A number of software tools are available in the market to provide solutions for healthcare agency customers to improve patient care, billing, and organizational efficiency while streamlining operations and complying with regulatory changes. Investing in the wrong technology will set you back and create unnecessary headaches when dealing with regulatory authorities. Here are some of the common home healthcare software selection mistakes that you would want to avoid.
1. Ignoring Usability
When you choose to invest in a software solution, you are doing so to make your business operations more efficient. But when it comes to choosing home healthcare software, most facilities ignore the user-friendliness of the tool and end up investing in a solution that is hard to set up, learn and use, wasting both time and money.
When looking for a solution, you will want to invest in one that is super easy to use and that grows with your practice. Of course, you do not want your practice to suffer from IT issues, as drifting from your core business will cost you, dear, over a period of time. You want to find how you will add 10 more nurses to your facility, not how you will include 10 additional phone lines in your small space. Look for a home health software solution that is not only easy to set up but also seamless to use and operate, helping improve operational efficiency.
2. Investing in a wrong solution
You may choose web-based or server-based solutions, depending on your business needs. When it comes to choosing a healthcare solution, you will want a system that keeps costs down and improves time management. Some small agencies invest in a server-based solution, without factoring in the cost and time factors. Contrarily, web-based applications are scalable and are designed to keep deployment costs down as your business expands.
With a software-as-a-service solution, all you need to pay is a monthly fee while benefiting from the complete suite of features that these tools are packed with. You do not need to purchase servers and data backups when you invest in a cloud-based solution, nor do you need an in-house IT team to manually install upgrades. These solutions are automatically updated online.
On the other hand, investing in a server-based solution could mean installing the software on individual devices and a large upfront payment, besides having to hire your own IT team.
3. Ignoring the feature list
Most home healthcare software solutions come packed with an array of features. Investing in such a feature-rich tool by a small agency would only amount to confusion and inconvenience since the glut of information and features aren’t of much use to a small organization that needs a simple solution for operational efficiency. It is important to find out which features you need to run your business more efficiently.
As a small healthcare business, your best investment is in your people. After all, it’s the people that matter. You do not want to add an extensive feature list to confuse your staff and waste their time learning the intricacies of using the software, instead of doing what they have been hired for, that is, caregiving. As a home healthcare facility, you should be spending most of your time on caregiving and not scratching your head as to how to use the features.
As a small healthcare business, your best investment is in your people.
Of course, the most important features you cannot ignore include Point of care, billing, scheduling, accounting, and CRM.
4. Going for customization
Some agencies tend to ignore the customization aspect when it comes to choosing home healthcare software. As a result, they do not have the ability to customize reports and forms, which can be really time-consuming for large agencies.
But customization isn’t necessary for all businesses. For a small agency, creating a custom solution just for the sake of doing so can be a frustrating and time-wasting experience that wouldn’t help you much. Further, it will delay hospice and patient care. Many software solutions are available in the market promise to offer the same results without the customization feature. An integrated software solution will work best for home healthcare workers, such as registered nurses and licensed therapists.
5. Scalability
Can hospice software grow with your business? Can it cater to the increasing number of patients that your agency is seeing now? What if the number of patients you see scales from 5 to 5,000? Can the software accommodate that number? Some agencies ignore the scalability aspect of healthcare software and end up with a tool that becomes redundant when their business grows.
You want a solution that can accommodate your growing business needs and efficiently perform its functions, without hiccups.
Understand your requirements and then explore all of the available options before going ahead with the purchase. If you are still wondering how to choose home healthcare software, let the experts at ITQlick help.