While your medical record system does a great job of generating and storing all patient related documentation, challenges often arise as soon as those documents leave the EMR.
Whether they are faxed, sent via portal, emailed, or even printed for mail or hand-delivery, many organizations struggle to get outstanding documents completed and returned to the patient chart.
Moreover, these time-sensitive documents are necessary for reimbursement and maintaining cash flow. Now, more than ever, document turnaround time— the time it takes for a document to be sent out, signed and completed, and returned— is critical to the sustainability and growth of your organization.
We've organized a few ways to ensure your team is focused on improving turnaround time, so your business can thrive.
Educate your staff and signing physicians
Regulations and documentation requirements change all the time. While you may be staying on top of these changes, your signing physicians may not. Therefore, it is the responsibility of you and your staff to ensure that documents are completed with utmost accuracy before entering the patient chart.
When you hear about documentation or regulatory changes, be sure to educate the clerical and clinical team members responsible for handling and tracking orders. If documents are still being completed incorrectly or if documentation is missing, consider sending educational materials to your signing physicians or meeting with them to review the updates.
Remember you are a team and alignment through knowledge-sharing is the easiest way to achieve your teams' mutual goals. Proactive education can prevent regulatory changes, like Pre-Claim Review, from negatively impacting efficiency and cash flow.
Develop clear, concise processes
There are four steps in developing a clear concise document tracking process:
- Determine a goal.
- Develop a document tracking process.
- Document and communicate the process.
- Monitor, analyze and improve the process.
Each team's goal should align with your organization's revenue model. If your organization's cash flow is dependent on the ability to submit more claims for reimbursement (as most are), then your document tracking team should strive towards getting more signed orders returned in a timely fashion.
Once you've determined a goal, start a document tracking process plan. Take into consideration all steps within the current process, from exporting documents from your EMR all the way until they are signed, returned, and attached to the patient chart. Involve management and key team members as necessary. Think of how you can better organize your existing team to improve efficiency. Identify redundant or non-value added tasks and remove or consolidate them in the new process. While more common with intake processes, you may want to consider process centralization as it an significantly reduce costs and improve efficiency.
After you've finalized the tracking process, document it and communicate it to your team. Make sure that everyone is on the same page as you implement the process changes so that efficiency is not compromised.
Monitor the process closely after implementation. Is it producing the expected results? Can you easily see how this tracking process has affected your cash flow? Are there any bottlenecks that are lingering in the process? Review metrics such as document turnaround time, number of pending documents (segmented by days outstanding), and increase or decrease in claim submissions. If you aren't achieving the results you expected, reevaluate while the process is still new.
Track with Technology
Whether you are implementing an all-new document tracking process or making improvements to your existing one, technology can play a key role in improving document turnaround time.
In addition to eliminating supply costs surrounding paper-based document tracking methods, technology allows you to better organize and track documents with specific workflows. Cloud-based technology makes documents traceable and accessible from any location, while keeping them secure.
By leveraging technology to manage and track documents, you can get useful data allowing you to quickly identify bottlenecks and process gaps. Like your team goals and processes, look for technology that aligns with the operational and revenue needs of your organization. Forcura’s Document Tracking module offers barcode tracking and custom workflows to give you insights into exactly what documents are outstanding and where the bottlenecks are.
Follow up frequently
Documents don't sign and send themselves. While technology can make the tracking and transmission processes seamless, a personal touch goes a long way. Set time aside for calling offices and politely asking for status updates. Automatically resend documents that have been outstanding for a specified period of time. Ensure that outstanding documents are segmented appropriately (by # of days outstanding, for example), so they can quickly be followed-up on by the appropriate team member. Be sure to document any phone calls or resends (if your technology doesn't do so already), so your team stays on the same page.
Whether or not document turnaround time is a challenge for your organization, making it an initiative can have a significant positive impact on cash flow. With all the changes to documentation requirements, we've seen detrimental decreases in profit margins for healthcare providers across the country. By reevaluating your processes and technology, you have the ability to prevent or mitigate the consequences of such regulations.
