The financial implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are generally considered to be secondary to the health crisis, but there’s more overlap between them than you might think. A viewpoint published in the Journal of the American Medical Association cites the challenge of running a financially solvent hospital in the face of staffing shortages, overwhelming demand, and a pause in the outpatient and elective procedures that often make up the bulk of a hospital’s revenue.
While the situation looked dire when the article was published in May 2020, the health crisis across most of the country has only intensified. For health systems themselves to survive the pandemic, they’ll need to take a hard look at revenue cycle management best practices and implement new efficiencies whenever possible.
A proven way to inject much-needed efficiency is to rely on technologies such as artificial intelligence to automate tedious manual processes and improve the speed and accuracy of humans as they perform complicated tasks. One of those complex areas is clinical documentation.
Clinical documentation has always been a bit of a black box, with every provider documenting patients’ clinical issues differently and using shorthand that only they understand. This information is critically important, but it’s all stored in the form of unstructured data, and 56% of healthcare professionals believe it’s obstructing clinical workflow optimization.
Now that almost all clinical documentation lives in an electronic health record, the goal of standardization is pushing facilities to evaluate the documentation that accompanies each encounter. Payers are adding to the pressure, denying reimbursement to providers that fail to adequately prove the necessity of services. New payment models that incorporate risk scoring have also made it critical for providers to document underlying issues during visits, creating an additional layer of complexity — and an additional opportunity for solutions that can facilitate the process.
By Sachin Kalra, vice president of customer success, healthcare, Infostretch.
Sachin Kalra
Are people who use health services patients, or are they health consumers? The reality is that in a world where consumer services can be accessed at the push of a button, our expectations about healthcare have changed. How a healthcare company engages with its patients has increasingly become an indicator of how well they are driving communication, service and value for their consumers.
The “Amazon Prime” mindset might at first seem at odds with traditional health systems, which are often bureaucratic, slow and costly. However, the consumerization trend can be an opportunity for better engagement and competitive differentiation.
If there is one thing health companies have a lot of, it’s data. Learning how to leverage and analyze data better could hold the key to unlocking greater value for consumers in terms of improved outcomes and engagement, but also in terms of operational efficiencies. For many organizations, however, pivoting their systems to deliver patient-centric care means they will need to improve the way they leverage digital technologies.
Prioritizing patient experience (PX)
Great customer experience often involves condensing a hugely complex system into a few simple steps that allow consumers to get where they need to be quickly and intuitively. In healthcare, the array of options is huge, involving a wide range of patient requests, potential ailments and resulting treatments. Getting it wrong can have serious, negative health consequences. On the other hand, getting it right enables patients to access treatment faster, resolve health issues more quickly and be better informed along the way. Intelligent triage and smart scheduling are just two ways that health companies can improve how they engage with their patients.
There’s been a spike in ERs using intelligent triage, accelerated by the pandemic, but this tool does not need to be confined to emergency situations. Intelligent, AI-based triage starts with enabling patients to make contact in a way that best suits them – smartphone, landline, text, desktop or via a virtual assistant. From there, a patient’s identity is verified and the system collects relevant information about their condition before recommending the most appropriate channel to resolve the inquiry.
Smart scheduling completes the initial intelligent triage phase with an appropriate action. This could be booking an appointment, something relating to claims or prescriptions, or recommendations for ongoing self-care. In cases where appointments are required, these can of course be in person, but where appropriate on video, over a chat platform or by phone. Crucially, all the information from this virtual encounter is entered into the patient chart to ensure a complete and up-to-date view of the patient.
Rethinking the patient experience in this way lowers waiting times for patients while ensuring faster, more convenient access to services. Health organizations also reap big benefits, with potential savings of more than 20% on running costs due to the elimination of manual processes and resource allocation.
By Richard Bailey, lead IT consultant, Atlantic.Net.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is a day-to-day concern for medical professionals and healthcare management teams in the United States. HIPAA, and the subsequent Privacy and Security amendments of 2003, were created to protect the confidentiality of Protected Health Information (PHI).
The Breach Notification Rule was added in 2009 to include specific laws about how to respond to a breach, and the Final Omnibus Rule was added in 2013 to harden the enforcement rules and response requirements.
A HIPAA breach is a serious concern, it can be very costly, instantly creating financial and reputational damage. A breach must be responded to appropriately by the HIPAA-covered entities and any impacted Business Associates.
The threat landscape has definitely changed in 2020/2021, COVID-19 has changed the way front-line healthcare is delivered, and it has also put great pressure on upholding the data integrity of PHI, despite some concessions being offered by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) during the pandemic.
Between March 2020 and March 2021, there have been 530 reported data breaches to the OCR, this includes both confirmed data breaches, and breaches that are currently under investigation. These figures suggest that 26,023,940 patient records have been exposed in data breaches in one single year, quite a staggering figure.
What is a HIPAA data breach?
There are two types of breaches classified by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). A breach that does not disclose PHI is considered “not a breach.” A breach that does disclose PHI must be classified as either an intentional or unintentional disclosure. Deliberate disclosure is considered a very serious breach and typically involves significant penalties.
