In urgent care practices, every second counts, and choosing the best EMR/EHR for urgent care is essential to maintaining efficiency. Providers must manage high patient volumes while ensuring quality care, but administrative bottlenecks and documentation delays can slow operations.
Research suggests that implementing an EHR system can significantly improve efficiency in urgent care clinics, reducing patient wait times and streamlining operations.
This is where Kareo EMR (now Tebra) comes in. Designed to optimize operations, improve coordination, and reduce administrative burdens, Kareo EMR helps urgent care facilities run more efficiently. From faster patient intake to smoother billing processes, its features support a seamless workflow at every stage of care.
In this blog, we’ll explore how urgent care centers can enhance their operations using Kareo EMR to make operations efficient, reduce wait times, and provide better patient care.
- Kareo’s digital intake forms and real-time scheduling reduce wait times and streamline check-ins
- Automation in scheduling, billing, and documentation minimizes administrative slowdowns and improves operational flow
- Kareo’s automated eligibility verification, documentation, and reminders free up staff time for patient care
- Billing complexities impact revenue, but Kareo’s automated claim submissions and RPA ensure faster reimbursements
- Patient portals, self-scheduling, and automated reminders improve patient engagement and retention
- CentralMed Urgent Care reduced wait times, cut phone calls by 50%, and improved operational efficiency with Kareo
After consulting with 25 urgent care physicians and clinics, we identified several key challenges in urgent care workflows:
Following EMR best practices, Kareo (now known as Tebra) optimizes patient flow, automates administrative tasks, and enhances provider collaboration, allowing urgent care facilities to operate at peak efficiency. Here’s how the software mitigates the most pressing issues in urgent care workflows:
Managing High Patient Volume With Efficient Digital Workflows
Urgent care centers often struggle with unpredictable patient surges, leading to overcrowding and extended wait times. Kareo’s cloud-based EHR and practice management system streamline patient intake by digitizing registration forms, automating appointment scheduling, and enabling real-time updates. This eliminates paperwork bottlenecks and ensures staff can process patients faster.
Additionally, Kareo’s telemedicine integration allows providers to manage virtual visits alongside in-person appointments, helping urgent care centers maintain accessibility and efficiency even during peak hours.
Reducing Administrative Bottlenecks Through Automation
Administrative inefficiencies can slow down daily operations and affect the quality of care. Kareo addresses this by offering an all-in-one practice management system that automates scheduling, reminders, documentation, and billing workflows.
Staff can access an intuitive dashboard that centralizes key tasks, reducing manual data entry and administrative errors. By integrating automated eligibility verification, Kareo helps practices confirm insurance details before appointments, cutting down on claim denials and billing complications.
Enhancing Communication And Coordination Among Care Teams
One of the biggest challenges in urgent care settings is maintaining seamless communication between providers, nurses, front-office staff, and external specialists. Kareo’s cloud-based platform enables real-time data sharing, ensuring that medical teams have up-to-date patient records at their fingertips.
Additionally, the system integrates with labs, imaging centers, and pharmacies, allowing for smoother coordination of tests, prescriptions, and follow-up care. Secure messaging features further enhance communication, reducing delays in decision-making and improving overall patient care.
Optimizing Billing And Revenue Cycle Management
Billing errors, rejected claims, and revenue cycle inefficiencies can significantly impact an urgent care center’s financial health. Kareo simplifies medical billing with automated claim submissions to more than 8,000 government payers, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and real-time analytics that provide insights into financial performance.
The system also supports electronic payments, allowing patients to settle their bills fluidly. By reducing administrative burdens and minimizing errors, urgent care centers can maximize revenue and maintain a steady cash flow.
Empowering Patient Engagement
Patient satisfaction plays a crucial role in the success of urgent care practices. Kareo enhances the patient experience through automated appointment reminders, self-service scheduling, and post-visit follow-ups via text or email.
The platform’s patient portal allows individuals to access their health records, pay bills online, and communicate with providers, leading to better engagement and higher retention rates.
Boosting Patient Acquisition
In addition to streamlining internal operations, Kareo offers strong marketing solutions to help urgent care practices attract and retain patients. By enhancing online visibility through optimized, responsive websites, Kareo ensures practices appear in local search results, leading to a more predictable patient flow and better resource allocation. Reputation management tools allow urgent care centers to monitor and respond to patient feedback, fostering trust and retention.
Additionally, Kareo’s search engine marketing services and mapping helps practice owners target patients actively seeking urgent care, while social media management tools strengthen community engagement and patient relationships. By integrating these marketing solutions, Kareo enables urgent care centers to optimize patient acquisition and retention, ensuring long-term efficiency and growth.
CentralMed Urgent and Primary Care, co-founded by Dr. Nosa Aigbe Lebarty and Dr. Jina Bae Nocera in Colonie, New York, offers integrative services such as addiction therapy, annual exams, vaccinations, STD testing, geriatrics, and aesthetic treatments.
Despite being the only multimodal and minority-owned urgent care clinic in their area, they faced challenges competing with other local care centers. To enhance the online presence and patient engagement of their urgent care practice, they utilized Kareo EMR and practice management software.
Kareo refined their website for user-friendliness, added online appointment scheduling and messaging and implemented digital intake forms that auto-populate into Kareo’s secure, cloud-based EHR.
Post-appointment, Kareo facilitated patient surveys and streamlined the sharing of positive feedback online. As a result, CentralMed experienced significant growth, with about half of their patients now booking appointments online and completing intake forms in advance, reducing waiting room times and freeing up staff hours.
Additionally, the practice saw a 50% reduction in phone calls, allowing staff to focus more on in-person patient care rather than administrative tasks. Their online reviews increased, achieving a 4.3 out of 5-star rating. Dr. Lebarty noted that approximately half of their new patients choose their practice due to the enhanced website features and communications.
Urgent care centers operate in a high-pressure environment where efficiency, speed, and accuracy are essential. By implementing Kareo EMR, practices can overcome common workflow challenges, from reducing administrative setbacks to optimizing patient intake, communication, and billing. With tools designed to enhance both operational efficiency and patient engagement, Kareo empowers urgent care providers to deliver faster, more reliable care while improving financial stability.
As seen in CentralMed’s success story, adopting Kareo can lead to measurable improvements in patient experience, staff productivity, and overall clinic performance. Investing in the right technology is not just about keeping up—it’s about transforming urgent care into a smooth, patient-centered experience.