Why Large Practices Need a Truly Multi-location EHR

On paper, it’s easy to make the business case for building large, multi-location chiropractic practices: they bring in more patients, more revenue, and theoretically, more profit.

The reality is more complicated. As your practice grows bigger, you have more to manage: more people, more systems, and more processes. Melding individual locations into a cohesive unit that follows a common set of operating practices and principles for good financial and patient management becomes a serious challenge.

The good news is that when implemented the right way and with the right capabilities, technology offers a solution. Truly multi-location EHRs have tools that can help streamline scheduling, standardize billing, lower IT costs, and enhance adherence to meaningful use requirements.

The long-term benefits are vast. Successfully implementing a multi-location EHR and aligning staff around common processes points the way toward higher revenue, profitability, and patient satisfaction scores. Here are a few of the main benefits and why your large practice needs a truly multi-location EHR.

More Efficient Appointment Scheduling

One of the purposes of forming a network of chiropractic practices is to be able to treat more patients by adding convenient locations and appointment availability.

At a single location, you have a finite number of slots to offer each day. In a network, you have more openings that you can use for revenue-generating patients, including those who may call with urgent needs to be seen right away.

But you may struggle to get the most out of this model unless you have a truly multi-location EHR. A centralized EHR lets you see a total view of all your locations at once, showing you where you have open appointments and pinpointing the availability of staff chiropractors. If one location is overloaded, a patient can be redirected to a separate location with openings.

Even better is the ability to enable patients to self-schedule, which gives them choices and the power to make those choices without requiring labor expense on your end. But without the visibility of a true EHR system, patients will still schedule on a hit-or-miss basis.

Lower IT Costs

You need a truly multi-location EHR to ensure that your infrastructure costs, especially in the area of information technology, do not spiral ever higher as you add locations.

Traditional single-site EHRs require locally installed hardware and software assets and must follow standard data protection and backup procedures. Data created in one location is backed up and stored in that location. Local IT resources also require local IT know-how or people who can respond to help fix malfunctions, along with those who can oversee the nightly backup of data.

A truly multi-location EHR relies on the cloud to unify your data system across multiple sites, and all data is saved on the servers of your EHR vendor. It also provides efficiencies in cybersecurity and data protection and privacy.

Improved Clinical Care Coordination

The more locations you bring online, the greater the potential for variation in standards for care, especially with essential protocols, such as SOAP notes.

Some variation is expected and in fact, welcomed. Not everyone is going to treat and handle patients like you do, and you wouldn’t want that, anyway. Different practitioners apply their education and experience in various ways. A truly multi-location EHR can help ensure that care is held to a consistent basic standard across your many offices.

One example of how this plays out is the SOAP note. Multi-location EHRs can be designed with a SOAP note template so patient observations are captured consistently. Consistency is crucial across processes, because some multi-location EHRs can be programmed to enable SOAP notes to trigger the filing of insurance claims with the proper coding.

In addition, as the general manager of the practice, you can utilize functions of the multi-location EHR to communicate your standards for exams, patient education, and evidence-based treatment plans. As a result, you will provide better, more consistent, and more coordinated care, leading to improved quality of life.

Truly Multi-location Support from ChiroSpring

ChiroSpring is an all-in-one practice management and EHR tool built for chiropractors that offers true multi-location support so you can run a leaner and more responsive multi-site practice.

The application supports self-serve online booking, automated patient reminders and other engagement tools, standardized and fast and easy creation of SOAP notes, streamlined billing protocols, and other advantages across multiple locations. Through your central office, you can get a clear picture of what’s happening in all locations in the network in terms of patient flow, revenue, billing, and other outstanding issues.

ChiroSpring is an all-in-one practice management and EHR system built specifically for chiropractors to help them regain face-time with patients, spend less time on back-office tasks, maintain a limited staff, and save operational costs.

ChiroSpring is an all-in-one practice management and EHR system built specifically for chiropractors to help them regain face-time with patients, spend less time on back-office tasks, maintain a limited staff, and save operational costs.

To see how ChiroSpring can help you simplify how you manage your practice, reach out to one of our specialists today!