Running a modern day orthopedics practice involves a great number of time-consuming tasks that can make day-to-day operations more complicated as compared to other specialties.

To say that the healthcare industry is moving fast these days would be an understatement. Some studies report that there are around 400,000 medical articles written each year detailing innovative medical treatments, describing new pharmaceutical discoveries and advanced technology designed to improve patient outcomes.

On any given day at a behavioral health clinic, the staff may be called upon to serve patients and family members similar to any other medical practice. They greet clients arriving for appointments, verify insurance coverage and personal contact information, and escort them to comfortable exam or consultation rooms. Depending on the nature of the visit, a nurse or medical assistant may take vital signs and update the patient record to ensure the file is up-to-date and accurate.

It almost goes without saying that the needs of pain management practices are quite different from those of other specialties. Addressing the needs of patients coping with acutely painful situations and managing patients’ chronic pain properly while meeting law enforcement requirements can spell the difference between a relatively speedy recovery or prolonged care that may include complications.

Running a successful, busy medical practice is a tough job that can lead to a certain level of stress behind the scenes. There are a lot of moving parts to keep track of, which is compounded by the fact the health and well being of your patients depends on you keeping everything humming along smoothly. The systems you now have in place to organize and run the practice may have been suitable when you were first starting out and didn’t have quite the same patient load or even staff size as you do today. But now, as you grow in size and perhaps even add more specialists to the staff while you expand the types of patients you treat, it is becoming clearer that your practice needs the efficiency that specialized software can deliver. This is where practice management software comes in.

Tackling out of control denied claims volume is beneficial for practices of all sizes – from the single family doctor to large multi-specialty groups. Lower your practice's denial rate with these three tips.

As the manager or owner of a thriving medical practice, you know that it is prudent to routinely take time to look at the entire business and see how its processes are integrated. To that end, increasingly sophisticated software offerings are now available to medical practices to help ensure things really are humming along, and you don’t want to miss out on any potentially helpful solutions. Two “off the bat” solutions are systems are electronic health records (EHR) and practice management (PM). Many practices opt for an all-in-one EHR-PM system. Once set up, you have essentially deployed an in-house capability for revenue cycle management (RCM). Adding a patient portal will do wonders for increasing patient engagement and connectivity between practice and patient, and vice versa. With these thoughts in mind, here are four technology trends that indicate a healthy practice.

Medical practices have more options these days to work more efficiently and save costs, particularly when it comes to the crucial software that underpins their operations. Your medical practice can work more nimbly and save money by switching over to a cloud-based electronic health record and practice management solution.

Despite their noble calling, practitioners of the healing arts require compensation in a timely manner just like everyone else. In order to get paid on time, however, medical practices must keep on top of their billing practices. Using solutions such as revenue cycle management software and third party billing firms can help boost your medical practice to the next level. The more your organization grows, the more you can stand to benefit from using specialized software tools and working with medical claims experts.

As any owner or manager of a healthcare organization can tell you, running a successful medical practice is not without its challenges. How you respond to these difficulties (or avoid dealing with them) can dramatically influence the future of your business. No matter how problematic things get, such as a marked decline in patient satisfaction rates, a feeling among staff that they have too much busywork to complete each day or excessive employee turnover, there are steps you can take to right the situation and get back on course. With that in mind, here are some tips on how to overcome these top practice management challenges.