Ready to Go Paperless? Here are 6 steps to get you there - April 7, 2010
Orlando Florida -- Going paperless is a lot easier than you think! When an established patient at the three-doctor Orlando Florida Allergy Immunology group checks in at the front desk, he’s given a tablet. No, not a medicine tablet, but a tablet computer that displays the registration data on file for him. If the patient has moved, he keys in his new address, which flows into the office’s practice-management system, sparing the receptionist some data entry. If he’s changed insurance plans, a screen message instructs him to show his new ID card to the receptionist. He can swipe his credit card through the tablet’s card reader for a co-pay. Is he due to sign his yearly HIPAA privacy notice? He can do that on the tablet’s touch screen.
“The tablet shortens the time patients spend in the waiting room,” says receptionist Dodie Bragg. “They just love it.” She loves the device, too, since it reduces busy work at a very busy spot in the office. And that gives her more time to listen to patients and look them in the eye.
This computerized check-in process illustrates how doctors are automating front desks once ensnarled by an ancient technology called paper. It’s a move that makes sense as medicine converts to electronic health records—you don’t want the front desk trafficking in hard copy that must be keyed or scanned into their Allscripts MyWay EHR. However, even if you don’t use electronic charts, teching up your front desk will make your office operate more efficiently. Here are six inexpensive ways to retool, says Brian McCarthy CEO of Sencilo HealthIT Solutions and well-known Medical Office auotmation specialish.
1. Digitize the clutter
Take full advantage of the desktop already parked in front of your receptionist. Why put up with the usual menagerie of paper—lists of phone numbers, lists of passwords to health plan Web sites, software cheat-sheets—that clutters up the place when you can store this information in the computer? “Create shortcuts on the screen to get to these documents quickly,” says health-care computer consultant Lisa Smith at Sencilo HealthIT Solutions.
2. Ditch the message pad
One relic in particular from the paper age that ought to disappear is he phone m essage pad. The Allscripts-Misys MyWay EHR system incorporates an intra-office essaging system that lets the receptionist type a summary of a phone conversation and zap it to you—no more illegible handwriting or lost slips. However, paper-chart docs benefit from automating phone messages, too. If you rely on Microsoft Outlook for office email, use its phone-message template. Or, buy a messaging program such as PhonePad, which costs $95 for five users.
3. Double up on monitors
Eliminate the loose paper and you’ve probably carved out enough space to add a second monitor. Researchers report that two screens can boost a worker’s efficiency by up to 40 percent as well as reduce errors. It’s easy to see why when a receptionist has two programs open at once—her practice-management system and an online insurance company database, for example. Instead of toggling back and forth, she can display each program on a separate screen. And she can navigate both monitors as a single unit with one mouse, cutting and pasting information from one program to the other. An extra 17-inch monitor costs only
$150 or so. You’ll reap the same efficiencies with a single, superwide monitor that can display two programs side by side. Twenty-four-inch models sell online for under $300.
4. Scan ID cards
Is your receptionist always leaving her post to photocopy a patient’s insurance card? Keep her at the front desk and reduce her workload with a card scanner that’s plugged into her desktop. She can store the card image in a database that comes with the scanner like the Fujitsu Fi-6430 or in the Allscripts-Misys MyWay practice-management system that contains a field for a card image. The ability to electronically access an insurance card beats pulling a paper chart to retrieve a photocopy when staffers must double-check information on the card to, say, correct a denied claim.
Innovative Card Scanning, which caters to health-care providers, sells a Fujistu scanner and related software for $649. You can buy a basic card scanner for $259 from also from Fujitsu.
5. Install a check reader
Many front desks feature a scanning device for converting paper checks into electronic ones. A check reader connects to a payment-processing network that electronically transfers money from the patient’s bank account to yours within a few days. Once it’s fed through the reader, the paper check is returned to the patient. You receive your moolah faster than if you deposited a paper check, plus you’re spared a bank run.
Another advantage is fewer bounced checks. That’s because the payment processing network typically won’t approve the check if the writer has a history of rubber. Family physician Raul Vazquez, MD, in Lake Mary Florida, says he’s never had a check bounce since he implemented a check reader five years ago. “Before that, I could get 15 bad checks a week,” Dr. Vazquez says.
The bank or company that handles your credit-card processing can usually set you up for electronic checks. Credit-card terminals that also scan checks start at approximately $500 while stand-alone check readers cost about $200.
6. Consider a kiosk
The Holy Grail of front-desk automation is making check-in as simple as a credit card card swipe at an airport kiosk. Kaiser Permanente has already arrived, introducing self-service kiosks last year in some of its Florida clinics. Patients swipe their magnetic-stripe ID card to initiate check-in, update their information on the screen, and swipe a credit card to pay a bill.
While most small practices probably can’t afford the kind of large, free-standing kiosk used by Kaiser, they can create a kiosk experience with a waiting-room tablet or a desktop along with as-needed peripheral devices like an electronic signature pad and a card reader. Doctors shopping for an EHR should ask vendors if their software includes a patient portal for completing registration forms and the like that can be accessed on such a computer. Such patient portals also can be built into a practice Web site.
If this high-tech wizardry sounds intimidating, take a baby-step approach and adopt one gadget at a time. Before you know it, you may turn into a tech maven like Dr. Vazquez, an Allscripts EHR user who’s outfitted his front desk with Fujitsu tabletPCs and an insurance card scanner in addition to his check reader.
To him, they’re both toys and tools that are imminently practical for employees. Says Dr. Vazquez: “I want them to work smarter, not harder.”
For more information please call (888) 855-2043 or visit us at:
http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information Tecnology"
Why Sencilo HealthIT Solutions
When it comes to your healthcare computing needs, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions's
main objective is to provide a turnkey solution that can essentially sustain
itself. When you choose Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you don't just gain a vendor
who provides you with technology. You get a business partner who walks with you
through every step of the process
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology
With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the
same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business.
And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT
Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT
Solutions Professional Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from
the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can
help you save time and money ÂÂand lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that
include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost
Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a
comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from
multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi,
Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona,
Medical City
solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum
Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Network Backup appliance Data
Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data
electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice
management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity,
and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices
eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health,
records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR
Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology,
Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, Fujistu TabletPC Windows 7 Misys
clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical
education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE,
Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare
Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic
prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR,
certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare
performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay,
HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica
Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw
e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon
NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health
Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence
Ingenix “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare document management
dragon speech to text
amazing charts
