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Training and education costs are often the first items on the "chopping block" when it's time for budget cuts at hospitals, which is bad news for patient access.
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A lead emergency department registrar position was created at Swedish Covenant Hospital, in order to improve collections in this challenging patient population, says Rose Jeanfreau, director of patient access Services at Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago.
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Patient access often is the recipient of all kinds of negative feedback - from patients, other departments, and even senior leaders. It's up to you to get the word out about your department's successes.
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With all the data typically collected by access departments on individual staff members these days, it's easy enough to tell if an employee isn't up to par. But what action should you take, if you see that an individual's accuracy, collections, or patient satisfaction data are poor?
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Patient access managers worry a lot about how satisfied patients are with their services, but physician offices are another type of "customer" that requires attention.
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When you think of hospital staff on the "front lines" during a flu epidemic, emergency department and other clinical staff probably come to mind. Don't forget that patient access staff also are in close contact with patients, many of whom have contagious illnesses including H1N1.
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When she stepped into a new role as a patient access manager at Menasha, WI-based Affinity Health System, Jackie Mitchler says she was amazed at the amount of skills and information that all of her staff had to know and learn.
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With most hospitals looking more closely than ever at their bottom lines, the last thing that patient access needs is high turnover. Not everyone is cut out for the access department, however. It's a lot easier to hire correctly than to try to work with - or in extreme cases, fire - a person who's not right for the job.
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A patient hands you an insurance card with multiple numbers, numbers that are next to impossible to locate, or no numbers at all.
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With upset, frustrated patients facing high co-pays and deductibles on the one hand, and increasingly complex payer requirements on the other, having happy access staff may seem like an impossible dream.
