DrChrono Review: The Best Health App And EHR Software For Aesthetic SMEs?

An electronic health record is a crucial piece of patient data that any aesthetic and medical practice deals with daily. Whether it's to cross-reference lab results from another practice or checking patient intake from their treatments, an EHR system is essential for helping a clinic manage both its operations and patients more effectively.

So how does the DrChrono EHR software help a practice optimize its operations? As a small, cloud-based platform that can help SMEs, it excels at helping patients fill out appointments online and helping practices with paperwork like billing codes or an electronic prescription. By using an onpatient portal to communicate with your practice, your clients are much better equipped to give you all the necessary information you need to treat them once they come into your premises.

DrChrono Review

Marketed specifically for chiropractors, the DrChrono platform provides extensive administrative features that integrate a clinic's workflow for more efficient operations. As a management software that can oversee the entire journey of a patient throughout the practice, it's a comprehensive EHR solution that thrives as a platform built for the mobile device.

The Strong Points

There are three particular points where DrChrono excels: support from a major software provider, specialized content and forms for chiropractic clinics, and extensive support on mobile devices.

One drawback to most EHR systems is that an EHR vendor is unlikely to offer extensive support for a specific field of medical or aesthetic specialization, which means that clinics offering these services need to tweak these platforms to their own uses. While most EHR software tackles this in a very general way, DrChrono is far more specific in its implementation of resources and tools suited for chiropractors.

By implementing specific forms like HEENK and MST assessments, radiographs and other charts, and other forms into a patient's chart, it becomes easier to see how the patient is responding to their treatments. If any changes need to be made with their scheduling or their treatment itself, appointment reminders and automated emails can be easily used with DrChrono's patient communication features.

Aside from reliable storage of patient records, DrChrono also has extensive support from Apple regarding the performance of its platform on its devices. As a result, Macbooks, iPhones, and iPads can coordinate with the software, which makes checking the patient's health data even more accessible combined with the Apple health app.

DrChrono is also one of the most mobile-friendly practice management software available as a result - since clinics no longer need to limit their operations from a PC or a similar static machine. With this, chiropractors can enjoy versatility and freedom with how they choose to conduct their work alongside their services, which can vastly improve efficiency and operations around the clinic.

The Points That Could Use Some Improvement

Even as DrChrono excels at providing its services to a niche specialization, it's in this very specialization that limits it from being accessible to other practices. In particular, the three main benefits of using it also become the drawbacks for any practice not optimized for its use.

The design of the application for chiropractors means that any other type of practice looking to implement it would need to change the customizable medical forms for their own purposes. While the patient record system can be left alone, the EHR system itself may need some tweaks to accommodate data points that may not necessarily be relevant to a chiropractic clinic.

Upfront expenses of integrating the platform can also be difficult for a small practice just starting out. Since the software functions best when paired with Apple products, a practice without the proper funding will be hard-pressed to find substitute devices that can run the platform as well as the iOS system. While getting these substitutes isn't impossible, they can eat up precious time and resources in their acquisition - things that can be best left to actually mastering the use of the platform itself.

Finally, the mobile-heavy focus of the app itself may be helpful to people with compatible devices to access it, but there is an extensive market segment of potential patients who do not have or prefer the compatible devices for their use. This can effectively lock out a practice from a specific demographic they're trying to target or leave said demographic of patients feeling underserviced since their devices may not be optimized for use on the platform.

The relatively narrow approach of DrChrono in regards to keeping an electronic health record can also cause some communication issues with other practices that may not be using the same EHR system. While incompatibilities between patient records can be easily solved with enough manual input from the receiving practice, this just adds another step in the upkeep necessary to get the full use out of the platform.

Overall, the DrChrono software is an amazing asset to any chiropractic clinic (and a small subset of specializations), but it can feel severely limited to other types of practices without the equipment or the experience to use the platform well. It's not impossible to use this software even if you aren't running a chiropractic clinic, but keep in mind that the differences in service will be noticeable.

The Alternative: Calysta EMR

If you're worried about the upfront expenses required to purchase DrChrono from an EHR vendor or simply require a simpler version of the app to navigate and use, Calysta EMR is an excellent choice to help improve your practice management both short and long-term.

One of the reasons why it's ideal for aesthetic practices is the integration of both automated and manual appointment reminders, customizable medical forms, and daily backups of data that make keeping track of patient information much easier. Accessible on both Android and iOS, your practice can effectively be accessible at all times to your patients, while still remaining secure in both their connection and data security.

That's because the entire interface and infrastructure of Calysta EMR have been designed specifically for the needs of an aesthetic practice, ensuring that the most crucial parts of a patient's information are easily accessible, outlined, and cross-referenced without any fuss. It can easily integrate with your clinic's services without much technical skill required - and if you ever run into difficulties on that aspect, Calysta EMR is fully supported by a dedicated support team that can answer any question you may have about setting the system up.

Finally, perhaps the biggest asset of Calysta EMR is that it can provide all the services of top-notch EMR software at a fraction of the price, allowing your practice to improve its operations without having to divert too much funding away from your bottom line. Combined with your newfound ease of access in securing health data, it's easier to focus on the other things that can further improve your patient engagement, like the quality of your services and patient care.

As a cloud-based HIPAA compliant software, Calysta EMR also comes with all the requirements needed to protect both your practice and your clients from any adverse events such as data leaks or missing information. This allows you to further focus on the services that you provide without having to worry about being held liable for oversight in your operations.

Using EMR Software To Secure, Contain, And Protect Patient Health Data And Improve Patient Care

A critical part of practice management is the ability of the medical practice to improve and uphold patient engagement. Management software like DrChrono makes a patient record more accessible for healthcare providers, but as a relatively specialized EHR platform, it's not an effective EHR system if your small practice falls outside the specific aesthetic provider it was designed for.

Calysta EMR specializes in providing an EMR system for aesthetic practices in the form of practice management software that can help make operations and patient engagement easier. From being accessible as a mobile app on a mobile device to closely coordinating medical billing as a patient portal, the platform's capacity to digitize a patient's chart is an invaluable asset to any physician or aesthetic provider. For more information about the possible services this EMR system can provide and its pricing, contact us today.

Learn more: Aesthetic Record Review: The Best EMR System For An Aesthetic Practice?