An EHR is an electronic health record system and it's a system that is specifically for therapists in Private Practice. There are loads of EHR systems on the market nowadays so I hope that thinking about the answers to these questions will help you with your choices.

The system that I recommend wholeheartedly is Power Diary so I’m going to be specifically mentioning their solutions and features in this blog.

1. How user friendly is it?

It's all well and good setting up a new system but if it's not very user friendly and you find it really hard to book the appointments, add client notes and onboard new clients you're not really going to use it to its full capabilities. You're probably just going to either give up on it and go back to the system that you used before or you're just going to be paying for a really expensive system that you're not using.

One of the things that I first loved about Power Diary is how user-friendly it is. I found it so intuitive and so I knew it would be easy for my clients as well. When you are looking at EHR systems look at the flow of how the system works and how easy it is for you to navigate yourself around.

2. Does it do everything you want and need?

A system is never going to have every single thing you would love it to do so you need to think about the things that are non-negotiable. What do you need the system to be able to do so that you can use it?

Personally I think Power Diary ticks so many boxes when it comes to EHRs and there's lots of additional features that you probably don't even think you want or need that can be really handy, such as bulk send emails and the client profiles which I've talked about in this blog here.

It’s really useful that you are able to add the specific service type of session that your client has and also if they have a reduced fee, so you never have to worry about sending them an invoice for the incorrect amount.

So I would suggest really thinking about your Private Practice and making a list of what you would love your EHR system to be able to do, and then checking that against the features and benefits of each of the EHRs you're considering to see if it's something that they offer.

3. Is it customisable?

So it's all well and good having a system but can you make changes to that system so it works for your practice and your clients?

One of the things I absolutely love about Power Diary is that anything that has a drop down you can customise yourself, so for example clients, genders, referral types, contacts, client statuses and more.

4. Is there customer support?

When you get into trouble or when something happens that you don't know how to fix, is it easy to contact customer support and do they actually help you? Are you able to speak to an actual real life person? Do you have to do a live chat at the time that they're open? Do you have to send an email? Power Diary has an amazing customer support team. You can email them and they will get back to you within 24 hours, and usually they get back to you even quicker than that. They also have a Facebook group for their members and the customer service team are in there, but actually the whole community is really helpful if you need an answer really quickly.

I love that they have a Facebook group because you can see in there that they are open to criticism. They respond when people say that something's not working and I think it shows how much they care about the people that use their system because they will listen to that feedback. Power Diary also has an ongoing Trello board, which is like a road map of the things they're working on and feature requests so you can upvote them too if you want a specific request.

They also offer a live video chat with them where they can show you the system and help you with it all for free so I think that their customer support is second to none.

5. Is there a free trial?

I think it's really important for you to be able to have a look at the system, play around with it and get a feel for how it works before you have to make payment.

Power Diary offers 14 free days to try the system out and you also get 6 months half price as well, so you're paying less whilst you're doing the setup and kind of getting a feel for the system which I think is really great.

6. Is it easy to set up?

One of the main concerns I find with therapists in Private Practice is the actual setup. That's why I have offered in the past to set up the system for them then they take over the running of it themselves.

Power Diary do offer some services to help you get set up, for example they will import all of your client data for you, so you can just create a very simple spreadsheet send it over to them via email and they will make sure that it's all set up for you on the system and they do this for free. They also have the most amazing how-to guides. So if you put into the search bar something that you're looking for you'll get a step-by-step guide on how to do that which makes it really easy for you.

I also think that getting set up tells you a lot about the system with regards to the user friendliness, so that's something else you can look at. If it's easy to set up it's probably easy to use as well.

If you’d like a step by step guide to setting up the system I have a course to support you with this.

7. How much does it cost?

If you are looking for an EHR the cost can vary quite considerably and, whilst cost isn't everything, it is definitely something to consider, especially if you're just starting out or if this is a new expense to your practice. So definitely have a look at the costs involved on a month-to-month basis.

