After recently completing the implementation of a new phone system, Software Advice, a software recommendation website, offered up a topic of interest:
Helping organizations find the right software for their needs, Software Advice’s Houston Neal, director of Business Development, discussed how medical practices can take advance of IP-PBX phone systems in order to run a smoother operation within a medical practice while simultaneously providing better service to its patients.
And, while PBXs have been around for decades, the newest breed – IP-PBXs – based on IP technology that makes the internet work, as Neal said, make the new systems easy to combine voice with data.
“IP-PBXs can exist as hardware or software; both have advantages and drawbacks,” Neal said. “For example, software-based IP-PBX systems (e.g. 3CX Phone System) don’t require hardware, so it’s less expensive to implement and easier to manage using web-based interfaces.
The medical practice faces an opportunity to merge IP-PBXs with
electronic health records, or “EHRs,” and practice management systems, but, to date, minimal developments of medical-specific applications have been made.
"I spend most of my day reading and writing about EHR,” Neal said. “So when we installed an IP-PBX at our office, I couldn't help but think of all the ways this technology could improve medical practice management, especially if you combine IP-PBX with EHR technology."
So, in attempts to discuss this topic, Software Advice put together a list of seven different ways IP-PBX and EHR technology can be combined.
· Patient screen-pops: With the high volume of patient calls, a patient screen popup would help the receiver identify who the patient is and their background history. The receiver can open their patient demographic data in the practice management system with a dashboard view that could potentially shows general demographics, appointments and recent encounter summaries. While great in theory, this system would require user-level permissions that limit available patient information by the user’s role in the practice.
· IP faxing: Although traditional faxing systems are still widely popular in medical practices, with IP faxing, digital information such as EHR data would be sent through the IP-PBX and over the telephone network, which would paper usage and the manual time it takes to feed the fax through a standard fax machine.
· Appointment reminders: Doctors’ offices are constantly making appointments. What better way that to have an automatic system to remind the patient and the medical practice of the appointments than a automated reminder? And, if the patient needs to speak with a live member of the staff, Software Advice suggests a “Press 1 to talk to a member of the doctor’s staff” option.
· Find me, follow me: For patients trying to reach a doctor’s office after hours, the process can usually be both difficult and frustrating. Software Advice’s proposed system would prioritize an after-hours call based on the urgency of the situation. While emergencies would be forwarded to 911, calls from patients that recently had an ambulatory procedure might be forwarded to the physician’s mobile phone and others might receive voicemail or the answering service.
· Dunning Voicemails: Trying to hunt down a patient in regards to bill payments can be incredibly time consuming and mind numbing for the medical office trying to contact specific individuals. With this IP-PBX and EHR combined system, an automatic dialer would call the patient and leave a voice message discussing the specific amount owed, saving the medical office time it takes to make the personal calls.
· vPrescribing: Software Advice’s vPrescribing system allows a patient to call their direct doctor’s dedicated prescription-refill phone number. Following instructions from the IVR, you can request a prescription be refilled and the system would automatically initiates a workflow for the physician to approve or deny the refill.
· Patient-centric recordings: If a patient calls, a custom recording based on their billing or appointment status plays on the call, in order to ensure proper maintenance of patients’ needs and the medical staff’s requirements.
While none of the above technology’s in the works yet, it will be interesting to see what evolves from this hot topic.
"I was surprised at how little has been developed in the way of medical-specific IP-PBX applications,” Neal said. “Since posting the article, we have received a warm reception from developers. Some are even considering developing one or more of these applications for upcoming releases."
Kelly McGuire is a HealthTechZone Editor. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by
Kelly McGuire
