No medical practice manager likes to think of himself as living in the past. However, when you have been in business for a significant period, it’s possible that you may be holding onto old habits without realizing that there are more efficient ways of doing work. Here are three outdated medical habits and practices that you can stop doing today, thanks to new developments in software and technology.

How do your patients feel about the amenities you offer at your medical practice? If it’s been a while since you thought about the first impression your organization makes on current patients and potential new patients, your waiting room may be in need of an upgrade. After all, it’s the place where your patients and their family and friends spend most of their time during visits to the doctor. Accordingly, one big thing that every medical practice needs to do is evaluate the waiting room from the perspective of patients.

As the manager or owner of a thriving medical practice, you may already have some experience using electronic heath record software to streamline workflow at your facility, cut down on errors, and improve patient care. EHR software definitely makes it easier on your employees, and using certified EHR software can make you eligible to receive financial incentives from the government because of the gains in efficiency providers -- typically experience.

When you manage or own a radiology practice, you are aware of the importance of making sure your staff has access to the latest tools, including hardware and software solutions designed to make work easier. If it’s been a while since your team has evaluated the radiological information system software that you’ve been using, read on to see how implementing an updated RIS will change your radiology practice and your referrers’ practices, as well.

How would you assess your medical practice’s overall health in terms of such issues as operational efficiency, protecting your patients’ data, and making each patient feel welcome and valued? If your organization is still relying on an antiquated paper-based system to keep track of things, you undoubtedly know that computerized systems are much more useful. Medical practice owners and managers who are still on the fence about the benefits of software will want to give more consideration to using electronic health record software. EHR applications are designed to help your staff work far more efficiently and will make a big difference when it comes to your bottom line. With that in mind, here are three problems that an EHR system will help solve for you.

If you are looking to modernize your medical practice, chances are that you have begun to explore software solutions. One of the most crucial applications your organization can invest in is practice management software. However, you may have limited experience with evaluation, implementing, and then getting your staff to start using such an application. To begin, you may simply be wondering what practice management software is used for. Read on for details on what practice management software is and how it will help your organization improve its daily operations.

Prudent owners and managers in charge of the daily operations at medical practices make it their business to stay on top of changes in industry and governmental requirements regarding health care, such as the upcoming required shift from the International Classification of Diseases code version 9 to ICD-10. The United States government has announced that we must make the transition to ICD-10 by October 1, 2015. This is an extension to the due date, as we were formerly required to make the change in 2014. Many medical organizations had informed the government that they were simply not going to make the transition in time.

The team at Advanced Data Systems Corporation is relentlessly focused on helping our customers work more efficiently and improve operations overall at their medical practices. To that end, we want to showcase four ADSC tools that your business simply can’t live without. 1. FlowText In the interest of saving your staffers time and effort, we want you to know about Medics FlowText. Your physicians can use FlowText to generate letters or other documents such as reports with either voice recognition (powered by Dragon Medical transcription) or handwriting recognition. The information will automatically populate into the correct fields in the patient’s electronic health record.

How productive is your medical staff? Rather than being complacent about worker efficiency, it’s a good idea to encourage weekly habits in your staff to help them become more productive. It will make things easier for your patients and can help increase profits at the same time. 1. Continuing Education Learning is never finished, and this is especially true for such an important profession as medicine. You will want to encourage (or even mandate, depending on your particular organization’s circumstances) your medical staff to stay on top of developments in your field.

Any healthcare entity mandated to comply with HIPAA regulations have to be ready to use the ICD-10 coding system on October 1, 2015. While hospitals and corporate-run practices are likely to have few issues making the transition because they have the budget and the people to dedicate to devising and implementing a transition plan, small clinics, group practices, and solo practitioners face challenges with the switch to ICD-10.