Power Diary definitely isn't the cheapest system out there but I do think its benefits well outweigh the cost of the system based on the user ability, the customisable system, the fact that they are developing things and listening to their community all the time and the customer service support so I do think that sometimes paying a little bit more can get you a lot more.

8. What does the system integrate with?

Are there things you're currently using in your practice that you would like the system to integrate with? For example, does it need to integrate with your current calendar? Does it need to integrate with your billing software so that you can invoice your clients and give them a pay link? Does it integrate with your accounting software?

Power Diary integrates with Google, so it will integrate with your Gmail and also your Google calendar so that the appointments can sync with your calendar. It also integrates with Stripe so that you can take payments. This is one of the best options because it can work worldwide and if you're seeing people in different countries they can easily make payments to you, whereas they might not be able to make BACs transfers. It also integrates with Xero so that you can do your accounting really easily.

Not everybody will use all of those systems so you also want to have a look at your preferred EHR and see what it integrates with to make sure that you're not having to change loads of things to be able to use the one system.

9. Will the system benefit or hinder your clients?

What you really want to make sure of is that everything you're doing is going to be of benefit to your client as well as you. So, are the reminders fit for purpose? Do they get sent out at a time that is relevant and also helpful for your clients? Is it easy for clients to make payments for the sessions? Do they have options with regards to payments? Can they manage their own appointments themselves? Now this is something you might not want them to be able to do, but if you do, does the system allow for that? I've said many times that I don't recommend letting the clients manage their own bookings but if it's something that will be a benefit to you and your client type then maybe this is something you'd want to look for.

Something I really love about Power Diary is all of the smart fields that the system offers. So, for example, if you create an onboarding form or a therapy contract within the system you can have smart fields which automatically updates the client profile, so that's less admin for you but it makes it easy for your clients to be able to complete the forms online, add a signature and then once it's completed they just click a button and it automatically allocates to their file.

You'll also be able to add all of their contacts onto their client record and set the disclosure level. So if you're working with a child or couples you can automatically make sure that appointment reminders go to a relevant person, so for a child that might be a parent and for couples it would be both of the participants, so that they don't have to resend links to each other.

You can also set that up with invoicing too, so if one person is paying for the invoice such as a parent, or one part of the couple, the invoice can go automatically to that person and this prevents delays in payment for you.

10. Will the system grow with your practice?

Let's say currently you are a single practice owner and you're seeing clients one-to-one, but you have aspirations for more. Do you maybe want to create a group practice and have more people working for you? Will your EHR grow with your practice?

With Power Diary you can add on multiple calendars for the one practice. So you and your associates can work from the same system, but have different calendars, and you'll be able to see what they're doing and potentially they can see what you're doing, if that’s also helpful, or you can set restrictions on their user account.

It can also help if you have a virtual assistant for the whole practice, then that person can make bookings for every single person within the practice. It also offers group sessions as well, so you can create a group appointment and people in that group can get reminders for that session and they can all get individual invoices as well. So Power Diary can really grow with your practice, if it's something that you're looking to do.

Conclusion

So there were 10 questions to consider when you're looking at EHR and also some information on Power Diary for you as my preferred EHR platform for therapists in private practice. I hope you found that helpful.

Please do check out my YouTube channel where I have a whole series of videos on EHRs and you can ask me any questions that I may have left unanswered. You might particularly enjoy this video What Power Diary Can Do For Private Practice which gives you a system overview and tutorial.

If you do decide that Power Diary is the one for you then you can sign up using my affiliate link and from anywhere I’ve mentioned Power Diary in this blog post. If you’d like help with the set up you can check out my Power Diary Setup course which is a step by step course which will give you a fully set up and ready to use Practice management system with the BEST EHR out there!

*This is an affiliate link but I wholeheartedly recommend PD! My team and I use it every day, for multiple clients. It won't cost you a penny more if you use this link and you’ll get 6 months half price PLUS 500 SMS credits added when you sign up using this link. You also get 14 days to try it for free, so why not give it a go.

10 Questions to Ask Yourself When Deciding on an EHR for your Private Practice