The average American uses 700 pounds of paper per year – a startling fact for anyone who has ever attempted to lift such a hefty load. For doctors who literally live and die by the sheet and ream, they often feel as if they’re actually carrying the weight of that paperwork on their shoulders.
Each day, doctors fold, sign, crumple, and file more paper than thought humanly possible. The need to use such an old-school method to provide care, in this day and age, seems inconceivable.
In fact, a recent study confirms this confounding reality – 70 percent of the nearly 20,000 physicians surveyed said they were spending 10 or more hours per week doing the paperwork shuffle; 30 percent say that task tops 20 hours in a single week. It’s a number that is only growing, with no signs of letting up.
The process of hospital rounding remains a primary culprit. From the printouts of patient lists to the paper face sheets with patient demographics and insurance information, it’s little wonder that the molehill turns into a mountain.
There’s an App for That?
Moving to a mobile charge capture system seems like a no-brainer – not just from an efficiency standpoint, but to dig out from the mountain of paper. Until recently, many doctors have clung to the comfortable feel of paper out of necessity.
But the next generation of charge capture software – such as the EVOLVE suite produced by HybridChart – may provide a respite from the insanity. Simply by popping open the app, doctors can view, in real time, their hospital charge tasks.
From schedulers to providers, the app gives the whole practice visibility into who is where, and at what stage in the process. The app also makes it easy to toggle between different hospital censuses – something that could take even three pages of instructions to manage in the Paper Days.
Even face sheets have met their match: The app takes a picture of the face sheet and presents it securely to billers. Better yet, the data feed from the hospital grabs all of the information and delivers it to the charge capture app.
A New Reality Awaits
We know how hospital charge capture can be a terrible time suck. You go the nursing station, grab a patient sticker, affix it to the charge sheet, and then proceed to write down diagnoses, check boxes of what was done – you get the idea.
By the end of the week, a literal mountain of sheets results. At the end of the day, you grab whatever time is left of your day to handle billing – a process fraught with risk, as it relies on our frazzled memories to complete. In the mobile charge capture epoch, all of this is a 3- to 6-second experience and happens at the point of care. No more end-of-the-day billing sessions. No more under coding. No more piles of paper to manage.
And no papers lost under some pile, on a subway, or shuffled in with your kids’ homework. The billers have your data instantly, can never lose them, and they flow seamlessly into the billing software. There are layers of protection against missed charges, ensuring that there are no gaps at the end of a patient admission.
Reconciliation Made Simple
Even the process of tallying up consults gets a new lease on life in the mobile charge capture universe. While paper systems make it hard to the know the true denominator, with a mobile charge capture app, you can instantly run reports, showing you what you did that day or month or quarter. Truly meaningful reconciliation.
Suddenly, you are back in control and have instant access to data – ensuring that you are being fully compensated for your hard work.
As your practice evolves and you modernize your rounding process to incorporate a mobile charge capture system, you will eliminate the paper, remove the inefficiencies, and prevent missed charges. With this new-found organization comes the ability to do reporting and reconcile with the billers. No more mountains of paper. No more surprises.
For A Better Hospital Rounding Experience
At HybridChart, we provide technology that connects your healthcare team, increases efficiencies, AND improves your bottom line. HybridChart’s cloud-based software adapts to your practice’s unique workflow and will improve your profitability and patient outcomes by utilizing our 5 features: charge capture, census management, secure messaging, discharge planning, and data analytics.
NEVER miss another charge and get PAID for the work you do!
If you are interested in taking your medical practice to the next level and want to employ the best hospital charge capture practice available in the industry, come visit our website at www.hybridchart.com, call us at 1-877-977-5544, or click here to schedule a demo today!
- More About Dr. Sanders
Dr. Gregory Sanders is a Harvard-trained, practicing cardiologist and founder and CEO of HybridChart. He has been coding since the 1980s and has spent his medical career focusing on improving processes. His patient care skills earned him recognition as one of Phoenix Magazine’s TOP DOCs. He lives in Scottsdale with his family.