Regardless of the size of your private medical practice, whether you are looking for a new medical practice management system because you are a new practice, or for the simple reason that your old software isn’t catering for all your needs any more, there are several things that you need to consider.

The very first thing to accept is that it is going to take you quite a bit of time to carry out the steps that are essential in order to ensure that you finish up with the right software for your practice. It is no good trying to cut corners because you don’t have "enough time". This can be difficult enough if you are already running a practice, but if you are setting up a new one it can be a tough call. On the one hand you have a clean sheet, but on the other you are going to have to spend some time thinking through all of the day to day administrative tasks that your practice will need to cover. If you have colleagues who are already in practice, it would be well worthwhile talking to them about their findings. Take advantage of all the advice that you can get.

Some people will tell you that the first thing to do is to set your budget, but that is probably not right. If you don’t know exactly what you need, how can you set a budget? What you can do is to set a budget RANGE. That makes sense. But saying that you are not going to spend more than £x a month could very well mean that you finish up with a system that doesn’t do everything you need perfectly (and that is what we are aiming for) or you restrict yourself within certain limitations when by spending a little more you could have the perfect system instead of one which is just "OK".

Some types of software you can only run on your own servers, but there are also providers who can let you access everything in the cloud. This is certainly one aspect to which you might want to give consideration. When you can run everything in the cloud you don’t need your own hardware, and perhaps more importantly you will always have the latest hardware and systems at your service because the supplying company will install every new update as and when it happens. Furthermore, it means that you don’t need IT technicians in your premises to look after everything. It is certainly worth considering a system that runs in the cloud. You shouldn’t have any worries about security because the servers will always be encrypted and have a higher level of security than you are likely to using your own servers.

If you have an existing practice you have to get your whole staff involved in helping to select the right medical practice management system. That includes receptionists, technicians, doctors, and especially your practice manager. You need to fully analyse all the different aspects such as appointment making, patient reminders, billing both patients who pay direct and insurance companies, following up on overdue accounts, routine services such as repeat prescriptions, examinations, referrals to outside practitioners such as osteopaths or particular specialists, lab results, and hospitalisations and so on.

You need also to consider all of the data that you need to store and have access to. You need to store all your electronic health records and patient details, digital photos, X-rays, patient referrals, and everything else so that all those who need access can have access, but it can be restricted only to those who you authorise to have access. A major consideration is also if you wish your practice to become paperless. If so, you will need software that can run seamlessly in a paperless environment.

Finally, when you have done all that, you are ready to start to contact vendors with a list of your requirements. When you have a list of half a dozen, you will need to assess their replies to your requirements and see which ones come out on top. You then ideally need an on-site demonstration of exactly how their software works. This will enable you to ask all the important questions and compare one system with another.