Enhance Patient Satisfaction Using these EHR Strategies

Originally published on December 22, 2016 at www.lmshealthpro.com.

By Kristen Brady

As of the year 2014, 83 percent of physicians were utilizing EHRs, and reaping the benefits of their reduced long-range costs, more effective storage, better informational accessibility, improved security and loss prevention, and enhanced accuracy and readability.

In spite of all the positives, however, EHR still can get in the way of patient satisfaction. As a matter of fact, the main physician complaint concerning EHRs is that they’ll worsen patient service by reducing face-time with patients, as well as interfering with doctors’ capability of seeing more patients. Plus, of the admittedly smaller proportion of doctors who are not using EHR, 40 percent state that it is because they interfere with doctor/patient relationships.

Nowadays, you cannot afford sub-par patient satisfaction ratings; therefore, below  are four methods of keeping EHR from dragging down a patients’ happiness with care.

Concentrate on training

It is never too late to spend the time training doctors on EHR. Lean on a vendor — allow them to come in and display tips and hints for more effective use, and request that they assist you in connecting with other doctors who use the same version of EHR. Observe these other doctors in practice, talk about daily solutions, and bring this knowledge back to your practice. Keep in mind: Training does not end just because a software was installed.

Implement human solutions

Health IT isn’t the be-all, end-all. A human touch never can be completely replaced by technological options. ‘One of patients’ largest let-downs would be as their physicians keep glancing between their screens and them,’ wrote one physician. ‘Therefore, if we’re actually serious about bettering patient satisfaction and health care experience, how can we allow this situation to go on?’ Utilizing scribes to record every patient encounter, recording all details in real time, will restore the connection between patient and doctor. Rather than looking distracted or staring at a screen, scribes are able to do all of the administrative work, allowing doctors to get the most details out of all encounters and boost patient satisfaction all at the same time.

Pursue interoperability

Be certain the EHR software will interact with additional EHRs within your community in order for data-sharing to be seamless; this will have two important effects. Firstly, interoperability leads to transparency in clinical data, provider performance and prices, all of which are assisting in driving the Department of Health & Human Services’ movement towards reimbursement for effectiveness and quality of care. Secondly, it’ll mean that patient records are easily added to and transferred between additional providers.

Alleviate the administrative burden

One recent study showed that interns ‘currently spend only about 10% of the day being involved in direct patient care in the hospital and nearly 50 percent of the time on computers.’ Scribes may input commonly utilized codes, and produce the encounter/operative note, removing a ton of work on the back end. Doctors ought to be spending time seeing their patients — which will increase access to care (therefore boosting patient satisfaction) and possible revenue — and then signing off papers they know are correct and complete. There isn’t any sense in applying all of that time in medical training to administrative activities over patient care.

Leading Management Solutions helps medical practice leaders identify ways to improve operations to increase revenue, employee engagement, and patient satisfaction. Learn more about us at www.lmshealthpro.com.

About the Author:

Kristen Brady is the founder and owner of Kaboom Social Media, your social media marketing and content specialists! Follow her on Twitter: @kb54927

Choosing the Perfect CRM Vendor for your Healthcare Organization

Originally published on November 30, 2016 at www.lmshealthpro.com.

By Kristen Brady

The healthcare niche has come a long way from decades ago. Lots of aspects of the healthcare market, including consumerism have shot through the roof resulting in higher competition. Today, patients have a variety to choose from and high insurance health plans to service. As such, and to get the much-needed attention, healthcare services need to devise new ways of communication and rules of engagement for their prospects.

And since the work involved is too complex to be perfectly run by an individual (even an expert in the system), CRM systems have been designed to collect information and data, offering insight to imperative and meaningful exchanges with the patients. After all, necessity is the mother of invention. But while this piece of technology is important for communications and having the healthcare business thrive, healthcare organizations need to make the right choice for a CRM vendor.

The vendor selection process can be daunting to an individual who has no clue where to start or what to look for. But with a little guidance and nudge in the right direction, the seemingly dry, rocky and shaky ground turns into a path covered in roses – a simple process. So how does one make a choice of the best CRM?

First, come up with a list of all vendors you feel offer CRM systems with features that your healthcare organization requires. These features could be in terms of data, technology or ease of training. Just about any feature making communication with potential patients as well as physicians in the competitive niche a breeze.

