While the most innovative technology is used in the OR, often some of the most antiquated is used outside of it. Facilities are striving to keep up with the extensive amount of data, records, and paper trails implicit in today’s medicine and are seeking affordable online solutions to their hardcopy problems.
A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows administrative costs in U.S. health care are the highest in the developed world and attributes this inflated cost to poor coordination between health care providers, duplication of tasks, and doctors spending too much time on paperwork associated with medical records, booking, billing coding, and insurance1. To curb such troublesome trends, facilities are finding great advantages, both in terms of finances and efficiency, in transitioning to integrated cloud-based systems.
Patient Booking
Booking requests made by phone and fax are clunky and impractical, wasting exorbitant amounts of unnecessary time and money. An online surgical booking request application makes the entire process of booking procedures more convenient and efficient. By choosing the right one, a medical facility can realize the following benefits:
- Comprehensive, legible booking requests that are easily submitted, confirmed, or revised online
- One shared interface through which facility staff and surgeon’s office access pertinent information
- Booking requests and the status of each request conveniently accessed 24/7
- Reusable templates customized by specific procedure code, surgeon, anesthesia type, allergy, or insurance information that streamline and simplify the process
- Easily generated management reports and full audit trails
Document Management
Document management can also be a major pitfall for facilities, forcing many to hire more nurses — not for clinical purposes but clerical needs. A cloud-based document management tool that can efficiently capture, monitor, and store patient information provided by physician’s offices is the solution medical facilities need. It streamlines and secures the paper trail in the following ways:
- Physician’s office staff easily upload histories, physicals, consent forms, and other necessary documentation to a patient’s surgical booking request
- Facility staff access and share documents from different departments
- Missing information is quickly identified and flagged
- Alerts and status updates simplify workflow and help staff monitor multiple cases
- Greater security and compliance is achieved; electronic files are protected from loss, damage, or breach.
A comprehensive electronic booking and document management system can facilitate communication between physician offices and facilities, streamline booking requests, and manage records and documents easily and securely. Convenient 24/7 access to complete, current, and legible information saves nursing and staffing time – allowing medical professionals to focus on patient care, not paper work.
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