From HIPAA-compliant security to customizable templates, these features will keep your clinic running smoothly

If digitalization was the first medical record revolution, the second is unlocking those records’ true potential. Early electronic medical records (EMRs) for aesthetic clinics were purely functional, representing an attempt to replicate the physical document in digital form. They were barebones patient records, not even trying to cater to the business’s specific needs — or those of its clients.

Thankfully, that era now lies firmly in the past. Today’s EMRs are expansive software solutions that combine stellar design with time-saving automations. They make life easier for patients and providers alike, incorporating plenty of useful features. If you’re shopping for the best EMR for aesthetic practice use, these are the features to keep in mind.

Features that define the best EMR for aesthetic practices

Intuitive user interface

At first glance, an attractive user interface may seem like a frivolous extra. Appearances are important — few know that better than workers at an aesthetic clinic — but aren’t other features more valuable?

Think of it this way. The simpler and more intuitive a system is, the more quickly workers will learn how to use it. That means less time spent on training and more on productive work. It also means workers will go from novice to expert in less time. They’ll get more and more efficient over a shorter period. Plus, they’ll make fewer mistakes that require fixing.

Consider how much time your providers spend using your aesthetics EMR. They’re in there basically all day, right? That means even small improvements in efficiency can have big effects on productivity downstream. In the same way drag on a car cuts into its gas mileage, an unintuitive UI slows providers down. Shaving those inefficiencies off with a simple, intuitive UI can lead to sleek, streamlined performance.

Comprehensive client records

Any business can benefit from keeping an eye on its history with a client, but aesthetic clinics have the added imperative to ensure high-quality medical care. They need instant access to each client’s medical history to monitor for allergies or potential treatment conflicts. Without that access, they could potentially harm their clients by accident.

Of course, client records do more than protect against treatment mistakes. Most popular EMR systems can help prevent clients from needing to repeat themselves by keeping their info in a single, central storage location. That speeds up work and improves the client experience.

The best EMR for aesthetic practices will also include client profile sections tailored to the care your business provides. One key feature to look for is space for progress photos. These help you and your clients track their journey, improving the care you can provide and raising client satisfaction. Everyone loves a good before and after.

Medical needs aside, it’s important to remember your business is more than a clinic. You’re running a self-care business. You want each client to feel healthy, beautiful, and unique. To do that, you need to go the extra mile to meet their preferences and expectations.

That’s where a client experience platform can enter the picture. It’s rare for even the best aesthetic EMR solutions to include space for the little things that help perfect the client experience. When you learn particulars about how a client prefers to receive treatment, from their favorite music to their favorite provider, your client experience platform will let you store that info in their client profile. That sets you up to deliver a stellar client experience every time.

HIPAA-compliant security

Patient trust is paramount for any medical aesthetics business. Not only do clients put their physical appearance in your hands, but they also hand over tons of sensitive information. Keeping it private is the first step in maintaining that trust.

Much of that info may also be protected health information (PHI). That means it’s subject to HIPAA protections. Data from the Department of Health and Human Services shows that 133 million medical records were exposed by data breaches in 2023. One survey indicates that 60% of healthcare businesses have been the target of a ransomware attack. If getting hacked wasn’t bad enough, your business may be on the hook for any resulting HIPAA violations.

Luckily, the best EMR for an aesthetic practice will include powerful security measures. To give yourself the best chance of staying hacker-free and in the good graces of both HHS and your patients, look for the following:

• Cloud storage to take advantage of scalability and strict data security standards such as SOC 2 and PCI DSS.

• Data encryption that protects data both at rest and in transit.

• Regular backups to a secure second storage location to maintain continuity of business.

• A HIPAA Business Associate Agreement that outlines the responsibilities of you and your chosen partner.

• Access controls and permissions that ensure only authorized users see the PHI they need to do their jobs.

Customizable templates

Templates are an incredible time-saving tool, allowing you to skip from a blank page to a ready-to-use document. The trick with EMR templates is that every medical practice has its own needs.

EMR solutions that aren’t designed with aesthetic medicine in mind will often include templates that aren’t relevant to your practice. If those irrelevant fields show up in the forms you hand to patients, you’ll waste their time and lower their overall satisfaction. At the same time, you’re also likely to find EMR examples that lack fields your providers need to work effectively.

If you can customize these templates, you can eliminate both problems; you can trim your charts and forms to only include relevant fields, and you can add fields that weren’t originally included. The best EMR for aesthetic practices will also include features specific to the industry, such as in-app photo markup. That makes it easy to communicate with patients about what they can expect from their treatments and lets you save those images for future reference.

Of course, a stellar client experience demands attention to more than the medical. Opting for a high-quality client experience platform can unlock even more customizations that help you get to know your clients. They can even help you upsell and cross-sell services, getting your clients more of what they love and boosting your bottom line.

Customer service

No matter how intuitive your EMR software is, there will always be speedbumps to clear. The faster you can resolve them, the less it will affect your brand and client experience. But sometimes, the problem is beyond your ability to solve. Maybe you’ve run into a bug in the software, or you just can’t figure out how to work a certain function.

This is where stellar customer support comes in handy. Although it’s not technically a feature of the EMR itself, it may be the most important thing to look for when shopping for an EMR solution. If the support team is ready, willing, and able to help whenever you run into trouble, you can return to business as usual that much more quickly.

Look for support teams that provide several avenues of communication, such as email, phone, and chat. Make sure at least one is open 24/7, and look for customer reviews that say support resolved issues quickly.

An EMR that does it all

These five features are the absolute essentials for a great EMR, but they’re only the tip of the iceberg. If you want your aesthetic clinic to operate at peak efficiency, there are plenty of others you’ll find useful: Client profiles that power unparalleled in-clinic experiences. Email marketing that makes it easy to reach clients with the right promo, precisely when they’re most likely to use it. Reporting software that shows you what’s working and what you can improve.

If your software incorporates these features, you may wonder how you ever got on without them. And you’ll get them all and more with Boulevard, the world’s first client experience platform. Level up your clinic experience today — your clients will thank you for it.

Looking for more information about starting your aesthetics business? Check out "How to Start Your Own Aesthetics Business: The Complete Guide."