Now that independent healthcare practices are feeling the double reprieve of the ICD-10 and Meaningful User Stage 2 attestation delays, there is an opportunity to leverage the efforts being made to achieve compliance with the new standards. Practice managers working through getting the business ready for compliance can also positively impact the business’ financial health and increase the number of satisfied patients. Increased financial returns may be a short term side benefit as practice managers prepare their practices to flourish once the time arrives for full compliance. Here are some key areas to focus on and questions to examine:
Patients are mobile. Is your practice?
Amid a myriad of healthcare industry studies that often present conflicting conclusions around the value of patient portal technology, the importance of mobile technology is still heavily underestimated. The future of mobile patient engagement with provider healthcare portals is upon us. Those least served by our current health care system may not have a computer in the home, but they do tend to have smart phones that can connect to the internet. According to a 2014 Pew Research Internet Project study, 58 percent of American adults have a smartphone—67 percent report checking the device for updates, email and the like even when no new calls or activity is happening. These statistics indicate the presence of a sweet spot between Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements and the needs of target patient populations who will willingly and proactively engage with their own health data. In addition, practices that embrace portals for patient communication and reminders can reap additional benefits by closing the loop on open care issues.
Open care issues, keys to a brighter future
Many EHR systems today have the ability to report on a practice’s open care issues. For example, lab orders that were never filled, prescriptions that were never picked up, and patients to be scheduled for multiple follow up appointments. The open care loop is one of the hidden holy grails for small practices, and well-designed reports can reveal gaps and opportunities for operational tightening resulting in better health for patient populations. Open care issue reporting narrows the focus on activities that will lead to closure with patient issues in order of priority. More resolved issues will help the practice drive more revenue in addition to improved higher quality of care.
Workflow improvements with EHR
Most practices struggle with the use of their electronic health records (EHR) system because they didn’t address, or only partially addressed, the ensuing workflow changes required to take full advantage of the automation. Practices that recognize the need to re-engineer the workflows around the technology and who work through readiness plans have a substantially higher success rates.
The holistic view: Is your practice balanced?
Many small practices can improve revenue streams (sometimes dramatically) by taking a closer look at the balance of patient demographics and the practice’s daily activities. Are tasks and activities geared toward prioritizing patients most in need of in-depth care? Is the practice’s schedule dominated by and out of balance with things like wellness checkup appointments? Practice managers need to examine the holistic picture by auditing time and resources spent on things like rounds, surgery or wellness checkups. The results may show urgent care needs aren’t getting resolved for target populations in a timely fashion. Analytics tools can greatly streamline this practice evaluation process.
Incentive programs: Make time to reap the rewards
Many private practices have real opportunities to acquire incentive monies—not just from programs like meaningful use—but also specialty and payer specific programs. Practice managers may think ‘I don’t have time to do that,’ but frequently the potential return is substantial and simply ignored. Many vendors offer consulting services to help the practice achieve the results it needs to be awarded the incentives. These services can come in at a fraction of what the incentive program may offer to the practice.
Smart practice managers will use the extra time afforded by workflow automation to hone down more deeply on many aspects of the business. Efforts to achieve compliance can absolutely result in better health for all—both the patients and the small practice itself.
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About the author: Stephen Dart is Chief Product Manager for the Clinical Center of Excellence at ADP AdvancedMD. A former Microsoft Alumni as an engineer, he also holds an MBA from Washington State University and has been a key figure in electronic medical records development since 1993. He developed one of the first windows based EHR products in 1997 and was awarded a patent on using a template architecture to automatically calculate E&M codes based on clinical documentation. He was the architect of the move from the windows platform to the Web for AdvancedMD’s EHR product suite and is actively involved in the design, architecture and research in all things Physician and Patient within the Clinical COE at ADP AdvancedMD.
Edited by
Maurice Nagle
