How Practice Management Software Can Support an Orthopaedic Private Practice

Running a successful orthopaedic private practice involves much more than seeing and treating patients.

Consultants may work across several clinics or hospitals, coordinate appointments, work closely with medical secretaries, manage patient correspondence and follow-up, and oversee billing for both self-pay and insured patients.

With so many administrative tasks taking place alongside clinical work, the right orthopaedic practice management software can help bring information and day-to-day processes together.

MidexPRO has supported the medical community with private practice management software since 1994 and is already used by orthopaedic consultants and their administrative teams across the UK. 

In this guide, we look at some of the common administrative challenges within an orthopaedic private practice and how practice management software can help.

Managing a busy orthopaedic private practice

Every orthopaedic practice operates differently, but consultants and their administrative teams often need to manage several moving parts at the same time.

A patient journey might include an initial consultation, investigations, a procedure or surgery and one or more follow-up appointments. At the same time, the practice may need to coordinate correspondence, invoices, documents and communication between the consultant, secretary, patient and other organisations.

For consultants working across more than one clinic or hospital, the administration can become more complex again.

Practice management software can provide a central place for this information, helping consultants and their teams keep track of the patient journey without relying on separate systems for each part of the practice.

Manage appointments across different clinics and locations

Orthopaedic consultants often work from more than one location.

MidexPRO’s Diary allows practices to manage individual or multiple diaries, including appointments across different clinics, rooms and locations.

Appointments can be viewed in day, week or month formats and managed directly from a patient’s record. Clinics and appointments can also be scheduled within the system.

Because MidexPRO is cloud based and mobile optimised, authorised users can access practice information through a web-enabled device when working away from their usual clinic.

For consultants dividing their time between different private hospitals and consulting rooms, this can make it easier to maintain a consistent view of the practice wherever they are working.

Reduce missed appointments with automated reminders

A missed appointment does not just leave a gap in an orthopaedic consultant’s diary. It can also create additional administration for secretaries and delay access to an appointment for another patient.

MidexPRO’s SMS functionality allows practices to send automated appointment reminders directly to patients.

Practices can choose when reminders are sent, helping reduce the manual work involved in contacting patients before their consultation and giving patients an opportunity to cancel or rearrange in advance.

Coordinate work between consultants and medical secretaries

An effective orthopaedic practice depends on good communication between the consultant and the people supporting them.

Tasks can range from following up after an appointment to preparing documentation, dealing with correspondence or checking that an action relating to a patient has been completed.

MidexPRO’s MXTASK functionality enables clinical and administrative teams to create, allocate and prioritise tasks within the system.

Documentation can be linked to the relevant patient and responsibility assigned to a particular person, helping teams keep track of what needs to happen next.

For practices where consultants and secretaries are not always working in the same location, having a shared view of tasks can be particularly useful.

Keep patient information and documents together

Orthopaedic patient journeys can involve a significant amount of information.

Consultations, correspondence, reports, test results and other documents may all need to be stored and easily accessible throughout a patient’s care.

Using a central practice management system can make it easier for authorised members of the practice team to access the information they need without maintaining separate records across multiple systems.

MidexPRO brings patient information, documentation, communication and administrative functions together within the patient’s record.

This can help both consultants and their secretaries maintain a clearer view of the patient’s history and the administrative work associated with their care.

Manage private patient and insurer billing

Billing is another important part of running an orthopaedic private practice.

Depending on the practice, patients may be self-funding, covered by private medical insurance or have different payment arrangements for consultations and procedures.

MidexPRO includes invoicing and billing functionality designed for private medical practices, helping practices manage financial administration alongside other patient information.

The system also provides eBilling functionality and payment tools that can help reduce some of the manual administration associated with raising invoices and collecting payments.

For self-pay patients, secure payment links can also be incorporated into the practice workflow, making it easier for patients to pay outstanding invoices.

Give patients greater access to their practice information

Patients increasingly expect convenient digital ways to interact with healthcare providers.

With MXPORTAL, practices can provide patients with secure online access to selected areas of their practice information.

