# Practice Management Software (PMS) - What is it?

**URL:** <https://hub.sadocs.co.za/t/practice-management-software-pms-what-is-it/311>\
**Category:** Private Practice Management\
**Tags:** tech, practice-management, business, practice-startup, private-sector\
**Created:** [February 16, 2024, 9:19am UTC](https://hub.sadocs.co.za/t/practice-management-software-pms-what-is-it/311 "2024-02-16T09:19:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SAdocs](https://hub.sadocs.co.za/user_avatar/hub.sadocs.co.za/sadocs/32/554_2.png) [@SAdocs](https://hub.sadocs.co.za/u/SAdocs)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 9:19am UTC](https://hub.sadocs.co.za/t/practice-management-software-pms-what-is-it/311/1 "2024-02-16T09:19:44Z")

</div>

![work-gf40332403_1280 jpg](https://hub.sadocs.co.za/uploads/default/original/1X/9c2ef51e0a477f913b19fae00bf92295caf879ff.jpeg)

When you’ve started your own practice, you soon realise that running a practice smoothly requires much more **business admin** and **acumen** than med school ever prepared you for.

Practice admin generally includes, _but is not limited to_, the following:

### Booking patients:

1. Scheduling appointments.
2. Calendar integration.
3. Data-capturing.
4. Indemnity and consent forms.
5. Privacy and security measures.

### The consultation:

1. Clinical note-keeping.
2. Electronic health records.
3. Investigations (pathology and radiology).
4. Keeping track of all results.
5. Referrals to and from other healthcare professionals.
6. Sick note generation.
7. Prescription generation.
8. Dispensing (where applicable).

### Billing and getting paid:

1. Invoice generation.
2. Consultation coding.
3. ICD 10 coding.
4. Procedure and material coding.
5. Medical aid claims submission.
6. Switching (checking medical aid status in real-time).

### Practice finances & accounting:

1. Dispensary management (where applicable).
2. Transaction reconciliation/remittance.
3. Financial reports.
4. Accounting and auditing.
5. Oh, and don’t forget business taxes…

Feel overwhelmed yet? We know…

That’s why we’ve endeavoured to provide you with helpful information about the **best practice management software solutions in South Africa** to assist you with starting and running your private practice.

# So What Is Practice Management Software?

Practice management software (PMS), sometimes referred to as practice management applications (PMAs), are **software solutions** that function specifically to help medical professionals, like doctors, **streamline** their practice processes.

Their functionality generally includes running the day-to-day processes like **scheduling** appointments, **booking** new patients, capturing **patient data** including medical aid data, assisting with **medical billing** and payments, linking with **medical aids** for **claim submissions** , generating **accounting reports** for reconciliation and analysis, **dispensary** inventory and stock management, etc.

Some software solutions include patient clinical record keeping. **Clinical notes** enable you to type and save patient notes so that you can view your notes again at future consultations. **Electronic health records (EHR)**, on the other hand, take clinical notes to a whole new level by including commonly used phrases, consultation templates, and many other tools to help streamline the consultation time.

Certain software solutions also include **prescription** and **sick note** generation. These are particularly helpful when they save past medications prescribed. Some are even integrated with software that shows you names of **generics** as you prescribe.

### 💡 Tip

As you can see, different practice management software offers different solutions for different processes.  
For example, investing in software that offers EHR is great if you like to keep electronic notes of every patient, but if you know you prefer paper-based note-keeping then investing in EHR would be pointless. The key is to find the right solution to suit your needs.

🗨_ **Please contribute to this conversation by replying to this topic.** _