What Is Allied Healthcare?

Allied healthcare is a set of specialist health services that sits outside of standard primary and emergency medical care, nursing and dentistry. It represents the nation’s second-largest clinical workforce and supports millions of Australians every year.

In most cases, allied healthcare refers to supportive, rehabilitative and therapeutic services that enhance patient care outcomes and improve patients’ quality of life. These play a particularly important role in managing chronic conditions and helping Australians to improve their functional capabilities.

Well-known allied health services include physiotherapy, occupational therapy, counselling and psychotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic, dietetics, speech therapy and art therapy. 

The Role of Practice Management Software in Healthcare

Practice management software is increasingly considered an essential tool for allied health service provision. It supports businesses as they manage the many time-consuming administrative tasks that are key to quality patient care provision.

You can use allied health software to schedule client services; securely store, share and update patient documentation; monitor patients’ funds usage; track patients’ progress towards their goals; manage a team of allied healthcare professionals; generate invoices; and more.

7 Benefits of Allied Health Software 

ShiftCare’s patient management software has helped thousands of allied health professionals deliver care services. It does so through driving:

1. Improved Patient Care Quality 

Providing individualised care is easier when you have access to all the right information. Thanks to our mobile app, you and your team will always be able to review the latest patients’ care notes and objectives. You can add strategies and track progress towards goals, helping you ensure that each patient’s care services are on the right track.

2. Better Roster Management

Balancing multiple patients’ schedules can be challenging, especially when certain clients need multiple allied health services from you and your team. ShiftCare’s scheduler allows you to switch between the client and staff view of the roster so you can make sure that scheduled services work well for everyone. 

With better roster management, you’ll find it easier to stay on top of all your appointments and make the most of the limited work hours in your day.

3. Time Savings 

With auto-generated invoices, instant analytics and a built-in red-flag notification system, allied health software can drastically reduce the time you spend on admin work. 

One of ShiftCare’s allied health users reports that manually invoicing used to be one person’s full-time job, before they switched to ShiftCare and invoicing became “10 minutes of button clicking automation”.

4. Greater Efficiencies 

It’s not just time that you’ll save with allied health software. You can also significantly reduce your costs through reduced labour, more efficient rosters, better financial reporting and fewer invoicing errors. We surveyed 50 ShiftCare users and found that even a small five-person allied health team with 15 clients saves on average nearly $2,000 a month with our software.

5. Smoother Communication 

The ShiftCare mobile app will ensure instant client progress note uploads, making it easy to communicate the latest patient information with other allied health professionals. And, via ShiftCare Connect, you can also provide updates for patients and their loved ones with a few clicks of a button.

6. Reliable Service Verification 

ShiftCare’s time-tracking feature provides location verification for all shift records, plus your allied health professionals can ask patients to digitally sign the service record. You’ll have an indisputable proof of service provision in case of any issues. 

What’s more, you’ll be automatically notified if one of your team members doesn’t clock in to their shift, giving you time to find out what’s gone wrong and resolve it.

7. Enhanced Compliance

Whether it’s the NDIS Practice Standards or SCHADS award pay rates, ShiftCare’s compliance features will help you stay compliant. You’ll benefit from digital records, secure data management, document expiry alerts, a built-in NDIS Price Guide, and a one-system approach that brings your shift records, payroll and invoicing into one system. 

Software Built with Allied Health in Mind

From care plan management to rostering, ShiftCare’s allied health software provides you with the tools you need to deliver a higher standard of patient care. You’ll be able to stay on top of your scheduled services, reduce your admin workload and ensure that every client receives personalised care services that help them meet their goals.

Try ShiftCare for free.

What is PMS in healthcare?

Practice management software (PMS) helps healthcare professionals with their administrative tasks, including scheduling services, billing and managing patient documentation.

What is the difference between EMR and practice management software?

While practice management software (PMS) supports you in managing administrative tasks, electronic medical records (EMR) are digital patient records. Many PMS packages include EMR.