The next step is to set up an in-house team to evaluate the systems offered by the companies you listed. This team will be responsible for running quick checks and tests on all the CRM systems and conducting interviews (whether phone of physical interviews). Speaking of tests, it is imperative that the team does this onsite. This will help your team to better understand just how the system integrates with the new piece of technology and just how much the healthcare can benefit from the CRM platform after installation.

After the phone interviews, however, you should note than not all vendors that were in the original list are invited. Some have been crossed off the list after failing in the interview stage. Those who do make it on-site should be evaluated even more by the evaluation team as well as individuals who will be working with the CRM directly. Lots of questions should be posed to them regarding data collection, implementation and team structure, management of the account, HIPAA compliance, support and its predictive analytical features. This will not only shine light on just how the CRM is great for the business or just how knowledgeable the vendor is of the system, it also will provide some insight on how they handle the pressure and if they will be able to work with the business day in day out.

Getting a CRM vendor is not a process that should be taken lightly. Clearly, there is more to it than meets the eye. Getting the system, you are not just acquiring a piece of technology for your business but also creating and investing in a solid partnership that with time should experience growth.

After the implementation and training of the CRM, it should perfectly integrate with the organization’s culture ensuring perfect and effective communication and actively listening to needs to be met.

Leading Management Solutions helps medical practice leaders identify ways to improve operations to increase revenue, employee engagement, and patient satisfaction. Learn more about us at www.lmshealthpro.com.

About the Author:

Kristen Brady is the founder and owner of Kaboom Social Media, your social media marketing and content specialists! Follow her on Twitter: @kb54927

Understanding Patient Satisfaction: Why It Is Important

Originally published on November 4, 2016 at www.lmshealthpro.com.

By Kristen Brady

One of the most commonly used methods to evaluate the performance and/or quality of service of a healthcare institution is Patient Satisfaction. Simply put, it is the power granted to patients to rate the quality of healthcare they received in a healthcare establishment based on various criteria. As this rating allows federal agencies to measure the general satisfaction level of patients that have received treatment or consultation from your hospital, it is a critical aspect of healthcare that must be maintained to a high standard at all costs.

The survey, named HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) is a mandatory survey, required by the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) for all healthcare establishments in the United States. Questions asked in this survey range from the communication quality of doctors and staff to food quality provided to the patient.

Its importance stems from the fact that this survey offers an insight into the experience of patients with regards to the service they received at a hospital. Moreover, these results are published on the internet for the public, hence, bad scores will severely cripple the reputation of any healthcare institution. Furthermore, one of the most important reasons of Patient Satisfaction being one of the top concerns of any hospital is the fact that the federal government disburses funds to institutions based on their HCAHPS score, which is a rating ranging from 1-10.

There are 3 factors that affect this score, doctors, patients and the establishment itself:

First, Doctors are a crucial element of the patient experience, as the majority of their satisfaction is affected by the results of their treatments. Studies have shown that patients who received quick and efficient treatments to their issues, were happy with the hospital as a whole. Hence, doctors that focus on understanding and diagnosing a patient’s problem proficiently, increase the satisfactions of inpatients by a large margin.

Secondly, understanding what a patient expects from a hospital can go a long way in understanding and improving your Patient Satisfaction or HCAHPS score. Generally, patients appreciate – constant communication, courtesy, state-of-the-art facilities and cordiality.

Lastly, the establishment itself plays a role in affecting Patient Satisfaction. It is not unheard of, for a hospital with the best facilities, doctors and staff to have a low Patient Satisfaction score; it is a result of the fact that hospital policies and rules also affect the overall experience of your patients. Hospitals that are known to shunt patients from department to department, floor to floor, in order to complete simple tasks, will inevitably score low in these ratings.

Understanding how this rating works will help you identify the problem areas that need attention. Improving and fine-tuning these factors require extensive management and training, however, this effort will be well-rewarded with a significantly higher Patient Satisfaction rating that will boost your reputation, thereby increasing patient influx to your establishment. Additionally, it will help in securing higher disbursements from the federal government, which will strengthen the hospital’s financial situation further by a significant margin.

Leading Management Solutions helps medical practice leaders identify ways to improve operations to increase revenue, employee engagement, and patient satisfaction. Learn more about us at www.lmshealthpro.com.

About the Author:

Kristen Brady is the founder and owner of Kaboom Social Media, your social media marketing and content specialists! Follow her on Twitter: @kb54927