6 things to know when selecting a Practice Management (PM) System
Too often Orthopedic & Anesthesia practices & facilities become frustrated with their Practice Management (PM) System and give in to the “grass is greener on the other side” fallacy.
Before you make that mistake, don’t be afraid to ask for help and get a second opinion, Orthos experts are available for a free consultation.
If you’re just starting your search, here are 6 guiding principles to follow if you’ve ever in this situation:
1. Over promise & under deliver?
One of the classic issues we see is falling in love with a sales demo and believing that all of your problems are solved with this new software. Keep in mind, that warm and fuzzy feeling you had after a product demo is usually intended to give you a dopamine high before a more down to earth discussion on pricing and integration (if that even comes up).
To the wise sage like yourself, it’s important to step back from the demo and ask more detailed questions about users who’ve already taken the plunge and find out what life is really like post demo honeymoon. We’ve seen this mistake happen time and again where the demo never gets replicated because your team doesn’t have the bandwidth to make the product work like it’s supposed to.
Ask yourself, “do we just need X,Y and Z features”. If so, you may be better off finding a company that offers those rather than going through a change.
2. How much training will we need? And who will do it?
Learning curves happen in every facet of life and new software is at the top of the list. If you’re making a change, it’s critical to understand how much training you’ll need, how this will impact your existing processes and who / when will we have time to put in the effort to do it right.
To avoid this trap, make sure to ask about training & customer success to make sure you’re getting the resources you need.
If you’re not loving the answer, ask for the sales rep to share the demo with your staff. If your staff can’t understand the workflow from 10 seconds of looking at the user interface, then you may be heading for training intensive product.
3. Are we fixing the symptom or the root cause?
It’s hard to blame the software if you don’t understand your own bottlenecks. Before spending time on product demos and sales calls, write a list of goals that you want to achieve by making a change.
A few easy goals to start:
I want to see trends in the data (e.g. days in AR by provider)
I want to track each department’s work flow (e.g. how many claims hit pre-cert)
I need a smart system that keeps us accountable (e.g. flag claims that are in danger of hitting timely filing write off, alert providers of clinical input needed for claims, etc.)
4. Integration - How much work is done by the vendor and how much is done by you?
It’s rare to find a revenue cycle team that spends half their day watching Netflix and surfing the web because there’s nothing to do. You need to think carefully about who is overseeing the work and that it’s done right. Even the best systems will fail with poor integration.
We advise to ask these questions of the sales team:
“Who is handling integration and setup”
“Can we review your customer success onboarding plan”
“Can we meet with the integration experts”
“How much time do we get with your integration team after we sign the agreement?”
If you don’t like the answer, the you should expect to be taking on this extra work.
5. How do I keep my old data?
Of course, it will be great when you have everything up and running.
However, what will happen in the first 6-months when you are integrating and how do we hold on to our old data? You’ve probably spent decades collecting that data, it would be catastrophic to have to use 2 systems at double the cost or even worse…. have it deleted.
With siloed data sets being a headache for any business, you may want to research solutions to bring everything together in one centralized data platform. When you find the right platform, you quickly see a world where everything is accessible in one place eliminating all those headaches and making you wonder why you waited so long.
6. Do we really need to do this?
Changing PM’s is a mountain of a task that requires a well thought out plan supported by rationale and goals for changing. If you’re having issues, talk to your current provider or research if there are companies that specialize in those instances.
An example of a solution is Orthos. Orthos is a business intelligence platform specializing in orthopedic and anesthesia offers many of the features that your PM’s don’t have without going through the pain of moving your entire system. If you want to learn more about Orthos, click here to visit their site and talk to an RCM expert.