Step 1- Replace Your Paper Charts
I don’t have to tell you that the burden of administrative and clinical documents in a medical practice is considerable. Busy offices lead to inaccessible administrative documents and charts; whether misplaced, lost, or in use by another staff member. Physician practices continue to seek solutions to reduce or eliminate the increasing volumes of paper within their organizations. The problem is that most people do not know where to even start. To make things worse, so many have heard horror stories about offices adopting Electronic Medical Records (EHR) solutions that cost a fortune while making the providers life miserable. Furthermore, most EHR vendors want you to upgrade your PMS as well. Why should you? If it isn’t broke don’t fix it.
Most physicians need solutions that streamline their business processes instead of re-engineering their clinical practices. Paper is an excellent place to start, because paper remains the cross enterprise medium of choice for all of healthcare. Even the most advanced medical operations are still awash with EOBs, consent forms, and legacy charts. Electronic medical records manage clinical work flow, but they do not eliminate paper. So let’s find a way to transform your paper documents into digital data! An EHR scanning solution is an option that unfortunately is usually expensive and cumbersome. It requires too many clicks and trained personnel who are adept at using the EMR.
The truth is that you must be made aware of another solution that may be more attractive to you in terms of cost and functionality.
A document management solution is a cost-effective way to meet your paperless office needs at a fraction of the cost. Document management solutions typically allow you to print a barcode on your everyday forms so that after they are completed they can be scanned and automatically filed in an electronic chart. Typically, the chart is a folder that resides in an electronic representation of a filing cabinet. The barcode identifies the patient and the document type. Once the chart is scanned, it is automatically saved and can easily be retrieved and viewed on a PC, or on a laptop. There are many advantages of having an electronic document such as:
- The chart can be retrieved quickly and reliably – this concept eliminates the problem of lost charts
- Eliminates the cost of paper charts
- Frees-up the space that was utilized to store physical charts
- The system is more user friendly then a typical EMR since you are still working with forms you are familiar with
- Because you are working with your current forms, you don’t have to change your office workflow; instead you can configure it for “best practices”
- Electronic data can now be backed-up safely offsite
- Multiple staff members can access the same chart at the same time
- Charts can be accessed from anywhere – on the road, in your home, or at the hospital
Examples of document management packages are:
- Omnipage Professional – Less than $500.00/Per License.
- Cabinet NG - Cabinet NG is somewhat more advanced and can be purchased for about $1,350.00/Per License.
- eDoc Health - If you want a more healthcare centric product see eDoc Health. This is an advanced solution that supports order taking, ePrescription, imaging, patient registration, reports and etc. This solution can be purchased for less than $1,2500.0/Per License.
Step 2- Throw Away Your Prescription Pad
E-Prescribing gives you the ability to electronically send an accurate, error-free and understandable prescription directly to a pharmacy from the point-of-care. E-Prescription is proving to be an important element in improving the quality of patient care and enhancing patient safety. E-Prescription is a program that can run from your PC, Laptop or even a smart phone.
- Medication Lists – See what medications your patient has been prescribed, even by physicians not affiliated with your practice.
- Integrated Drug Reference – Access the fully integrated drug reference system to access complete information on all medications with a few clicks.
- Allergy and Drug-Drug Interaction Checks – Check the prescription against your patient’s known allergies and against any potential drug-drug interactions.
- Faster Data Entry – Eliminate unnecessary data entry by pre-populating your prescription with patient information to ensure you send a complete prescription every time.
- Quick Access to Frequently Prescribed Medications – Utilize fast, one-click access to frequently prescribed medications and common dosages.
- Better Formulary Compliance – Know which drugs are covered at what level by their formularies. Integration with Surescripts, a health information exchange group, enables e-Prescription to compare medication with the patient’s insurance coverage.
- Send Scripts Many Ways – Submit electronically through the SureScripts network to more than 85% of U.S. pharmacies. Prescriptions are automatically faxed or printed to ensure the fastest most convenient delivery of the prescription to the patient’s selected pharmacy.
- Pharmacy History – Record the patient’s preferred pharmacy, making writing subsequent prescriptions that much easier.
- Convenience and Flexibility – E-Prescription uses either a web browser or your mobile device leaving no need to phone or fax in prescriptions. You can process refills in a matter of seconds.
- Improved Legibility – Use menu driven selections and electronic transmission to eliminate legibility issues. E-Prescription helps with JCAHO compliance because it does not use unaccepted abbreviations.
Subscription to services such as Rcopia can be purchased for less than $70.00/Month Per Provider. Click here for more available E-Prescription services
Step 3- Eliminate Your Fax Machine
The Electronic Fax comes in two flavors, either a hosted fax solution that you buy as a service or as software that is installed on one of your office computers and connects to the internet. Today, either solution can be HIPAA compliant as they support encrypted data transmission.
An electronic fax system allows you to fax reports, prescription requests and patient records from any software that is installed on an internet connected computer. Any document you can send to the printer you can send as a fax. You basically click on the fax option just like you click on the print option.
- No Need to Print – Eliminates the need to print-out documents that will eventually be faxed to colleagues or clinical facilities. Time delays that are frequently encountered when an office fax machine is busy are eliminated.
- No Special Training Required – Once incorporated into a software application, provides seamless, intuitive faxing of clinical documents.
- Privacy And Encrypted Security – Protects clinical documents by using SSL/PKI encryption. HIPAA concerns are fully covered by electronic faxing’s enhanced privacy features.
- No More Trips to the Fax Machine – Your faxes can come directly to your machine in the form of an email.
Examples of electronic fax service are:
- eFax – This solution can be purchased for about $26.00/Month.
- myFax - This solution can be purchased for about $20.00/Month (Rates Based on Fax Volume).
Examples of electronic fax servers are:
- FaxBack - This solution can be purchased for about $2,000.00.
- Snappy Fax – This solution can be purchased for less than $500.00.
When installing a fax server on your network fax volume does not affect the cost of the solution.
Conclusion
Elimination of paper by scanning charts, using electronic prescription and electronic fax is a cost effective way to:
- Minimize manual processes that slow down your workflow
- Minimize human errors
- Reduce frustration for your staff
- Free up your staffs time so they can focus on your patients
- Reduce cost of operations
- Enhance patient care
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We’ve been working on moving hospitals toward online policy management for
the past decade. Not only do the online policy management solutions increase
patient safety by automating tasks that used to be painstakingly manual and more
prone to human error, but it also increases the operational efficiency of
hospitals. Really, a win-win.