Month: February 2017

The Top Health Technology Challenges Facing Today’s Hospital Manager

Technology is the central element in the modern hospital. It empowers teams to communicate during busy working schedules. It facilitates the transition of data to and from billing companies. It also supports medical teams in administering effective care to all patients who visit the facility. But the leading systems can bring their fair share of challenges to facility staff. And in this latest post, we’ll examine technology challenges in greater detail as we explore the role of technology in today’s medical care facility.

HIPAA Compliance

The latest HIPAA regulations require medical organizations to implement strict controls over data and use high-performance encryption technology to minimize the chances of a data breach. This is often difficult for smaller organizations without the technical resources or the financial capacity to manage the data storage process effectively.

Mobile Health and BYOD

Mobile and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trends in health care have given the consumer more flexibility in how they manage their health choices and their personal data. But in communicating with their patients, care teams must implement mobile access management tools that are often costly and complex. These tools also require day-to-day management to minimize technical issues and security breaches.

Wireless Networking

While wireless networking has given teams throughout the facility a greater ability to collaborate and control data, it has also increased the openness of hospital data systems. Now, a single person with a device can walk into the hospital, access their network and try to attack their network infrastructure. This means growing organizations must implement security protocols designed to safeguard the network and all user data.

Meaningful Use

The meaningful use of EHR is now tied to Medicare reimbursement levels, and organizations unable to prove meaningful use based on the latest standards face reduced reimbursement. The challenge for care teams is implementing electronic records while safeguarding data and supporting patient access. This is a problem for many organizations throughout the industry, as data sharing provisions are enacted to help support the dissemination of health information, while the onus remains on the care provider to manage data security.

Engagement with Patients on Technical Challenges

Engagement with patients is required to ensure they understand the value of security in the modern healthcare marketplace. With patients entrusted in storing their health records on smartphone applications and other devices, patients are now an important stakeholder. Applications enable patients to track their health objectives, but without the optimal security protocols in place, their data remains at risk.

By knowing more on the technology challenges facing healthcare providers, teams can take a proactive role in mitigating these challenges and empowering the effective and secure use of the latest systems. To learn more about the challenges and opportunities relating to the latest healthcare technology, call our experts directly today.

 

 

How Outsourcing Can Safeguard a Hospital’s Financial Future

With Medicare cutbacks impacting hospitals around the country, and changes in the way organizations are being reimbursed for medical services, it’s increasingly important for administrative teams to consolidate expenditure. Now, hospital leaders are considering outsourcing options as they look to expand their teams and compete more effectively in a challenging market. In this latest post, our experts take a closer look at the outsourcing process and the benefits it can bring to a hospital’s bottom line in the short and long-term.

Mitigate Long-Term Expenditure

A growing portion of the average hospital’s operating budget is allocated to training costs. Staff require training on the latest procedures in billing and coding to limit mistakes that can be costly to the organization. By outsourcing their billing and coding work to specialists in the industry, hospital leaders eliminate the need to dedicate resources to training staff. This ensures in-house teams can focus on their care expertise rather than spending time on complex IT work.

The outsourcing process also allows small organizations to achieve economies of scale, upgrading their billing and risk mitigation practices without having to make a similar level of investment in the company and their team. It’s a process that allows for faster growth in a quick timeframe.

Improve the Reputation of the Hospital through Superior Quality of Care

By outsourcing important functions of their organization to specialists, hospital leaders can deliver superior quality of care to their patients. This is ideal for organizations struggling with limited resources as it means they can allocate their resources more effectively, to ensure they’re focusing primarily on patient outcomes. By delivering a higher level of patient experience, teams can then improve the reputation of the care provider in the local marketplace. This will help bolster the company’s financial standing through improved industry ratings and increased industry recognition.

Limit the Costs of On-Site Infrastructure

One of the common costs for hospitals maintaining an onsite infrastructure for their billing systems is their server expenditure. Maintaining and securing this system is a day-to-day process that can cost thousands of dollars over the course of a year. By outsourcing their medical billing services, companies have no need for this type of infrastructure. They can ensure their patients’ data is secured by a professional billing company who have the resources and the expertise to store information securely while ensuring the data is available as required by the hospital team.

