Integration with practice management systems

Concentric provides a seamless consent experience when integrated with other clinical systems such as an electronic health record (EHR) or a practice management system. This page discusses the integration options with practice management systems – typically used by individuals and clinics for private practice.

Benefits of integration

Integrations will commonly include patient demographics, document transfer, launch in patient context, and single sign on (SSO). With these integrations in place, clinicians can jump directly from a patient record in the practice management system to the same patient record in Concentric, utilising the same login, and have completed consent documents automatically return into the practice management system (even when a patient gives consent remotely).

Compared to using Concentric as a standalone system, this removes the need for: manual (error-prone) entry of patient demographic details and storing/remembering a Concentric password, and ensures that consent information is stored alongside other clinical information in the practice management system.

Live integrations

We currently have integrations with Carebit and Semble, two of the leading practice management systems:

Carebit

Share patient records from Carebit to Concentric, open the equivalent record with one click, and automatically store consent summary PDFs in Carebit Letters.

Semble

Our integration allows patient records created in Semble to be viewed within Concentric, and completed consent summary PDFs are stored back as Semble Documents.

Future integrations

We are committed to increasing the number of practice management systems with which we have seamless integrations.

If you use a practice management system that is not listed above but you are a current Concentric user or are exploring the use of Concentric, we encourage you to share your context with us via the support form and/or discuss with your practice management system supplier. We will be able to inform you whether there is an active discussion with the supplier regarding integration.

We and the practice management system suppliers tend to wait until there are several users wishing to see a certain integration before committing to integration work. Once there is sufficient demand, we (at Concentric) will tend to undertake this integration at no direct cost to the individual/clinic users, but this may not be the case for the practice management system supplier.

Standalone use and subsequent integration

Where integration with your practice management system is not yet available, Concentric can still be used can still be used as a standalone system, with additional processes such as registering patient details. If an integration between Concentric and your practice management system becomes available, you will be able to add in this integration and maintain the same existing Concentric deployment.

Use of Concentric within private hospitals

Many clinicians use their own Concentric deployment for their individual or clinic-based private practice when practising at independent hospitals or larger hospital group facilities.

In our experience, these private providers are increasingly familiar with Concentric, and many recognise the benefits of a structured, evidence-based and legible digital consent process that supports patients and clinicians, while ensuring alignment with their governance and operational needs.

Hospitals typically require that a record of consent is held within their own clinical record. Where there is an existing integration between a clinician’s practice management system and the hospital’s electronic health record, the Concentric consent summary PDF may already automatically flow into the hospital record as part of that process.

Otherwise, clinicians can download the PDF and upload it directly into the hospital’s clinical record, or print and store it in the paper record, in line with local processes.

Most private hospitals have traditionally had their own paper consent forms used for cases performed at the site. Occasionally, this is raised as a potential barrier to using Concentric.

In our experience, this can generally be resolved through dialogue with relevant individuals within the hospital or group. We are very happy to support these conversations to ensure that Concentric meets local consent requirements, avoiding unnecessary duplication wherever possible. In practice, there is usually a pragmatic solution that satisfies both the hospital’s local documentation expectations and a clinician’s desire to use Concentric.

Linking a hospital group Concentric account to your practice management system

Many clinicians access Concentric as part of a larger organisational deployment, for example within Circle Health Group. In these cases, the Concentric account is connected to that organisation’s central patient database and clinical systems.

Because organisational deployments and individual practice management systems operate on separate demographic databases, it is not possible to link an external PMS such as Carebit or Semble directly to that organisational Concentric account.

In practice, clinicians who work across multiple settings often use their hospital group Concentric account for cases performed under that organisation, and maintain a separate individual or clinic Concentric deployment — linked to their own practice management system — for the remainder of their private practice.