As we previously discussed, accreditation guidelines are there to help your ASC improve quality, safety, and efficiency. However, staying on top of certifications can be time-consuming. Some specific digital solutions can help.
Organizing medical records
Highly-organized patient records are crucial for accreditation. They must be understandable, comprehensive, and readily accessible. How can you achieve this level of organization when your patient records are all strewn about someone’s desk?
There are multiple components to going digital with your patient records. One of these is moving to digital charting. This option helps you to work more efficiently by using barcodes and customizable document categories to store information.
And when you go digital, information coming from multiple sources can all be streamlined easily into one record. For example, patients can self-report their medical history via online pre-admissions. And referring physicians can upload patient documents directly to your ASC’s secure cloud.
Preventing infections
Infection prevention is a crucial component of maintaining accreditation. Standard measures such as proper hand hygiene are no-brainers. But what else can you do to boost your infection prevention?
Utilize technology to screen for infection risks. Software that collects patient records also conducts assessments to analyze risks. This technology will notify providers when there is an area of the patient record that needs thorough investigation.
Boosting quality of surgical services
To maintain accreditation, ASCs must have a clear protocol for collecting patient medical records, health assessments, and identifying areas of risk. In particular, ASCs need to be documenting instructions on medication adherence and evaluating for deep vein thrombosis, fall risk, obstructive sleep apnea, and other conditions.
Again, going digital can be a huge time-saver. All of the patient records are stored in one, streamlined place, including the evaluation from the referring physician. Digital charting also includes detailed lists of patient medications, with instructions for what patients need to do after their surgery. Online assessment options also help anesthesiologists and surgeons to better determine risk levels for patients with comorbidities and alert staff of the preparations needed to reduce complications.
Subscribe to our blog to make sure you don’t miss a single post full of tips and information. Comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic or let us know what you’d like us to discuss next!
