Turn good patient access data into a talking point
Turn good patient access data into a talking point
Make 'extraordinary' results known
You may not think of it this way, but your department has a wealth of data that would impress others. Have patient wait times decreased dramatically, have patient complaints become almost non-existent, or have your accuracy rates doubled? Don't resist the urge to brag.
Catherine M. Pallozzi, CHAM, CCS, director of patient access at Albany (NY) Medical Center Hospital, says that there are two metrics that she never fails to share with administrators and hospital leaders. These are registration accuracy and copayment collections.
"Patient access' ability to achieve and maintain a 95% registration accuracy rate is an incredible achievement," says Pallozzi. "This has a direct impact on the bottom line and days in accounts receivable."
Access staff are able to collect on 90% to 100% of patients with copayments. "This is extraordinary in these difficult economic times," says Pallozzi. "Any time that a department is meeting or exceeding an industry, department, or facility standard, it is worthy of making it known."
Share any goals that your department is meeting or exceeding. "Certainly with a new product, the senior executives will want to see ROI. More importantly, meeting goals in today's health care environment warrants recognition," says Pallozzi. "Extraordinary effort is put forth to achieve success. Don't miss the opportunity to share your success."
Pallozzi recommends these approaches:
1. Publish data in a monthly newsletter.
"This is a great way to let the staff know how well they are doing. Share your newsletter with executive leadership," she says. The department's newsletter is sent to all staff, the vice president of patient financial services, and the CFO.
2. If you have an internal website, create an access page and post your achievements.
"We, as a society, tend to focus on those things that need improvement or have gone wrong," says Pallozzi. "We all know that positive reinforcement and recognition of the behaviors we want to see continued can yield an incredible result."
3. Share all statistics, even for those areas needing improvement.
"It demonstrates the department's commitment to quality and the goals and objectives set forth," says Pallozzi. "Any area requiring improvement should always have a noted plan of action. Outline the steps that will be made to make the needed improvement."
Always share this info
Michael Taylor, regional director of patient services at Sutter Health Sacramento (CA) Sierra Region, says that there are many types of data that can impress administrators. He recommends sharing these metrics:
data quality on correct patient demographics, insurance information, and authorizations secured;
patient satisfaction, such as courtesy, wait time, and privacy;
upfront cash collection.
"We report out by e-mail and website our key performance indicators and back-end-identified errors, which are self-inflicted errors identified in the patient accounting flow and reported through our denial management tool," says Taylor.
In addition, monthly A/R is reported at meetings with the facility CFO, case management, medical records, and department managers.
"The key performance indicators are shared with the regional CFO and CEO," says Taylor. "There is a monthly finance meeting with all finance department directors and facility CFOs."
Diane E. Mastalski, CHAA, CHAM, director of patient access at Virtua in Marlton, NJ, says that the data below are particularly exciting to share with senior leadership:
Point-of-service cash collection especially when there is an increase or better-than-expected report;
Administrative denials.
The department just implemented a Six Sigma project to reduce these. "When we began, we were at about 11% administrative denials," says Mastalski. "After the project, we were down to about 5%. This year just four years later we are at less than 2.5%."
Patient satisfaction.
"This is something that gets reported monthly to the whole organization," says Mastalski. "This keeps us on our toes, to always strive to be in that 90th percentile or greater."
Emergency department cash collection numbers.
This information is in a spreadsheet format. It gets e-mailed to the CFO, COOs, and directors and managers of the ED, patient access, and finance.
"Because we are multi-hospital, we break the data down by hospital so each COO and finance director can see what their specific team has collected," says Mastalski.
All of these statistics are reported monthly to hospital leadership via e-mail or one-on-one meetings. With staff, the information is shared at the beginning of staff meetings and also through meeting minutes, bulletin boards, e-mails, and one-on-one or small group discussions.
"To assure our staff are working toward the goals set for our department, they need to know where we are throughout the year," says Mastalski. "This helps in getting the staff to understand where we are and where we need to be."
[For more information, contact:
Diane E. Mastalski, CHAA, CHAM, Director of Patient Access, Virtua, 5 Eves Drive, Suite 120A, Marlton, NJ 08053. Phone: (856) 355-2155. E-mail: [email protected].
Catherine M. Pallozzi, CHAM, CCS, Director, Patient Access, Albany Medical Center Hospital, 43 New Scotland Avenue, MC-99, Albany, NY 12208. Phone: (518) 262-3644. Fax: (518) 262-8206. E-mail: [email protected].
Michael Taylor, Regional Director, Patient Services, Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region, P.O. Box 160100, Sacramento, CA 95816-0100. Phone: (916) 978-8901. E-mail: [email protected].]
You may not think of it this way, but your department has a wealth of data that would impress others. Have patient wait times decreased dramatically, have patient complaints become almost non-existent, or have your accuracy rates doubled? Don't resist the urge to brag.Subscribe Now for Access
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