor each patient’s health measurements over time.

Free Draw function is used to annotate on diagrams, x-rays or other files. The iPad’s built-in cameras can be used to take pictures and embed them in the patient’s record. The system comes pre-populated with billing codes and is integrated with Box, a HIPAA-compliant cloud storage system.

Pros

• Performs the tasks available well with the more cost-effective base.
• DRChrono performs all those with open APIs for CRM integration.
• It is easy to use, multi-functional with the all-in-one program, makes multi-tasking super flawless.
• It can access schedule and patient records from anywhere on any device have made it easier to work in and out of offices.

Cons

• It is difficult to communicate with support because of a language barrier although they are timely.
• The price keeps increasing annually for new accounts.
• There is no notification when faxes don’t go through.
• The note templates, order forms for lab and X-rays are basic and plain.

#3. Kareo Medical Billing

Kareo is a web-based medical billing and practice management solution designed for medical practitioners and physicians across the United States. Kareo suits small practices and billing companies and is used to schedule patients, enter patient data, send appointment reminders to reduce no-shows, confirm insurance, manage delinquent accounts and the collections process, store patient documents, develop customized reports, manage the complications involved in insurance billing, etc.

Billers, patients, and employees can communicate together through the integrated messaging feature. In addition, there are other features such as billing analytics, advanced claim processing, document management, and agenda planner.

Kareo is ICD-10 compliant medical solution used across a wide variety of medical specialties, including mental health, family medicine, pediatrics, cardiology, chiropractic, podiatry and more.

Pros

• ERA is an easy feature allowing you to see all of the patient’s information within touching a tab.
• Customer service is good and the price is affordable.
• The ability to enter data is much easier and quicker than with other software.

Cons

• The program shuts down when an error occurs but nothing loss.
• The email and text time frames cannot be adjusted to what users want.
• The canned reporting is available but most of the reports export to excel in an unusable format.

#4. NextGen Healthcare

NextGen Healthcare offers NextGen Office, a cloud-based EHR, specifically designed for private practices. NextGen Office is a fully integrated practice management solution including specialty-specific content, a claims clearinghouse, and the patient portal. It works on any tablet, laptop (Apple or Windows), and is compatible with all browsers, HIPAA compliant.

NextGen Office is a solution designed to accommodate physician and staff workflow with easy-to-use, affordable technology. It is suitable for the provider’s workflow and is accessible from anywhere. NextGen Healthcare solutions meet the demand of more than 124,000 providers across the United States.

Providers can use touch NextGen Office to talk or type encounter notes directly into the clinical documentation. NextGen Office has MIPS reporting/dashboards, automates insurance eligibility, allow patients to schedule appointments, request refills, and schedule telehealth visits, and connects the care team through direct messaging and referral exchange.

Pros

• Users can customize certain templates to adapt to public health settings.
• It is easy to get the necessary information from screen to screen. “
• It is user-friendly when processing charges and.
• There are many special features helping post payments and make charge entry easily such as rearranging codes right in the charge screen and accepting the copay at the same time.

Cons

• The graphical user interface was so new to staff, this caused delays in the encounters.
• It is difficult to read everything on a standard iPad because of much data on the page.

#5. Athenahealth EHR

The athenahealth EHR is a cloud-based solution providing services for electronic health records, revenue cycle management, medical billing, patient engagement, care coordination, and population health management.

It allows users to review the daily schedule and patient information, manage orders, and view incoming lab results through a homepage. Medical practice management tools include visibility into daily responsibilities, custom benchmarking, proactive trends analysis, etc.

Patients can review history, pay bills, sign forms, and schedule appointments through a patient portal. Patients will receive reminders via phone, email, or text message and are alerted when test results were waiting in the patient portal.

Pros

• You can use it easily and ask for everything in an EMR system with functions very smoothly.
• It is easy to switch between different offices, different doctors and add diagnostic pictures to help with monitoring wounds and other things.

Cons

• It is somewhat difficult to assimilate the reports.
• Users cannot resolve process issues by the person on the phone.

#6. PrognoCIS by Bizmatics

PrognoCIS is a cloud-based ICD-10 compliant and MU certified EMR solution which helps medical facilities and practitioners to manage the patient medical recording. The software includes integrated modules for EHR, practice management, patient portal, and revenue cycle management.

Clinics and hospitals can customize EHR workflow and content when using PrognoCIS EHR. It helps doctors and hospital staff generate an electronic prescription for their patients rapidly. The built-in e-signature feature allows both medical professionals and patients to electronically sign medical bills and other documents within EMR or patient portal. Doctors can communicate with their patients securely, share lab results, set appointments and more through a dedicated patient portal.

PrognoCIS can identify and confirm patient insurance benefit eligibility. In addition, doctors use multiple data entry methods to document patient data. PrognoCIS works with a variety of devices, including laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones using any standard web-browser. Patients’ record is accessed on doctors’ iPhones via PrognoCIS iOS app.

Pros

• This software is easy to use, customizable and user-friendly and accessible from anywhere.
• It’s web-based and flows easily with clinic settings. The support staff is friendly.
• Its price is very reasonably priced.

Cons

• When upgrades are made, some additions are added that are not friendly to your practice but you can remove them.
• There are just a few minor glitches, for example, things don’t flow over if you use many programs at the same time.

#7. ChartLogic EHR Suite

ChartLogic offers an ambulatory EHR suite that includes electronic medical records, practice management, revenue cycle management, e-prescribing, and patient portal. The solution caters to primary care, surgical care and other complex areas of medicine.

ChartLogic EMR is designed to understand user workflow, specialty, and personal preferences. Medical practitioners can use electronic charting capabilities to view patient notes, medical history, referral letters, and diagnosis codes on a single screen. Administrative activities such as registration and scheduling, eligibility and verification, claims, billings and collections, user dashboards and reports are managed by ChartLogic PM. The module also integrates with ChartLogic EMR. Users can optimize financial performance through ChartLogic RCM. The solution manages the payer mix, case volumes, and denials and disputes on a regular basis. Plus, it provides practice staff access to detailed financial data and takes care of the claims continuum.

Pros

• It is easy to navigate the software and train staff to use the software.
• The search features are helpful and user-friendly.
• Records are easily accessible, and areas are well defined.
• The support is always courteous, patient, and helpful.

Cons

• ChartLogic 8 may be a bit slower than ChartLogic 7. However, more information is available.
• Some commands are buggy and work inconsistently.
• The software takes time to load pages which sometimes makes charting inefficient.
• The new schedule is more complex and the older version is more simple and easy to use.

Conclusion

Patient scheduling software can help users simplify operation. However, there are potential issues and barriers while using. For example, Patient scheduling software helps users save long-term costs. In addition, it spends an initial investment to implement a new system and train staff. Furthermore, some patients book appointment slots, but either cancel or “no-show.” In these instances, providers will waste limited time and a slot is lost instead of this slot is filled by another patient. Therefore, you should consider its strengths and weaknesses before deciding to use it or not. We know that there is a lot of information making you confused about patient scheduling software. So let’s ask and contact us if you meet with difficulties.