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- Increasingly, physicians are looking at how to manage their practice more professionally and proactively, as would any well-managed business. In turn, patients are looking not only for improved access to primary care, but also for access to information and the ability to participate as a partner in their care.
- Approaches like Advanced Access allow clinics to take a more proactive management approach to managing their operations. While it is certainly true that you don’t require an EMR to implement Advanced Access practice, it is much easier with an EMR. The EMR makes it much less onerous to track your workload, calculate your patient list size, look at the demographics of your practice etc. – all fundamental activities in the Advanced Access approach. (For more information on Advanced Access, visit the Primary Health Care website.)
- Some physicians are taking this a step further and offering their patients the ability to book their own appointments in their EMR. This could be implemented via a ‘booth concept’ in your clinic (a little like an airport check in machine) or via ‘on line booking’, where the patient is given a unique access code that enables them to book their next appointment from the comfort of their home or office. Rest assured that you retain the control of who is allowed this access, what type of appointments it applies to and what information is accessible to patients.
- Every appointment booked on-line is one less phone call for your staff to handle and this feature will provide some patients with a greater sense of involvement and control. In the future, you may wish to extend patient access to the EMR beyond scheduling – e.g. to informing patients about certain test results or to have them update you on ongoing monitoring activities (e.g. weight management).
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