Urgent Care EMR Software

Buyers Guide

Last updated: June 01, 2023

Urgent care practices require electronic medical records (EMR) software that is capable of managing quick and high volume workflows. Patients in urgent care clinics require immediate medical attention. So you’ll need EMR software that reduces waiting time, offers quick charting of patient complaints, and be robust enough to handle your administrative tasks.

This guide will help you understand the unique features of urgent care EMR software. Here’s what we’ll be discussing in this buyer’s guide:

What is an Urgent Care EMR Software?

Urgent Care EMR Software Features

Choosing an Urgent Care EMR Vendor

Urgent Care EMR Software Benefits

What is an Urgent Care EMR Software?

Urgent care EMR software helps urgent care clinics manage heavy workflows efficiently. Typically, urgent care practices are built to provide immediate medical care to patients. In fact, even a 15-minute waiting can prove fatal in some cases. So your urgent care EMR needs to be effective in dealing with massive clinical workflows, streamline administrative tasks, and improve patient care. By streamlining your operations, you can lower costs, reduce waiting time, and improve clinical efficiency. This helps patients get urgent medical care as quickly as possible.

Here, I’ll be going over the various features of an urgent care EMR along with the requirements of selecting your EMR vendor for your practice.

As an urgent care specialist, you would also need customizable templates that you can use for easy charting. So your urgent care EMR should be able to provide more value with less cost. In addition, to your specialty-specific templates, an urgent care EHR should also provide templates such as work accident forms and compensation forms.

The core concept of urgent care EMR software is to help physicians manage heavy clinical workflows, enhance patient care, and streamline clinical and administrative tasks.

Here’s all you need to know to make the most of your urgent care EMR software.

Urgent Care EMR Software Features

Here are some features of an urgent care EMR software that help improve patient care, streamline your clinical workflows, and simplify administrative tasks.

Urgent Care-Specific Templates – Most patients that visit an urgent care clinic have simple complaints. Your EHR software should have pre-built templates to help quickly chart their complaints. However, there still needs to be an extensive database to help whenever a complex case occurs.

Urgent Care CPT & ICD-10 coding – Urgent care EHR software should also come equipped with all the specialty-specific codes you need. This will help you get paid faster from payers like employers, worker’s compensation payments, Medicare, Medicaid, and insurance companies.

Urgent care Workflow Management - An effective urgent care EMR software should be able to manage your clinical workflows and streamline your operations. The usual workflow of an urgent care rehabilitation center include:

• First inquiry of patient
• Admission of patient
• Treatment(s) and therapies required
• Medication (if needed)
• Patient discharge
• Follow-ups

Electronic and Manual Patient Intake Forms – An urgent care EMR software should include electronic and bubble sheet patient intake forms to help lower patient waiting time.

HIPAA Compliance – An urgent care EHR software also needs to ensure patient information confidentiality and privacy through compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidelines.

Choosing an Urgent Care EMR Vendor

Now that we’ve discussed the necessary features of an urgent care EMR, let’s talk about some of the requirements you’d need from your EMR vendor. These may differ for each individual medical practice.

Vendor Size – What type of practices does your EMR vendor typically cater to? Some EMR vendors only provide services to small-scale practices, while others cater to large-scale practices. Therefore, if you have a small practice, paying for services that help large practices, won’t do much good. Similarly, large practices won’t be able to function with services designed for small practices.

Design – The design of EMR’s infrastructure depends on your choice. Whether you would prefer a cloud-based, web-based, or even standalone EMR.

Web-based EMR: These companies focus on a web-based approach and practitioners can access their patient information through their web browser.

Stand-alone EMR: Although not quite popular as the others, this EMR is an on-premise EMR that can be accessed remotely through smartphones, iPads, etc. as long as you’re connected to your practice’s network.

Cloud-based EMR: Companies that provide native cloud EMR offer you access to patient information through a cloud-storage.

Certification – Vendor certification ensures patient information confidentiality and security and is perhaps one of the most important things to look for in an urgent care EMR vendor. So make sure your vendor has ONC-authorized testing and certification body (ONC-ATCB) certification.

Most EMR vendors focus on providing cloud-based EMR services to enhance security and provide seamless services.

Urgent Care EMR Software Benefits

An effective EMR software helps streamline your clinical workflows, simplify administrative tasks, and help you reduce cost. Here are some of the most advantageous benefits of urgent care EMR software.

• Quick, accurate, and simplified note-taking process.
• Enhance profitability by lowering costs.
• Improve clinical efficiency by handling heavy workflows.
• Seamless insurance claims management and denied claims.
• Improve administrative efficiency by simplifying processes.
• Simple implementation and upgrades.