Medical practice management system

A medical practice management system (also practice management system or PMS) is a software-based information and enterprise management tool for physician offices that offers a set of key features that support an individual or group medical practice's operations. Those key features include — but are not limited to — appointment scheduling, patient registration, procedure posting, insurance billing, patient billing, payment posting, data and file maintenance, and reporting.

In some practices, a PMS is often connected to an electronic health record (EHR) system. While some information in these systems may overlap — patient and provider data, for example — in general the EHR system is used to track patients' clinical outcomes, while the PMS is used for administrative and financial matters. The decision to interface the two systems together or acquire an integrated software package is one of the more challenging considerations for modern medical practices. In June 2015, customer satisfaction surveyor Black Book found that 86 percent of providers sought to acquire or upgrade to an integrated PMS-EHR, citing the need to ensure "clinical data and revenue cycle management are aligned in order to support improved operational efficiencies and broad initiatives like population health management and quality reporting."