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If your hospital is like most, patients admitted through the emergency department are being held, possibly in hallways, for hours and even days. It's a complicated problem that the patient access department isn't responsible for and can't control. Still, you bear the brunt of the poor customer service scores that result from this situation.
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If you are being inundated with sales pitches from technology vendors these days, it's not too surprising. A number of solutions are aimed at improving patient access processes, such as compliance with new admission/registration requirements.
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Instead of asking a patient to show you a driver's license, how about identifying patients by the unique vein patterns in their hands? A new palm scanning device is used by patient access staff at Carolinas HealthCare System, the first health care provider in the United States to implement this technology.
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The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may have given rise to — and oversees — HIPAA privacy regulations, but according to a report by the General Accounting Office (GAO), the agency's approach to ensuring the privacy of health information still needs some work.
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On July 15, 2008, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) entered into an agreement with Seattle-based Providence Health & Services to settle potential violations of HIPAA privacy rules.
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On Aug. 22, 2008, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a proposed rule that would adopt updated versions of the standards for electronic transactions under HIPAA.
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Patient access staff often overlook or misinterpret payer requirements, which can cost the hospital thousands of dollars. Yet keeping staff current with all the various rules is a full-time job in itself.
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Improving morale of patient access staff is difficult, but it doesn't have to be expensive.
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Patient transfer admissions pose a "bittersweet" issue for patient access managers, says Terry D. Long, RN, BSN, MBA, NEA-BC, director of the patient transfer center at Texas Health Resources in Arlington.
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A health care organization might have in place the best information technology (IT) protections available, but complacency can be a dangerous thing considering the gold mine of personal information stored by a hospital.
