Practice Management System vs EMR: Which one is better?

Posted in Electronic Health Records

What is EMR and Medical Practice Management Software?

Medical software includes a practice management system, electronic medical records (EMR) system(s), or a combination of both, often known as an integrated system.

Medical Practice Management System (PMS)

It is a technology solution that manages the day-to-day operations of the healthcare setup, such as financial and administrative functions. Medical practice management software improves practice efficiency, enhances professional satisfaction, and speeds up patient care delivery. 

PMS or practice management system streamlines administrative tasks by automating processes such as:

• Organizing patient information
• Managing client or patient medical records
• Billing cycles
• Submitting insurance claims
• Scheduling appointments
• Generating employee financial reports

By storing all information related to patients and doctors, such as client contact records, appointment calendars, invoicing, and more, the practice management system helps medical professionals navigate important details without scrolling through multiple files and folders. Moreover, it also cuts down on paperwork and enables billers to easily access digital patient records containing insurance information, remittances, and claim advice. 

Practice management system significantly enhances efficiency by reducing workload. Automating routine tasks like appointment scheduling or billing allows healthcare professionals to focus on patient care, leading to increased revenue and patient satisfaction. Although the initial cost may be higher, its long-term benefits make a practice management system a worthwhile investment for any private practice.

Electronic Medical Records (EMR)

Electronic Medical Records are digital versions of paper-based charts you usually find at the doctor’s office. 

EMRs include the following patient information in one practice only:

• Patient medical history
• Diagnoses
• Medications
• Immunization dates
• Allergies
• Treatment plans
• Lab results
• Miscellaneous notes related to a patient

Electronic Medical records help physicians track patient data, identify overdue treatment checkups, or help with remote patient monitoring of metrics like vaccinations, cholesterol levels, blood sugar levels, etc. Other than that, EMRs also facilitate communication and coordination between different healthcare team members for optimal patient care.

EMR systems organize patient data so that a primary care physician can instantly gather all relevant data about a particular patient in one place. Many EMR software also have recommendation engines that help providers make better decisions.  

For example, suppose a doctor prescribes a new medication to a patient who is already taking another drug for another ailment. In that case, the system can alert the doctor to possible harmful interactions between the two medicines. Since EMRs are accessed and navigated electronically, they eliminate redundant tasks and paperwork, increasing the accuracy and efficiency of care. 

Do you have a psychiatric facility? Read about the best EMR for psychiatrists to assist you.

Integration of Medical Practice Management System with EMR 

An EMR vs practice management system focuses on patient data, while the latter is more concerned about the administrative side of running a medical practice. 

Even though the two systems offer different functionality, both are important for operating any medical facility. Not having either affects the quality of healthcare delivery.

Fortunately, an EMR and practice management system are integrable, allowing the clinical and administrative sides of the practice to flow together as one and result in seamless data sharing.

An integrated healthcare system helps avoid data duplication and saves physician effort while ensuring safe and infallible health information exchange in acceptable formats. 

As mentioned earlier, the PMS EMR integration ensures seamless interoperability and communication for a smooth exchange of patient information between the two systems. For example, after integration, the patient management system can easily access patient demographics, diagnoses, treatment lists, and procedures stored in the EMR. 

This data is essential for accurate insurance claims, billings, as well as patient care. On the other hand, patient demographics, e-prescriptions, financial reporting, and registration information entered in the PMS becomes readily available within the EMR system.

An integrated PMS EMR solution allows doctors to review the financial side of their practice in addition to just clinical data. Providers working with a third party cannot view their claims/accounts receivable (AR) and other financial data. An integrated healthcare system offers providers more control over their finances. 

Integrating EMR with PMS facilitates insurance verification and streamlines essential electronic data interchange. An integrated PMS EMR system offers healthcare facilities a way to manage the practice, patients, and providers in a single system.

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Choose The Right Solution For Your Healthcare Management System

Practice Management System vs. EMR or EHR

To clearly describe the difference between an EMR and a practice management system, let’s take a closer look at the main differences:  

Coordinating operations

EMR

A patient can see multiple physicians within a single healthcare facility. If a provider cannot easily exchange patient data with a colleague in their network, care coordination becomes a challenge, and this is where the role of an EMR system comes into play. EMRs enable effective coordination between primary care physicians and hospital care providers by storing all patient data in one place that can be easily accessed by all members of the patient’s chain of care.

PMS

On the other hand, a PMS (patient management system) connects physicians to various third-party vendors, such as laboratories, insurance carriers, outside vendors, and patients, via secure file-sharing networks. 

It consolidates your practice’s various financial and logistical aspects, such as billing and insurance, automatic appointment booking and screening, and financial analysis. 

Having a single platform to control everything helps your staff become more efficient and organized. Electronic patient surveys offer an excellent way for healthcare practitioners to gain insight into patient population compliance, demographics, and treatment outcomes.

Automation and Efficiency

PMS 

Medical practice management software takes all mundane tasks off your plate, leaving you free to focus on core business operations. For example, a patient portal relieves the burden of your front desk workers since patients can book appointments and fill out forms online. Without a PMS in place, the front office needs to ask for each new patient’s name, personal information, insurance provider, etc.  