The primary cause of breaches is usually a lost or stolen computing device, such as laptops, cell phones, and tablets. Many losses are attributed to employee carelessness or employee mistakes or unintentional actions. The other major cause is third-party involvement, this could be hackers, malicious actors, and so on.
By Dipak Prasad, senior product manager, Devbridge.
Dipak Prasad
Communication is one of the most important parts of the healthcare industry, but as it stands it may be the most challenging element as well. To reach the best patient outcomes, it is critical for patients, doctors, hospitals, and facilities to communicate with one another seamlessly, securely, and digitally.
The incredible amount of information that needs to be accurately communicated presents a challenge by itself, but the extensive regulations create an added layer of difficulty. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) strives to protect the private data of a patient but creates challenges when having to quickly communicate critical information from different parts of the medical team.
Currently, many organizations are decentralized and use multiple digital outlets. There is company-sponsored email, instant message, and portals, plus personal email accounts, mobile and messaging applications—all with the potential to complicate and compromise the quality and security of communication.
Software has the ability to automate certain administrative tasks, enabling medical professionals to focus on patient care and improving patient outcomes. In a notoriously and widely distributed workforce where communication is essential, introducing an effective unified communication tool will increase operational efficiency, decrease infrastructure and maintenance costs.
A unified communication tool needs to connect all personnel across distributed locations, divisions, departments, and functions. A unified system should:
Be flexible and extensible—enabling adaption to future needs
Support multiple communication methods (voice, text, data, video)
Integrate with existing systems. Put the user experience at the forefront rivaling widely-used mobile communication platforms (WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger)
Cater to user requirements by including unique, job-enhancing features based on real scenarios.
Increase operational efficiency while being secure and HIPAA compliant
Tips on how to create an effective communications system:
Diagnose the problem: Run a discovery phase to identify organizational issues and opportunities for improvement through story mapping workshops with stakeholders, interviewing end-users, and conducting surveys. Then, create a service blueprint noting your findings. Ensure all stakeholders are aligned.
Define the minimum viable product (MVP): Prioritize the most significant issues and tackle those first to define the goals for the MVP. Validate your wireframes and prototypes with the original group of individuals who determined the problem space to inform the solution. Allow the test group to try the product early and often, allowing them to guide the solution and feel involved in the process.
Have you ever wondered about being operated on for surgery without anesthesia? Or, have you ever thought about what life would have been for the disabled if there were no prosthetic or artificial limbs? Also, could anyone even think about a successful health procedure without the use of imaging techniques? Indeed, such a scenario does not even seem close to being possible.
That is the power of medical science and innovations today. However, it wasn’t always like this; there has always been a gradual process towards the objective. Like every other sphere or area of life, medical science also has been through stages to reach an excellent status and make life convenient.
It is also fascinating to know about the professionals at the helm of affairs who control it all today. The industry could not achieve its success without the frontline workers’ undying commitments and administrative workers’ diligent contributions. In the most straightforward terms, healthcare administration experts manage the entire operation in any hospital. From routine matters, staffing, financing to planning, they are the ones driving it.
Over the past year or so, the need for telehealth services has risen dramatically. In fact, there was a 154 percent rise in telehealth visits for the last week of March 2020 compared to the same period for the previous year. Patients were unable to attend their regular doctor visits in person, necessitating some form of replacement. Luckily, thanks to technology advancements, it’s now possible to communicate with healthcare professionals from the comfort of your own home.
However, not every medical practice is doing all it can to provide telehealth services to its patients. In the future, it’s likely that more people will come to enjoy the convenience of telehealth services and prefer them over traditional visits. Therefore, it’s important for medical practices to start implementing telehealth services and doing so in the right way.
The Importance of Improving Your Telehealth Services
Telehealth encompasses several forms of communication, such as phone calls, video conferencing, conducting virtual visits and even monitoring patients remotely. To give your patients the best possible experience, you need to account for as many telehealth methods as you can. By providing more ways for patients and medical professionals to interact, and by ensuring you are doing your best with each of those methods, you can take better care of your patients and ensure they are happy with your services.
Below you’ll find some of the best telehealth practices you should consider implementing. Go through each one and see if it is something you can begin to do for your patients.
#1 – Protect Patient Information
The most important thing you need to do is protect patient information. As you will be sending out sensitive information over the internet, it’s essential that you take proper care to manage the security of this information. For example, you need to ensure that this information is encrypted properly and that only authorized people are able to view it.
There are certain standards you’ll need to adhere to, such as FHIR, which describes the security and privacy protocols you need to have in place. FHIR, or Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource, includes things such as how to create URLs and how to present patient information online in a secure and standardized way. As you add more telehealth options to your practice, ensure they meet all privacy requirements before implementing them.
#2 – Promote Your Telehealth Services
In many cases, medical offices offer telehealth services but their patients do not know about them. You should make it a standard practice to not only let each of your patients know about their options but provide clear instructions on how they can make use of them. For example, instead of just sending an email to each patient alerting them to your telehealth options, you can also include a telemedicine guide on how they can get started with it. The more you promote your telehealth services, and the easier you make them to use, the more popular they will become.
