Practo patient management software (Ray) is a solution provided by Practo Technologies Pvt Ltd, founded in 2008. It is a comprehensive online based healthcare management solution for doctors, patients, clinics and hospitals.
They have various solutions for providers (doctors, clinics & hospitals) like:
- Profile
- Ray
- Reach
- Insta
- Qikwell
For patients they have solutions like:
- Search for doctors, clinics and hospitals
- Book diagnostics and health check ups
- Read health articles and about medicines
- Drive to store health records
These products are available for all branches of medicines and even beyond.
I would be concentrating only on the Practo patient management software (Ray), specially the one further customized for DENTISTS.
Pros:
- It is an online cloud software with both web and app based access.
- Appointment booking can be done by doctor/clinic or can be booked online by the patient (Online booking available for Prime Ray clincs/hospitals only)
- SMS/email based confirmation, rescheduling & reminder for appointment booking, cancellation for both doctor and patient. Even follow-up reminder sms/email can be scheduled for any specific date.
- Digitalise and record your prescription including clinical notes, treatment plans with individual teeth notation (both child and adult teeth).
- You can upload files (xrays, photos, paper prescriptions, consents etc).
- You can set up your billing too if you want to give a printed invoice and receipt to the patient.
- Clinical notes, treatment plan, files, prescription, invoice and receipt can be digitally shared with the patient via the Practo drive option. You can selectively choose to share any or all the options above. Also you have an option of emailing most of these directly to the patient from the software.
- You can customise your prescription and invoice/receipt printouts with clinic logo and demographic details as you wish.
- You can access the reports of earnings, expenses, appointments etc.
- Multiple doctors can access the software using individual login. Even front office staff can have separate logins. Access to complete features or limited functionality according to role can be given.
- You can import patient details from previous patient management system and even download and export patient details, billing etc.
- The app on your phone allows you to identify an incoming call from an existing patient.
- You can customize most of the EMR to suit your requirements by adding and creating a quick access bank of medical histories, clinical notes, treatments plans etc. This allows quick data entry by clicking and adding.
- You can create various categories to categorize patients too.
- Practo seeks feedback on your behalf once the appointment is completed. Even you can manually seek feedback by sending a sms/email from the software itself. These feedback are reflected on your Practo public profile.
Cons:
- App has limited functionality, mostly allowing you to view, make, reschedule and cancel appointments.
- You can notate a tooth in treatment plan but affected surfaces of a tooth can’t be recorded. This is problematic, specially during fillings.
- If you run a multi-chair clinic, clinic appointments can get a little messy to see on the calendar.
- Minimal updates has been made over the years for ease of working of the dentists/clinics.
Review of Practo Patient Management Software (Ray)
I have used Practo Patient Management Software (Ray) for the past 7 years. They have grown tremendously, specially on the patient side of it (dentist search etc). They have brought in features for patients like online consultation, diagnostic bookings etc.
On the doctor side too, they have expanded to hospitals and inventory management.
The Ray software used at the clinic level has not seen many major changes over the years other than a few cosmetic changes. The software by itself is a mighty product, even though not a complete product but will stand shoulder to shoulder with any other software for that matter. They have enabled more features to help increase doctor/clinic visibility online like Prime and Reach. These work on top of Ray and act as a marketing tool.
Currently, Ray is available at INR 11,988 + GST for a year under CM Atom Plan and INR 17,988 +GST for a year under Clinic Management Plan. Unless you are looking to send SMS to your patient in local language, go for CM Atom plan.
As Practo does a lot of SEO work for it’s own website, a patient searching for dentists on say Google will find Practo recommendations on the first page itself. Having your and your clinic’s profile on Practo allows you to be visible online. Practo offers a free listing but buying a PMS from Practo allows you a distinct advantage. Practo has algorithms which enable you to move on top of the page of Practo, if you subscribe to it’s products and also have good overall patient satisfaction scores ( like good feedback, etc).
There are other online cloud based patient management systems like Lybrate, MocDoc, Bestosys, Dentee etc. Most of them do a decent job of the Patient Management software part but let you down in the online presence arena, which one should definitely consider while buying a PMS.
Specially, if you about to start a new clinic or even a new branch of your clinic, buying a PMS plan from Practo, increases your visibility online. This is beside all the benefits of the all-round dental Practo patient management software Ray.
