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  • Will new hospitals have nap rooms?

    The hospital of the future may have small rooms on each floor for night shift staff to take energizing naps. With an eye on fatigue as a major safety concern, the new draft version of hospital construction guidelines includes a requirement for staff rest areas, or nap rooms.
  • Are access employees struggling with new skill sets? Don't let them fail

    Recent changes for patient access staff at BayCare Health System in Tampa, FL, include registration kiosks, palm vein biometric devices, and new consent forms that all patients have to sign.
  • Train staff in these 3 skills

    The single biggest challenge for registrars is all the multi-tasking they need to do, according to Cynthia Norman-Bey, director of patient access services and the PBX (private branch exchange) Call Center at Glendale Adventist Medical Center.
  • Make 'go live' go smoothly

    On the morning a new admission/discharge/transfer (ADT) system was going live at one of Fort Myers, FL-based Lee Memorial Health System's hospitals, Colleen Edwards, system director of registration and patient business services, had "a huge fear we would have lines of people, going all the way out the door. But that's not what happened."
  • Be involved before switch to new ADT system

    Before a new admission/discharge/transfer (ADT) system was implemented at Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL, three patient access leaders were pulled from their previous jobs and worked full-time on the system implementation.
  • Give a spot-on quote: It requires research

    A prospective patient at St. Anthony's Medical Center in St. Louis, MO, can request a price quote be worked up by filling out a simple form on the hospital's website.
  • 'Same day' means less time to collect

    There is not only less time to collect the patient's out-of-pocket responsibility if a service is scheduled for the same day; there's also less time for the patient to make an informed decision if needed, says Jennifer Nichols, director of patient access at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, MI.
  • No authorization for same-day service?

    Authorizations for high-dollar diagnostic tests are the single biggest problem with same-day scheduling, according to Wendy M. Roach, RDMS, manager of patient access and central scheduling at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, IL.
  • Patients might owe more at your facility

    Even if a payer considers your hospital to be "in network," it might cost a patient more to obtain a service at your facility due to varying tiers of benefits for various facilities.
  • Stop denials for 'notice of admission'

    If a patient is admitted at 10 a.m. Friday to Virtua Hospital in Marlton, NJ, members of the patient access staff have only until 10 a.m. Saturday to notify the insurance company.