Choosing practice management software — 7 questions to ask before you sign
Most practice management demos look the same in the first 20 minutes. These are the questions that surface the real differences — and protect you from a year-long mistake.
Switching practice management software is expensive. Not in licence fees — in disruption. So before you sign anything, get clear answers to these seven questions. They're the ones that separate a great fit from a year of regret.
1. "Where will my data live, and can I export it?"
If the vendor can't answer this in one sentence, walk away. You want data residency in South Africa (POPIA), and you want a one-click full export in a standard format (CSV, JSON). If your data is locked in, you don't own it.
2. "What does the medical aid submission flow actually look like?"
Ask for a live demo of submitting a claim — not a slide. You're looking for: how many clicks per claim, how errors are flagged, how rejections are handled, and whether reconciliation against the remittance happens automatically.
3. "What happens when I need help on a Tuesday at 3pm?"
Email tickets that get answered "within 48 hours" are not support. You want a phone number, a WhatsApp line, or a chat that gets a human in minutes. Ask current customers how often they actually use support and how good it is.
4. "How long does setup really take?"
Some platforms quote two hours and take two months. Ask for a written setup plan with milestones, and a reference from a practice that went live recently. Anything claiming "instant" is hiding work; anything quoting more than a week for a single-practitioner setup is over-engineered.
5. "What does it cost in year two?"
Year one is often discounted. Year two is the real number. Get the per-user, per-month price, plus any add-ons (SMS reminders, document storage, payment processing) you'll actually use. Multiply by 12. That's your real cost.
6. "Is it built for South Africa, or translated for it?"
ICD-10 with SA codes. Medical aid lists. POPI. ZAR. Public holidays. School terms for paediatric practices. If you have to "configure" any of these, the system wasn't built for our market.
7. "Can I talk to three current customers in my discipline?"
Not testimonials. Not curated case studies. Three names, three phone numbers, three honest conversations. A vendor with happy customers will say yes without flinching.
HeroMed was built in South Africa, for South African allied health practices. We're happy to put you on a call with practitioners who run their day on us — reach out and we'll set it up.