Going paperless is not just simply adopting an Electronic Medical Record. This is just the first step, as your practice likely manages a ton of paper in other areas. Paper truly impedes the overall goal of having an integrated and collaborative healthcare team.
Many employees prefer paper. You can touch it, refer to it, and easily hand it over to the next person. As with a book, many people prefer reading it while holding it as opposed to reading it on a Kindle or computer screen. But, we all know that paper in healthcare is not efficient. Automation allows for real time access across the entire practice, provides better care for our patients, and reduces costs.
Healthcare in the US is expensive—accounting for nearly 18% of the GDP with expenditures reaching $3.2 trillion annually. The heavy reliance on paper products costs the healthcare industry billions annually with estimates putting this waste as high as $300 billion a year.
While saving trees and cutting down on using paper is a notable reason to go paperless, there are many benefits for both the patient and your practice when you eliminate paper.
- Decreased Risk/Exposure: Going paperless is a challenge no matter the size or type of practice you have. But, it is necessary to accept this challenge, as there is a huge risk of exposure when using paper. Physicians who travel from their clinic to the hospital to round on patients and continue to use paper bill sheets are at risk for violating HIPAA laws and patient privacy. Paper can easily be lost or misplaced—it can end up at the drycleaner, in the physician’s lab coat, or it can be accidentally thrown away. Studies indicate 71% of healthcare employees state that they have access to data they don’t need to see, and most say that their access is frequent. Back at the clinic, papers lying around with private healthcare information becomes a security breach for patient privacy laws.
- Increased Revenue while Decreasing Denials: Utilizing tools and software instead of paper can greatly increase revenue and decrease the industry average of 10% of all claims are denied. 90% of all denials are preventable and automation is the key to lowering your denial rate. So, why are claims denied? Insufficient, inaccurate, or missing information is the most common cause for denials on claims. Going paperless and utilizing automated charge capture from the patient’s bedside with the physician having the ICD-10 codes at their fingertips will significantly reduce the risk for denials. It also allows the biller in real time to see the charges, submit them timely, and greatly reduce the days in AR. Automation also enhances productivity, allowing doctors to spend more time at the bedside rather than performing clerical work with paper.
- Decreased Costs while Increasing Efficiencies: Doing more in less time is industry agnostic. But, in healthcare, people’s lives on are on the line, and like an airline pilot, there is little-to-no room for error. Going paperless does require investing in new technology, changing the workflow for your practice, and retraining employees. However, the benefits greatly outweigh the cost of both time and money.
- Improved Patient Satisfaction: In the past, ironically, the patient was essentially the only person who didn’t readily have access to his or her own medical records. Today, with patient portals, patients can review their test results, ask their physicians questions, get medication refills, and make appointments. This engagement improves patient satisfaction and makes the patient-physician relationship closer than ever.
- Improved Employee Satisfaction: Cutting down on duplicative work including double or triple entries, filing charts, and losing paper files are a thing of the past when a practice chooses to go paperless. With automation, there’s a single access point for patient records, and the data is received and viewed in real time. Providing effective healthcare requires collaboration, and trust and respect from each team member. Poor communication is cited as often being the number one root cause for medical errors. Effective teamwork utilizing tools that make employees more efficient not only enhances their job satisfaction, but greatly improves patient outcomes.
Call us today to learn how HybridChart will allow you to take the next step in automation and go paperless.
Meet EVOLVE by HybridChart – Our fourth generation software platform.
Take control of your entire workflow through a user-friendly solution created by a physician. Medical software too often fails to address the specific needs of providers. Rounding at one or more hospitals presents a unique challenge. There is the need for effective team collaboration and easy charge capture. Census management means true collaboration among provider and staff. Rounding at multiple facilities just got way easier. Covering on-call now has the luxury of essential information for clean hand-offs. Charge capture takes less than five seconds. Diagnoses are easy to find and follow the patient. Customized charge menus make it easy to enter the correct charge. Don’t let billing for your work slow you down. Charge in real-time and focus on caring for the patient.
HybridChart has numerous levels of safeguards against missed charges. The Charge Checker feature will scan every day of an admission and assure there are charges. Using the Charge Matrix you have visibility of all charges from multiple providers per day for any given patient.
Most practices see a revenue increase of 8-10% after using HybridChart – attributed to capturing every charge for every patient. Charges are complex enough with just the diagnosis codes and charge codes. To make your charges accurate HybridChart allows you to easily adjust the Date of Service and assign Secondary Billers such as nurse-practitioners and physician assistants. Modifiers can be built into specific Billing Modules or choose from a customized list managed by your practice. Seamlessly navigate our Charge Capture workflow and save time without losing accuracy.
An automated charge capture system may be the most profitable investment that you can make in your practice today.
You can instantly boost your revenue by 10% using our modern, high-tech and easy-to-implement charge capture system.
Smarter Rounding and Workflow Software for Doctors
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: census management, charge capture, secure messaging, discharge management, 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, or call us at 1-877-684-0608 for a demo today!
- More About Stacey