Depending on the functionality enabled by the practice, patients can use the portal to:

• access selected documents
• view invoices
• make payments
• review appointments
• book available appointments online

The practice retains control over which information is made available.

Providing patients with greater self-service access can also help reduce routine administrative work for medical secretaries, particularly where patients would otherwise need to telephone or email the practice.

Support remote follow-up appointments

Not every orthopaedic appointment necessarily requires a patient to travel back to the clinic.

MidexPRO supports video consultations through Whereby, which can be launched from within the system.

MidexPRO reports that the functionality is already widely used by orthopaedic consultants, as well as other private medical professionals.

For suitable follow-up consultations, video appointments can provide additional flexibility for both the consultant and patient while allowing the clinician to access the relevant patient information during the call.

Whether a remote consultation is clinically appropriate will, of course, depend on the individual patient and purpose of the appointment.

Reduce unnecessary administrative duplication

One of the challenges of running any private medical practice is the amount of information that can end up being transferred between different people and systems.

An appointment may generate correspondence, follow-up tasks, an invoice and future appointments. If each step is managed independently, the same information can end up being entered several times.

Bringing more of these processes together within a practice management system can reduce duplication and give consultants and their administrative teams a clearer shared view of the practice.

The objective is not simply to replace paperwork with software. It is to make the administrative workflow surrounding patient care easier to manage.

Supporting orthopaedic consultants in private practice

Mr Peter C, Consultant Orthopaedic, has used MidexPRO for more than 30 years and says:

“The system is intuitive to use and has the features needed to run an effective medical service.”

His experience reflects MidexPRO’s long-standing focus on supporting the administrative needs of private medical practices as technology and working practices have evolved.

What should an orthopaedic consultant look for in practice management software?

The right software will depend on the way your individual practice operates.

However, when comparing systems, it can be useful to consider whether they can support:

• multiple clinics, locations and diaries
• consultants and medical secretaries working together
• secure patient records and documentation
• appointment reminders and patient communication
• task and follow-up management
• self-pay and insurer billing
• online payments
• patient access and appointment booking
• remote consultations where appropriate
• secure access when working across different locations
• responsive UK-based support

It is also worth considering how easily the software fits into your existing workflow.

A feature-rich system will only be useful if consultants and administrative teams can use it effectively as part of their everyday work.

Supporting the administration of your orthopaedic private practice

Orthopaedic consultants need to focus on their patients, but running a private practice also requires a substantial amount of administration behind the scenes.

From coordinating clinics and managing patient follow-up to invoicing, documentation and communication, bringing these processes together can help practices work more efficiently.

MidexPRO is a cloud-based private practice management system used by orthopaedic consultants and other medical specialists across the UK.

With tools for diary management, patient records, SMS reminders, billing, task management, patient access and more, it can be adapted around the way an individual private practice operates.

If you are considering new practice management software for your orthopaedic practice, MidexPRO offers a free 30-day trial, with support available from its UK-based team throughout.

Get in touch today to discuss how we can support you.

Orthopaedic practice management software FAQs

What is orthopaedic practice management software?

Orthopaedic practice management software helps consultants and their administrative teams manage the non-clinical processes involved in running a private practice. Depending on the system, this can include appointments, patient records, correspondence, invoicing, payments and administrative tasks.

Can practice management software support multiple clinic locations?

Yes. MidexPRO allows practices to manage multiple diaries and locations within the system, which can be useful for orthopaedic consultants who work across different private hospitals, clinics or consulting rooms.

Can medical secretaries use MidexPRO?

Yes. MidexPRO is used by both medical professionals and medical secretaries. Features such as diary management and MXTASK can help consultants and their administrative teams coordinate appointments, patient-related tasks and follow-up.

Can MidexPRO send appointment reminders to patients?

Yes. MidexPRO’s SMS functionality can be used to send automated appointment reminders. An existing MidexPRO orthopaedic practice has reported that introducing SMS reminders significantly reduced the number of missed appointments.

Can orthopaedic consultants try MidexPRO before changing software?

Yes. MidexPRO offers a free 30-day trial, allowing consultants and their teams to explore the system and its relevant features before deciding whether it is suitable for their practice.