Choosing an EHR for your hospice or home health can be an overwhelming task. Is the software actually going to make your daily operations easier? Is the salesperson just telling you what they think you need to hear to pick the software they are selling? Are you making the right decision for your agency?

The folks at Capterra, experts on software, have put together a short list of the features and things you should be looking at when you are considering a software for your home health or hospice agency. Some of the the things they think you should be looking for:

  • Billing

Making sure you get paid is one of the most important aspects of your agency. You should be looking for a software that makes the billing process for your agency as smooth and efficient as possible. Does the software auto populate any information from charts to bills? Is it easy to generate claims and does the software provide a mechanism for submitting claims? Does it integrate with any other software to submit claims? Revenue cycle is an important part of your business. Make sure you find a software that helps you stream line this process so that you can get your claims turned around and paid as fast as possible.

  • Charting

Point-of-care charting is considered essential to improving efficiency and reducing errors in charting. You’ll want to look for software that may have alerts built in to vital signs and are able to chart vital signs over multiple visits. You’ll want to look for software that your clinicians can use at point-of-care to save them time, energy, an stress. The less stressed your clinicians are, the happier they will be. (Ever think of how this might affect your agency’s HHCAPS score?)

  • Workflow

Does the software  you are considering have some type of workflow management? Does they workflow they provide make sense to the way your agency operates and does the software provide for any customization of the workflow? You want to make sure that the software fits the way your agency works and helps you improve your efficiency and doesnt become a burden to your staff and slow your business processes down.

If you want to make dollars, the software you use needs to make sense.

  • Cloud Hosting

Even though on-site server based software exists, the trend is definitely headed towards cloud (web based) software. The lower implementation, maintenance, and update costs couple with the fact that it is easier to have access to your software from anywhere. The advances in cloud technology can leverage the power of computing and high-speed connectivity while also being a secure solution of your agency. Not really sure what the cloud is? We try to define it here.

Choosing your software will have a big impact on your day-to-day operations so making a well-informed choice is important to your agency and is a decision that you should make after a thorough process. For other features that you might want to consider check out Capterra’s full list here. Our reviews are on there too, so you can see what other people have to say about our software.

Also, you can check out our free home health software buyer’s guide.

 

Sources: https://blog.capterra.com/comparing-emr-software-must-have-features/