Cross-training, audits are this AM’s concern
Cross-training, audits are this AM’s concern
The preregistration practices highlighted in the July Access Feedback column in Hospital Access Management prompted a response from Phyllis Beicht, patient access services manager at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Beicht is streamlining such efforts at her facility, which has about 650 beds and more units under construction.
She particularly related to the information from Diane Shebelski, manager of patient registration and central scheduling at Wausau (WI) Hospital, because she hopes to implement some of the solutions Shebelski is using.
"We’re doing the same thing with cross-training, and I’m trying to rev it up a little bit and get more done, Beicht says. "I have a staff of five registrars, five financial counselors, and one reservationist. We register about 1,700 patients a month and then verify about the same number."
When she assumed her position in January, she adds, Beicht realized a major problem was having to chase down patients the day before surgery to get them preregistered. Due to the difficulty in reaching patients, including the frustration of back-and-forth voice mail, her staff were on the telephone all day, Beicht says.
To provide immediate help, she adds, "I just started picking up the voice mails myself and distributing them evenly." Then she focused on having staff work farther ahead. "The key is to get as far ahead as you can. We have somebody working two days ahead, somebody three days ahead, somebody dedicated to inpatients."
Trying to accomplish preregistrations the day before, Beicht notes, was "nuts. We have to supply the OR [operating room] with registrations; the nurses are calling patients and have no [demographic information] to go from. They need the [registration] plates to stamp the pages for the chart."
Many times, she adds, the physician’s office hasn’t even called for the precertification, which means "now we have to fight with their office, and they’re busy, too."
Her department has "really come a long way" in getting the information to nursing, Beicht says, using a function of its SMS software to print preregistration information automatically on the nursing floor after it is entered by registrars.
She says her goal is to cross-train all staff and have one person handle each account all the way through the registration process, which will allow her to distribute the workload more evenly. Beicht is interested in how big a staff Shebelski has and in how she uses performance audit reports to improve their performance. Beicht would also welcome feedback from other access managers.
"Staff are keying in information all day long," she says. "Keeping numbers and giving them feedback makes them feel more like a team."
[If you would like to contribute to the discussion on preregistration practices or solicit feedback from your peers on another access issue, please contact editor Lila Moore at (520) 299-8730 or lilamoore@mindspring. com.]
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