Many medical practices prefer to remain independent because they are happy with their patient load and the freedom they enjoy in practicing the healing arts as they see fit. However, the price of independence can mean worries about the financial aspects of the business and issues with retaining employees as well as patients. If you’ve ever received an offer from a hospital or other major health organization to sell your medical practice and refused it because you want to keep your practice independent, you may be wondering what you can do to help ensure that you not only thrive but continue to succeed and grow. You should know that the right partnership with software companies can really make a difference in helping your medical practice remain independent without being alone. Your Own IT Department You can consider that an outside software firm will serve as a virtual IT department devoted to helping you and your practice. You’ll want to take advantage of all the training materials and customer help that the software firm provides, of course, and allocate sufficient time for staff training. If you have a medical practice that continues to use an old-fashioned paper-based system to handle patient charts, insurance and other documentation, you will most assuredly want to use the latest in electronic health record and related software solutions.

You may be familiar with some of the benefits of electronic health record systems for medical organizations. This is why so many healthcare providers and other entities have made the switch to EHR from their antiquated, paper-based systems. There is, however, another way to look at EHR when making the case for implementing it in your organization. How does it benefit the patient?

Many radiologist practices are turning to Radiology Information System or RIS software to help them better manage their medical practice. Software is clearly much better than using any kind of paper-based system, and it provides a whole host of benefits. However, much as we would like it to be so, simply installing software will not automatically mean that you and your staff will take full advantage of it or work more efficiently. With that in mind, here are five ways for you to improve your RIS software efficiency.

You may have seen that some of your medical organization’s competitors have been using patient portals, or heard requests from your patients asking you to implement a patient portal because they have enjoyed using them elsewhere. As a busy manager or owner of a medical organization, it’s prudent to wonder about the return on investment for patient portals.

If your medical organization has been sitting on the fence regarding a switch from paper records to electronic health records, you may think that paper records offer you better security for your patients. In fact, using an electronic health record or EHR system offers you much better control over information security. Here are five reasons why electronic health records are more secure than paper records.

As a busy healthcare professional, it pays to take advantage of your smartphone or tablet computer so you can remain productive while you are on the go, whether while walking between facilities at your medical organization or when you are away from the office. With their touch-sensitive displays, ability to access the Internet via secure Wi-Fi hotspots as well as through cellular data networks, smartphones are ideal when you need to look up some crucial information, reply to a colleague or make notes on the fly about a patient’s condition. In many cases, apps for smartphones contain a treasure trove of information that you can access even when offline.

When you are in charge of running a medical practice, it’s crucial to keep an eye on how efficient all your processes are, especially the claims process. The more automation you can build into your workflow, the faster your team can work and the less errors they will likely make. You can use practice management software to accelerate the claims process, enabling you to devote more resources to taking care of patients, while ensuring that your organization has a healthier bottom line.

As your medical organization takes advantage of the latest in computer technology and software to improve efficiency, it can seem like you need a dedicated Information Technology department on hand to make sure that everything is functioning properly. Not only do you have to ensure that your software is up to date and that there are no bugs to patch, you need to keep up with the growing demand for data storage. For medical practices that only rely on computer professionals on a part-time or even ad-hoc basis, it’s prudent to look into using cloud-based electronic health record software. Cloud computing services are a great way to help you reduce expenses and manage your hardware and software needs, letting you focus more of your attention and resources on the basis of your organization: treating patients.

A major aspect of any medical organization is the ability to offer ongoing educational resources to patients. The more you can encourage your patients to learn about what steps they can take to get healthy and stay healthy, the better off they and your practice will be. What’s more, as you engage your patients, they will have a more positive attitude toward your practice and your staff. Fortunately, there are simple electronic health record tools that your organization can use to both engage and educate each of your patients.

Managers and owners of medical organizations are typically interested in setting up electronic health record software at their facilities to enable their staff to function more efficiently. Indeed, one of the more prominent benefits of EHR applications is how they help providers save time and money while adhering to the highest standards of patient care.