If you are looking at Practice Management Software then you are almost certainly looking at an online Portal too.
Your software will provide all of the core Business, Clinical, Administrative and Business Growth support that you need to run and develop your practice effectively. It should also provide solutions around compliance, communication and patient engagement, as well as helping to handle all of your insurance claims processes, if its a high quality system.
The online Portal that your Practice Management solution should offer is something different though. The Portal will give you the power to reach your patients, and your patients to reach you, at their convenience, direct to their personal device, wherever and whenever they want.
This level of control and convenience is essential for any modern business, and even more so in the post-lockdown environment. We are increasingly used to managing our professional and personal affairs online, through our phone or tablet. A good quality portal ensures that you can access your dentist or clinic in the same way as you can access your bank, fitness app or social media.
- So, the first clear benefit of an online Portal is access. Access for your patients to your clinic to book appointments; make payments; change their contact details; choose and approve treatment options; sign consents and securely submit medical information.
But also access for you to your patients. The trusted communication that a Portal offers is a powerful tool for you to engage your patients around targeted offers for treatments, timeslots and practitioners that they are interested in without relying on reaching them through all of the noise in their email inbox.
- Beyond access, using a Portal can also have a direct impact on your bottom line within the practice, offering real savings in time and money and improving your audit trail for patient relationships. Adoption of a Portal across the practice reduces time spent on the phone making appointments, time spent processing payments and time spent chasing up payments.
All of this makes for a significant cost saving in itself, but the automation of booking, payment, medical histories and treatment approvals means that there is a record of all transactions captured in your Practice Management system in real-time - no more confusion over missed appointments or payments, and as an added bonus it allows you to become a paperless practice, stripping out those paper, ink and secure storage costs, as well reducing your carbon footprint!
- Used correctly, an online Portal can also make a significant contribution to improved patient outcomes and treatment uptake. A Portal will allow you to present a patient with a range of appropriate treatment options, with the time and space to outline the benefits of each.
Sending this information securely in writing allows a considered decision to be made, with an informed patient often opting for the highest level of treatment available, and an informed clinician able to use the Portal as a communication channel to offer pre and post treatment care and education to deliver the best possible patient outcomes.
- The fourth key benefit of an online Portal for your Practice really focuses on the role that it can play in building long-term trusted relationships with your patients.
Used correctly, a Patient Portal builds a very positive association between a clinic and its patients. You will become a trusted source of information and assistance, delivering high levels of satisfaction and developing loyal and retained patients.
Users have transparency and control in their relationship with the practice and you are able to deliver and respond to patient satisfaction surveys, targeted offers, recommend a friend promotions, and open up a new direct communication channel with your core customers.
The real question for any modern clinic considering an online or Patient Portal as part of their Practice Management is not why, but why not. It is a gamechanger for any practice that will rapidly become embedded as an essential and indispensable business tool that you, your team and your patients love!
To find out more about Aerona’s Patient Portal please get in touch today.