Use Your Optometry EHR to Boost Front-Office Efficiency

Highlights

  • Using an outdated optometry EHR hinders front-office efficiency and results in stifled practice growth.
  • Cloud-based EHR for optometry streamlines front-office operations and results in better patient care.
  • Essential features of an optometry EHR include online scheduling, online payments, and digital patient communication tools.
  • RevolutionEHR provides optometry practices with updated EHR functionality that boosts efficiency and practice ROI.

Using an outdated optometry EHR can reduce the efficiency of your optometry practice. Your front office staff spends extra time and effort manually performing administrative tasks without features like online scheduling, automated appointment reminders, and online payments. Switch to an updated, cloud-based EHR for optometry, to streamline your front-office workflow, enhance staff productivity, and provide better patient care.

Challenges of Using an Outdated EHR

Using an outdated, offline EHR for your optometry practice causes several inconveniences and inefficiencies for front-office staff. Some of the most significant issues that arise from an using an outdated EHR relate to:

  • Redundant data entry
  • Time-consuming appointment reminder phone calls
  • Data entry errors
  • Insurance and coding errors
  • Burdensome insurance claims and billing processing
  • High non-payment rates
  • Reporting and compliance concerns

The worst outcome of using an outdated EHR for optometry is poor patient experience. If your front office is busy trying to stay on top of administrative tasks, they may struggle to provide patients with attention and care. Coding and billing errors are a headache for staff and can leave patients feeling upset at receiving a surprise bill.

Additionally, without an efficient EHR system, your patients can’t access features like online scheduling and intake, making it difficult to schedule and remember appointments. These factors create a poor patient experience, resulting in lost revenue and growth opportunities.

book appointment app on phone

How an Updated Optometry EHR Benefits Your Practice

An updated optometry EHR system solves many of the challenges of using outdated software. According to HealthIT.Gov, modern EHR offers improved practice management, reduced paperwork, and better information availability.

Features like automated appointment reminders, online scheduling, and SMS and email messaging improve the patient experience. Updated EHR elements like previsit intake forms and online payments help streamline your front office workflow and improve efficiency.

Online Scheduling

Using optometry EHR software that allows for online scheduling is vital to your practice’s efficiency.

A recent Patient Pop survey reports that 52.2% of healthcare practices spend about 10 hours per week on manual scheduling. The survey also reports that 36.4% of patients find being put on hold one of the biggest pains of scheduling an appointment. By switching to an EHR with online scheduling, you eliminate wasted time and improve patients’ experience with your practice.

Automated Appointment Reminders

In 2019, Forbes reported that missed appointments cost healthcare providers about $200 per time slot. With an updated EHR system that sends automated appointment reminders, you can reduce no-shows in your practice. A 2008 study reported a no-show reduction rate of 38% when patients receive SMS appointment reminders.

Add to that the effect of all those phone calls on staff productivity, and you’re looking at a significant drain on practice revenue.

Previsit Online Registration and Forms

With outdated EHR, patient intake can take several minutes and leave behind a mess of paperwork for your front office staff to organize and enter into the system. This takes time and attention away from your patients and increases the risk of data entry errors.

An updated EHR system with digital intake registration and forms that can be completed at home allows for a quick and convenient intake that your patients will appreciate. It also means no messy paperwork or time-consuming manual data entry for staff and more time to see patients for providers.

Online Payments

Your practice may suffer from a high non-pay rate without online payment processing. Additionally, your patients and staff may become frustrated by the inability to receive payments at the time of service and the need to deal with billing invoices and cumbersome payment processing equipment. With an updated EHR, you can offer your patients multiple electronic payment methods, increasing the chances that they’ll pay at the time of the visit. This will also eliminate the time office staff spends dealing with calls from unhappy patients who receive surprise bills later.

Digital Patient Communication Tools

Patient outreach is an integral part of retaining and attracting new patients. An outdated EHR can leave your patients feeling neglected or require your front office staff to make hours’ worth of phone calls each week to maintain patient engagement.

By switching to an EHR with digital communication capabilities like SMS texts and automated emails, you streamline patient outreach and improve retention.

Automated Insurance and Billing

The American Medical Association reports that many healthcare practices spend up to 20 hours per week on administrative tasks. If your practice is a small one, manual insurance and billing processing can take up staff’s time and result in costly coding and billing errors for your practice.

With an updated EHR system, you gain access to automated insurance and billing tools that save time, reduce the risk of errors, increase CMS and HIPAA compliance, and improve your practice’s cash flow.

typing on a laptop

Revolution EHR: The Cloud-Based Optometry EHR That Boosts Efficiency

RevolutionEHR is a cloud-based optometry EHR application that provides you with updated features to support efficiency in your practice. RevolutionEHR conveniently offers EHR and practice management functionality in one system and provides world-class customer support from a team of representatives with a background in eye care.

Our highly customizable ancillary services allow you to build your RevolutionEHR package to pay for what you need and nothing you don’t. RevConnect, a cloud-based patient communication tool from RevolutionEHR, lets you send recall campaigns and reminders through text and email, reducing the time your staff spends on making phone calls or mailing reminders.

RevIntake, our patient intake tool, improves front-office efficiency by allowing patients to fill out registration forms before their appointment. Patient responses are populated directly into the patient record, saving time and allowing you to see more patients.

Increase Front-Office Efficiency with an Updated EHR for Optometry Practices

With RevolutionEHR, you gain access to modern, cloud-based EHR features that help you improve efficiency for your entire practice. RevolutionEHR’s patient communication tools, insurance, billing integration, and online scheduling elements reduce redundant, time-consuming manual tasks.

Speak to one of our EHR specialists to schedule a demo for your optometry practice to discover how REvolutionEHR can boost efficiency and give your staff the freedom to focus on patient care.