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In the 1990s, the focus was largely on the performance of the back end of the revenue cycle. This has largely paid off, and hospital leaders have turned to the front end for further improvements, according to Ronnie Dail, managing director of Huron Healthcare in Chicago. Dail says patient access requires an increasingly integrated approach for scheduling of appointments, sharing information with clinicians, and validating coverage. Here are three processes Dail says are top priorities for patient access
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Registrars have become much more comfortable calling clinicians with questions due to face-to-face meetings that take place at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. Bed assignment meetings begin with introductions. Registrars are seated next to triage nurses. Nurses obtain demographic information from patients presenting by ambulance.
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Patient access leaders added mobile cell phone chargers to registration areas at Virginia Mason Medical Center after patients requested these chargers to decrease anxiety. Staff members don't have to field constant requests from patients for cell phone chargers. Patient access employees appreciate being able to use the chargers. Patient responses have been positive.
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Duplicate registrations decreased from 36 a month to seven, due to new processes at Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. To decrease these errors, registrars should do the following: Be able to view the patient's address along with name, date of birth, and social security number. Pay close attention to details. Ask the right questions.
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With healthcare reform efforts encouraging hospitals to align with physicians more closely, questions are arising about how to do that without running afoul of rules prohibiting kickbacks and collusion.
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News: A 52-year-old patient underwent bariatric surgery at the defendant hospital. Prior to surgery, the patients weight exceeded 500 pounds.
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Washington State surgeons recently announced standardized guidelines for preoperative care in the form of pre-surgical checklists and tools available to all surgeons to use in their offices or by patients at home to ensure that the health of patients is optimized before surgery.
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The risk of malpractice allegations is a major barrier to reducing caesarean rates, says Charles W. Fisher, JD, principal with the law firm of Kitch in Detroit.
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Of the hundreds, if not thousands, of patient safety strategies employed at hospitals across the country, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released a report identifying the top 10 patient safety strategies that can be implemented immediately by healthcare providers.
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When doctors, nurses, and other hospital operating room staff follow a written safety checklist to respond when a patient experiences cardiac arrest, severe allergic reaction, bleeding followed by an irregular heartbeat, or other crisis during surgery, they are nearly 75% less likely to miss a critical clinical step, according to a new study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