Reduce Staff Time Spent on Billing Enquiries

A large number of calls to hospital administration teams relate to billing questions. Patients and their families require up-to-date information on their billing and having an in-house staff responsible for the billing process means hospital leaders must employ a large number of customer service representatives. It’s why many are now simply choosing to outsource their billing procedures, and give patients access to qualified billing experts who can then spend the time required to analyze their bills and answer their questions with precision.

Outsourcing is keeping modern medical care providers competitive with their counterparts in the industry. It’s a process that reduces costs, improves services, and drives team productivity across the organizational infrastructure. To discuss billing procedures with an expert, call our team today.

The Top 3 Reasons Your ER Is Suffering From Low Physician Retention Rates

Anyone who runs an emergency room can attest to just how high physician turnover can be disruptive. Low retention rates can make it feel like you’re taking two steps back for every step forward you make.

According to a Physician Retention Survey conducted by Cejka Search and the American Medical Group Association, medical groups reported a total turnover of 6.8% in 2013, compared to 5.9% in 2009 and 6.5% in 2011[1]. While these figures reflect physicians in every field of specialization, one can extrapolate that the statistics for ED physicians would be even higher, considering the high burnout rates associated with emergency room physicians.

The High Cost of Turnover

Certainly, a large portion of the turnover rate can be attributed to factors over which you have little or no control, such as retirement. Nevertheless, the associated costs of replacing an ER physician are significant. To begin, recruiting costs will be in the neighborhood of $60,000 or more. When you factor in training, orientation costs, and reduced productivity for the first few months, the total costs rocket up to more than $150,000.

All the more reason to make every effort to retain your emergency physicians. When a doctor chooses to leave, it’s because the draw of what they perceive to be a better situation outweighs the stress associated with making the change and joining a new team.

Here are three of the main reasons your ER may be suffering from low retention rates:

1 – Work – Life Balance

There’s no doubt that working in an emergency room can be stressful. The hours can be long, and the workload can be heavy. Another survey conducted by Cejka Search[2] indicates that a good work-life balance is among the elements of engagement most valued by physicians. However, this point was also among the lowest scoring marks when rating their current practice. As the scales continue to tip and move out of balance, retention rates will likely suffer.

 

2 – Issues with the Medical Billing and Coding System

Efficiency is one aspect that is non-negotiable if you want your ER to function effectively and keep your doctors around longer. When issues with medical billing and coding continually cause problems, the frustration and excess time involved to make them right can cause some physicians to look elsewhere. Some of the main problems faced by emergency rooms include failing to link diagnosis codes, selecting the incorrect procedure code, randomly using modifiers and not keeping the system updated.

3 – Work Environment

This is probably the most significant and most contentious motivator pushing physicians to leave emergency rooms. The work environment encompasses a broad spectrum of elements ranging from feeling respected and appreciated to the emergency room operations and systems.

Fixing the Retention Problem

The first step in addressing the issue is to ensure you have solid recruitment strategies and practices in place. Investing more time and energy from the outset to ensure your candidates will be a good fit within the organization will pay dividends down the road.

The next piece of the puzzle is to improve on the individual employee engagement. ER Directors can take significant steps in accomplishing this by having a good ongoing dialogue with their physicians to understand their complaints and issues. Doctors need to feel valued and understood, just like any other employee.

Directors must strive to understand what pain points may exist within the emergency department, such as understaffing, billing issues or coding problems. Of course, they must also provide solutions to these points of frustration. At Lotris Medical, we provide comprehensive medical billing and coding solutions, making your ER run much more efficiently, effectively boosting physician retention.

 

[1] Source: https://www.cejkasearch.com/pr/physician-turnover-remains-high-as-more-physicians-retire

[2] Source: https://www.cejkasearch.com/pr/rules-of-engagement-new-survey-reveals-drivers-of-physician