What’s available in software for practices?

Here are the most commonly used types of software for physician practices and what they will do:

- Practice management software: This is financial software and includes appointment scheduling, claims processing, billing, collection, and referral capabilities.

- Clinical application software: This provides clinical information along with patient demographics, their problem list, lists of medications, allergies, laboratory results and other tests, encounter notes, and alerts such as immunization or drug/ food interactions, alerts of duplicate or overdue tests.

- Physician support software: This includes capabilities for appointment and scheduling, messages, documents for review and approval, and possibly electronic signatures.

- Decision support software: These programs may include medication lists and formularies, clinical protocols, reference guides, and patient education materials.