
NextGen Office
Greenway Health’s ambulatory platform provides healthcare organizations with clinical, financial, and administrative tools and services. Prime Suite is Greenway’s electronic health record (EHR) and practice management (PM) system....Read more
AdvancedMD is a unified suite of software solutions designed for mental health, physical therapy and medical healthcare organizations and independent physician practices. Features include practice management, electronic health rec...Read more
McKesson Practice Partner is an ONC-ATCB and CCHIT certified electronic health record (EHR) and practice management solution. It is HIPAA compliant, and can be deployed on-premise. To date, it has served over 25,000 users across p...Read more
Q.D. Clinical EMR is an on-premise electronic medical record (EMR) solution for clinical documentation, managed care support, practice research, image management, lab order tracking, drug interaction checking and more. Q.D. C...Read more
CGM APRIMA, previously known as APRIMA EHR, is a market leading, award-winning EHR loved by physicians and office staff. Designed to take advantage of multiple hardware forms including the APRIMA Mobile app which is perfect for t...Read more
CollaborateMD is a medical billing and practice management solution that helps practices and billing services of all sizes automate and streamline billing and coding processes. The system was designed to be both comprehensive and ...Read more
PhoenixEHS/EHR (formerly MedServices EHR) is a cloud-based solution, which helps physicians, CFC/CHC clinics, health care providers, hospitals and FQHC clinics manage patient records, eRX and eLabs, patient assistance programs (PA...Read more
ClinicalWorks, an electronic health record (EHR) and practice management solution, provides technology for every step of the patient care delivery process. Clinicians access features including patient engagement, Telehealth, custo...Read more
MDConnection is a web-based solution for medical practice management. The system serves the needs of small practices consisting of just one physician or a small group of physicians. The core functions include scheduling, medical b...Read more
Harmony e/Notes is a hybrid integrated solution that offers functionalities for electronic medical records, practice management, billing and revenue cycle management. Specialities that the solution caters to include cardiology, ge...Read more
AllegianceMD is a cloud-based medical software system that is designed to serve the needs of small and midsize practices, as well as ambulatory surgery centers. The solution includes practice management functionality for billing a...Read more
Voted #1 by PCMag in 2019, WRS Health is a cloud-based integrated electronic health records (EHR) solution that offers practice management, revenue cycle management and billing services. The solution includes modules for charting...Read more
MedWorks is a cloud-based ONC-ATCB certified, integrated electronic medical record (EMR) and practice management solution designed for midsized practices. It is suited for a variety of medical specialties such as family medicine, ...Read more
Allscripts® Practice Management is a comprehensive revenue cycle management solution for physician practices of all sizes and specialties, including those associated with health systems as provider-based practices. It boosts pract...Read more
MedicsPremier supports comprehensive financial/operational/workflow management and a nearly 100% success rate on first attempt HCFA/UB clearinghouse claims with a utility for workers compensation/no-fault claims/documentation. ED...Read more
Quest is a cloud-based claim filing and medical billing solution designed for physicians in specialties including cardiology, nephrology, neurology, and more. It helps users outsource billing and claim filing, process claims and e...Read more
Doctors' offices may have a different end goal than most businesses, but one thing they share in common is the need for software to help make their day-to-day management easier and smoother. A wide variety of medical software exists for just this purpose, from electronic medical records (EMR) to medical accounting tools.
However, primary care physicians face unique challenges that require the implementation of software that differs from the types used by specialists or hospitals. Whether they are clinics or family practices, these primary care physicians need versatile, adaptable software that can both maintain records and help run the office, assisting with both the medical and business sides of their practice.
This buyer's guide will describe the two sides of primary care EHRs, explore the most popular features and help you figure out what key questions to ask of software vendors—and of yourself—before making a purchase.
Here are the key issues that we'll cover:
What Is Primary Care EHR Software?
Common Features of Primary Care EHRs
What Type of Buyer Are You?
Key Considerations
Primary care software is a subset of medical software, which contains features that are useful both for doctors' medical work and for the daily management of their office as a business.
Though both parts should work together in integrated harmony, here's a look at these two sides of primary care software:
Electronic health records, or EHR, is the primary type of software used by doctors to help them take care of their patients. EHRs serve as digital databases that store patient charts, while also allowing practices to track patient demographics, histories, SOAP notes, test results, medications, prescriptions and more.
The goal of an EHR is to increase doctors' efficiency so they can spend more time with patients, provide post-visit care via prescription management and check-ins on a patient portal, better support claims sent to insurance companies and generally improve the quality of patient care.
You may also see them referred to as electronic medical records (EMRs), computerized medical records or digital medical records.
Practice management software, on the other hand, is more focused on helping doctors and their administrative staff run the business side of a practice. It helps those practices record patient information and demographics, manage patient charts, perform billing procedures, generate reports and schedule appointments through patient scheduling applications.
The goal of practice management software is to improve physicians' workflow efficiency, allowing them to spend more time tending to patients, and often to boost the amount of reimbursements obtained from insurance providers.
You may also see them referred to as physician's office management software and medical information systems (POMIS).
Patient history | Houses patient charts as part of the EMR database. It's crucial that primary care physicians are able to maintain a detailed, accurate history of their interactions with patients in order to provide the best, most personalized level of medical care. |
Patient correspondence | Provides a primary care practice with quick access to common forms of correspondence, including work/school excuse letters and automated health maintenance/checkup reminders that can be sent out based on the patient's record. |
General practice SOAP notes templates | Because primary care physicians see such a wide variety of medical conditions and problems, they need an EMR that has hundreds of specialized note templates to accommodate those various conditions. |
Laboratory, medical device and pharmacy integration | Many EMRs provide automatic importing of lab results and/or medical device data, eliminating time-consuming and error-prone transcription. Similarly, direct integration with pharmacies allows for e-prescriptions and direct communication between doctors and pharmacists in order to avoid potentially dangerous drug interactions. |
Referral integration | EMR software for primary care practices will include tools to make referrals to specialists as quick and easy as possible. Common features include an online referral network, automated printing of referral letters and even the ability to send the entire electronic patient record to the doctor of referral. |
General practice billing and treatment protocols | Because primary care physicians deal with such a broad swath of potential conditions, primary care EMRs often provide assistance on ICD-10 and CPT coding and billing for common and unusual patient visits. The integration between administrative and clinical workflows can make the claims process faster and more accurate. |
Automatic billing | One of the core functionalities of practice management software is automated medical billing, along with real-time verification of insurance coverage and eligibility. |
Claim tracking | Streamline the tracking of various claims across the overall revenue cycle. |
Customized patient scheduling | Scheduling/calendar features which enable appointments to be color coded to indicate information such as provider, duration, time and type of complaint. |
Automatic reminders | Send automated electronic reminders to patients via email or text message. In addition to providing a service for patients, this helps reduce the number of no-shows and can maintain an optimum volume of appointments. |
An example of a patient chart in Kareo
Medical practices can vary widely in size, shape and form, which leads them to require different functions and features in their primary care software. Your practice is likely to fall into one of the following categories:
Other factors to take into consideration when picking the best primary care software for your practice may include: