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Ensuring employee safety requires more than a set of policies and procedures.
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Now is a good time to be a case manager, leaders in the field report. New opportunities are opening up for case managers as the country struggles with ways to provide optimal health care for everyone while minimizing soaring costs for care.
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Recognizing that patients who don't take medication for chronic conditions as prescribed are more likely to have poor control over their independence, Blue Cross has launched a program to coach people on medication adherence.
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Often, problems that are a continual thorn in the side for patient access simply cannot be solved without the help of other departments. Likewise, you can spread no small amount of goodwill by helping others with their own troublesome "pain points." Here are some ways to improve cross-departmental relationships:
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Rushing by a registration area on your way to a meeting with a hospital administrator, you think you hear an edgy tone in an access employee's voice while she's answering a patient's question. Do you stop to investigate further, or do you continue on your way?
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What's the most common complaint that Amy M. Kirkland, CHAA, patient access team leader for the emergency department at Palmetto Health Richland in Columbia, SC, hears from patients? Hands down, it involves frustration over long wait times.
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has published an interim final rule incorporating provisions of the Health Information Technology for Clinical and Economic Health (HITECH) Act related to HIPAA violations that significantly increase the penalties it can levee against employers and health care providers.
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Regardless of the reason, an upset, disgruntled patient is dangerous for your department.
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To avoid making a bad situation worse, your staff should be prepared to smooth things over before an angry patient walks away. This sounds difficult, but can be surprisingly simple.
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Common obstacles in good communication between patient access departments and physician offices include: duplication of patient demographic data, communication barriers due to turnover in physician practices, or discrepancies in physician billing requirements vs. hospital requirements.