Similarly, automated appointment reminders reduces no-show rates to a considerable extent. Reminding patients of upcoming appointments ensures the highest level of attendance. 

While most healthcare services send emails or call patients to remind them of their appointments, a practice management system vs EHR will send an automated message to the patient, saving both time and efficiency. Additionally, practice management software simplifies scheduling by providing a calendar and scheduling tool. 

This feature allows administrative staff to efficiently check doctors’ availability and schedule patient appointments without conflicts. Insurance eligibility verification can also be easily integrated into the system, making sure that patients have the necessary coverage before booking appointments. If patients need to reschedule, front office staff can quickly locate appointment information and make the necessary changes.

EMR 

EMRs (Electronic Medical Records) streamline communication and coordination within healthcare facilities by centralizing patient health information. This automation allows healthcare providers to access and share patient data without explicit exchange, minimizing the risk of errors. However, EMRs require authorization to access patient information for safeguarding sensitive data. 

Moreover, EMR eliminates common manual errors in data entry by automating workflow. Even if the smallest of detail like entering demographic information that hospitals need during scheduling or admissions is wrong, reimbursements or patient care becomes a nightmare. 

EMR automation streamlines data extraction and analysis, enabling healthcare providers to access and analyze complete patient health records in real-time. This results in more informed decision-making and supports doctors in delivering better and more effective care, ultimately improving patient outcomes and mortality rates.

Billing and Financial Analysis

If you decide to keep your billing in-house, an integrated PMS EMR healthcare system can facilitate accurate billing. 

PMS 

Once you are through with the appointment, charges are calculated according to the services provided or required, treatment plan and medical specialty involved, and then they are coded into claims. Your practice management system automates bill generation and claims submission (and often resubmission) to the appropriate payers. 

An effective practice management system can also provide a list of insurance payers your office supports, so you know if a patient is covered before beginning the treatment. In case of claim acceptance, your reimbursement will be online; however, in case of claim denials and rejections, the case goes in your PMS system and then taken up further. 

An effective practice management system can generate financial reports and keep you in the loop about your financial status. If the system identifies an error or conflicting information that could interfere with the payment process, it notifies staff members instantly. 

Your medical practice management system stores the most up-to-date billing and procedural codes and rules, ensuring compliance and reducing errors.

EMR

EMRs streamline billing by automating coding, verifying insurance eligibility, generating and submitting claims, and tracking claim status. They also provide insights into revenue cycle management, financial reporting, and cost analysis, helping practices improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance financial performance.

Patient Communication

Both EMR and PMS facilitate patient communication. Patients are allowed access to their complete health information at any time via a secure portal. They can view their recent visits, learn about their medications, and get automated appointments and screening reminders. Patient portals even allow them to pay bills and view online lab test results along with treatment plans without visiting the healthcare facility in person. 

EMR 

Many new EMR systems offer secure telemedicine services that allow patients to schedule remote appointments via video conferencing, especially after the raging pandemic.

Patients can communicate directly with their physicians and healthcare centers if they have urgent healthcare-related queries and book appointments online to reduce waiting times.

Moreover, they can update their information in the portal instead of filling in redundant details on multiple stacks of paper forms on each visit. Many EMR systems are even integrated with an e-prescribing feature, where patients receive their prescriptions electronically instead of visiting a physician’s office. 

Since doctors are already notorious for their bad handwriting, physicians can digitally input prescriptions and send their patients to the pharmacy. 

PMS 

An integrated healthcare software, PMS and EMR, offer all these features and more. With an integrated medical management system, patients receive their balance statements online, making it easier for them to pay. Other than that, medical care providers leverage patient portals to send and receive consent forms from patients and continue sending informational materials related to their medications and conditions as well. 

Report Facility

PMS 

Advanced reporting capabilities of practice management software allows healthcare staff to generate comprehensive financial performance and patient financial history reports. This helps organizations identify trends, pinpoint efficiencies, and make informed fiscal estimates. 

To fully realize these benefits, seamless integration between the practice management system and the EMR is crucial. This integration ensures that data is shared seamlessly between the systems, streamlining operations and providing all staff members with timely access to critical information.

By centralizing data and reports, an integrated PMS facilitates communication and collaboration among insurance companies, patients, and medical staff.

EMR

EMRs support report facilities by providing a centralized platform for storing and accessing patient data. Healthcare providers can generate various types of reports useful for clinical decision-making, research, quality improvement, and administrative purposes.

Data Analysis

EMR 

EMRs alone lack data analysis capabilities, this is because most of them are not equipped with tools for data mining and decision support. 

PMS 

On the other hand, you can view the financial and administrative aspects of your practice clearly with the help of a PMS. It automates the day-to-day operations of your healthcare facility. This results in easily tractable big data that gives you a clear picture of the sum of your practice’s activity. 

Whether you want to get a bird’s eye view of your practice’s finances, the productivity of your staff, revenue cycle, or marketing performance, an integrated PMS is the way forward. 