#3- Upgrade Your Equipment
Providing telehealth services requires modern technology equipment. If your office is running older equipment, now is the time to upgrade. For example, you’ll want devices that can handle video calls, including a high-quality camera and a stable internet connection. You may also need to upgrade your patient database software so that it can interact seamlessly with your new telehealth services, which may require getting new software or a faster machine. Look at upgrading your equipment as a solid investment for your future.
#4 – Fix Up Video Surroundings
When conducting video conferences with patients, you should pay attention to your surroundings. Set up your camera and area in such a way that you provide a professional experience when someone is video conferencing with you. You still want to give off a welcoming environment despite the fact that you are both in different locations.
To do this, start by improving your lighting. Ensure you have plenty of light in the video conferencing area and that it sufficiently lights up the speaker’s face. Beyond that, pay attention to the background. Instead of just a blank wall, try adding in some artwork on the wall or some plants. Improving your video chat background can go a long way towards providing a better experience, even if it seems like a small adjustment.
#5 – Prepare Before Telehealth Meetings
Even though telehealth meetings are more convenient for the patient, you still want to avoid wasting any of their time. Once the video conference begins, you shouldn’t spend time going through their file and reviewing their past patient history. Do this before the meeting starts, so that once you connect with the patient, you can get right down to the matters at hand. This demonstrates not only preparedness and professionalism but ensures maximum convenience for the patient by using less of their time.
#6 – Remember the Fundamentals
Finally, remember the fundamentals of doctor visits. Even though you are connecting over the internet, you should still keep these fundamentals in mind. For example, you can work to develop a rapport with the patient and spend time asking about their medical history. Telehealth medicine is meant to be efficient but that doesn’t mean it has to be impersonal. People need to trust their doctors so whatever you do to establish trust in person, look to do the same things through telemedicine.
Start Improving Your Telehealth Services Today
If your medical practice doesn’t already offer telehealth services, now is the perfect time to add them. For those of you that already offer telemedicine, spend some time reviewing how it operates. You may find that there is significant room for improvement, both for the medical professionals and the patients.
If you’re not sure of which areas you need to improve, try asking your patients. Ask them for feedback about their telehealth experience and what areas they would like to see you improve. Between the best practices above, and direct feedback from your patients, you should find plenty of ways to improve your telehealth services and establish a high-quality standard of care for a long time to come.
Medical science has progressed by leaps and bounds in the last few years. Recent studies and technological advancements have brought forward new healthcare practices.
However, with the rise in the spread of diseases, people attempt to be mindful and take necessary steps to promote health. An increasing number of people suffer from fluctuations in blood pressure, cholesterol, and sugar levels and need to consult physicians frequently.
Moreover, the outbreak of COVID-19 compelled people to take care of their health seriously. The new healthcare practices help healthcare workers to cater to patients’ illnesses and provide better treatments.
When a person falls ill, he or she affects the whole family. However, each family member has to play their part to help the patient recover and regain health. Family-centered health is an approach that involves planning and delivering healthcare services. It is worth mentioning that patients, their families, and medical workers are the major participants in family-centered healthcare, which is being protected by family law. For instance, special care patients are primarily dependent on the family. Each member can positively contribute to improving the patient’s health.
For some people, the concept of family-centered care is still new, and most of them not follow it much. Below we are listing some reasons behind family-centered health promotion:
Improved Decision-Making for Healthcare Services
Patients such as those with special needs are sensitive, and they unexpectedly get into some serious situations. Physicians are not available all the time, and family members have to intervene and make critical decisions. The family-centered approach enables family members who share space with patients to barge in and help patients cope with a sudden health crisis.
Medical institutes are venturing into e-education and offering online courses for non-medical and healthcare workers to get insight into different medical industry fields. An online MPH promotes health equity and helps in creating healthier communities. Individuals with differently-abled patients or those aiming to build a healthy community can take advantage of online programs and equip themselves with the skills.
Bariatrics is the field of medicine that looks after obese and overweight patients. Government statistics obtained from the Health Survey for England 2019 show that over three quarters of people aged over 16 in England were either obese or overweight.
The widely accepted definition for being ‘overweight’ is having a Body Mass Index (a calculation using weight and height) of over 25 and for being ‘obese’ is over 30. Patients with a BMI of more than 40 are considered morbidly obese.
Bariatric beds – the basics
As the rates of obesity within populations rise, the demand for bariatric services is rapidly increasing and medical facilities need the appropriate equipment to care for them safely. Overweight and obese patients need to be treated to help them lose weight but may also need treatment for the many health issues associated with obesity. Patients also need equipment to live safely and comfortably in their own homes. The safety, comfort and dignity of the patient are priorities when choosing equipment to meet their needs.
The process of choosing a bariatric bed can be confusing as there are many features to consider. Here’s a summary of the main things that you need to know before making your decision.
Medical science has progressed by leaps and bounds in the last few years. Recent studies and technological advancements have brought forward new healthcare practices.