As an office manager, we don't have to tell you that you stay pretty busy with all of your duties of running a practice. From managing the office schedule to setting up patient recall to maintaining staff morale, your day stays full. At times you may even feel overwhelmed, but there are a couple of ways you can make your job easier with optometry software.
By utilizing your optometry software fully, you can effectively manage your more than full workload all while maintaining complete practice efficiency. We want to share with you some ways that your software can make your life a whole lot easier!
How to Use Your Optometry Software to Maintain Control in Your Practice
Control the Practice Schedule with a Customized Calendar
Your software should offer you the flexibility to view your calendar the way you want to with customizable settings. This way you can view what you find most important, so you can help everyone in the practice stay on top of things. You should be abe to see insurance information as well as a patient summary, so you know exactly who is coming into the office each day, and can even begin to anticipate thier needs.
Bonus Tip: If you are using cloud-based software in your practice, you'll have access to your schedule from anywhere, meaning that you'll always know what is going on in your practice.
Free Up Time with Automated Patient Recall
Patient recall is an important tool for keeping the practice schedule full, but it doesn't have to take up a ton of your time. Patient recall tools built into your optometry software can automatically send text and email reminders to your patients. When sending appointment reminders, confirmation options are posted back into your system, so your schedule stays accurate.
Stay Knowledgeable on Practice Performance
Understanding which areas of your practice that could use improvement is key for staying successful. Your software should be equipped with reporting tools that offer analysis, so you can determine which areas in your practice could use some extra attention. With your software you can keep an eye on the financial status of your practice, inventory levels, and overall practice efficiency. These reports can help you recognize unusual billing patterns or errors with things like insurance claims.
Bonus Tip: If you're staying on top of the inefficiencies in your practice, and giving them the attention they need to improve, you'll boost employee morale which can help lower staff turnover.
Keep the OD Happy with a Schedule Running on Time
Nothing adds stress in the office like being behind schedule. Patient portals act as great tools for keeping things running on time. By offering forms online, patients can complete their paperwork prior to coming in for their appointment. That way, you don't have a 1 pm patient come in at 12:55 who then proceeds to take 10-15 minutes filling out paperwork and holding up your schedule.
Provide Excellent Customer Service
Software that includes integrated product ordering with real-time tracking can help you keep your patients informed on the status of their frames or contacts. You'll be able to better answer patient questions on when they should expect their orders which will make both them and you happy! Plus, happy patients make great word of mouth referrals for gaining new patients in your practice.
We hope we've showed you some ways that your software can make your day a little easier, and more productive, all while keeping you in control of your practice.
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Originally Published in June 2015