Detailed reports and analytics can even give you an idea of which specialties are most profitable or where most of your patients come from. By knowing what works and what doesn’t, you can eventually achieve your bottom line and improve cash flow.

Ease of Use

It can be quite challenging to implement and adapt to a new system. You cannot hope to achieve digital transformation unless your staff easily understands the system, grasp its workings, and navigate it. 

Your staff should get proper training and guidance to help them become comfortable with the new technology, and a session should be held to address any concerns and questions they may have regarding the software. 

Plenty of PMS are in the market, and they all work along different interfaces and layouts. Knowing what suits your practice’s workflow and aligns with the already present technology, you will eventually get people used to it.

EMR 

The ease of use of an EMR system depends on factors like software design, training, integration, and customization options. Features like drag-and-drop functionality, template charting, and mobile access contribute to a more user-friendly experience.

Experience with Specialties

Each specialty medical practice works differently and has its problems that cannot be addressed very well with a generic piece of technology. Before choosing an integrated PMS for your healthcare facility, you must do thorough research and find out what PMS other providers within your specialty are using. 

It is also important to seek the opinions of others in your field about which PMS works best for their facility. Current users will be better able to tell you about the benefits and kinks of a new PMS. If your specialty medical practice has unique requirements, discuss with the software vendor to get a custom PMS designed.

Good Interfacing

If you plan to integrate your PMS with your existing EMR software, it is important to ensure that it interfaces well with your current EMR system. 

Interfacing is basically how easily two systems share data and communicate with each other. Without proper interfacing, redundant data entry in separate systems can be time-consuming and inefficient. For example, if your PMS automatically schedules patients, their appointment information should be seamlessly updated in the EMR system. Similarly, when a patient is prescribed treatments, this information should be transferred to the PMS to facilitate billing and claims processing.

Integrating Patient Information into EMR & Practice Management System through HL7

Efficient and integrated medical services improve caregiving quality and patient satisfaction. Healthcare providers acknowledge the importance of using EMRs and practice management systems, but optimization challenges remain. For this reason, HL7 can be integrated into these systems to optimize healthcare services.

HL7 is an international formatted standard that promises in-depth transmission of medical data and ensures a seamless exchange of patient data between hospital systems. HL7 middleware is another standard device that facilitates and supports data transfer from healthcare devices to information systems.

With HL7 integration, healthcare providers can retrieve thousands of appointment-related files in hospitals. They can also analyze and process the data through proper distribution and organization. Integrating healthcare data also helps create structured data logs, which help identify missing files.

In addition to everything else, HL7 data integration with hospital systems will help with follow-ups, sync appointment data, and provide information on check-out queues. With HL7 data integration, healthcare practitioners can access real-time insights that display waiting times, the number of patients, and treatment times.

The Link Between Telemedicine and EMR 

The connectivity of all three—telemedicine, practice management systems, and electronic medical records (EMRs)—enhances healthcare delivery. Telemedicine allows physicians to conduct remote patient consultations and monitor them, while practice management systems streamline administrative tasks like scheduling, billing, and patient records. On the other hand, EMRs digitize patient health information, facilitating access and analysis. Together, they improve efficiency, communication, and patient care.

Also Read: How to start a telemedicine business? 

Any telemedicine business must carefully consider specific parameters, such as licensing and reimbursement policies for legal compliance and financial sustainability, to be successful. Additionally, the obligation to comply with HIPAA is non-negotiable in maintaining data privacy to protect sensitive patient information. Integrating third-party applications can enhance functionality; however, careful evaluation is needed. 

Choose Folio3 Digital Health for HL7 Integration in Your EMR/EHR 

Choose Folio3 Digital Health as your partner for seamless HL7 integration in your existing EMR system. Our team of experts specializes in connecting your EMR system with other healthcare providers, ensuring secure and efficient transfer of patient data. We follow strict industry standards like HIPAA to ensure the safety of sensitive information for improved patient outcomes. 

Conclusion 

EMR vs Practice Management System: Which One is Better?

The choice between a Practice Management System (PMS) and an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system depends on a healthcare practice’s specific requirements. While both are valuable tools, PMS focuses on administrative tasks like scheduling and billing, while EMR concentrates on clinical documentation and patient care. 

Many practices choose an integrated version of both systems for an extensive solution. Factors to consider when choosing include practice size, specific needs, budget, system integration, and vendor support. There is no right or wrong because it depends on the healthcare facility’s goals and objectives. However, ensure that the healthcare UX design is great for either of the systems.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Benefit of an Integrated EMR Practice Management Software?

Medical practice management EMR integration improves productivity and streamlines your billing workflow and patient management.

What is the Importance of EMR and Practice Management Systems?

An integrated EMR practice management software enhances clinical and administrative staff communication by providing a single platform for accessing patient information. This enables better collaboration, as everyone involved in patient care and practice management can access the same data in real time.

Which One Should You Choose, EHR or Practice Management System?

Practice Management Systems (PMS) handle administrative tasks, while Electronic Health Records (EHR) focus on clinical data. Both systems can store patient data, but the type of data each handles varies. The choice depends on your area of improvement.

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