Streamline patient intake with interoperable systems
Any time a patient or resident moves from one care setting to another, there are risks. Too often, care transitions are marred by decisions made with incomplete information, inaccurate data, and disconnected communications.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. When providers, including primary care physicians, specialists and support staff, have the technology they need to collaborate from the beginning, they can quickly and easily share important health information that supports better decision-making, and ultimately better outcomes.
Interoperable systems are the key to connecting this ecosystem of care providers. Connected systems offer a holistic understanding of the patient’s health, which leads to more accurate diagnoses and personalized treatment plans. Sharing accurate, timely information also helps prevent medical errors that can happen as a result of incomplete or fragmented information.
Intake processes are complex
We’ll walk through a specific scenario to illustrate the difference interoperable systems can make for patient intake. Imagine your elderly father falls and breaks his hip. He goes to the hospital and has emergency surgery to repair the hip, and then his doctor decides he should go to inpatient rehab. Due to Medicare guidelines, he’ll need to be discharged to a skilled nursing facility within three days.
The patient, and possibly his family, will work with the hospital’s discharge coordinator to gather information about nearby facilities, and visit them before making a decision if time allows. Once they’ve chosen a facility, the discharge coordinator starts placing calls to check availability.
The discussion between the discharge coordinator and the admissions staff at the facility will focus on whether the facility can provide the right care for this patient. Is a bed available? Does their staff have the right skills? Do they have the right medications on hand? And then there’s the insurance eligibility check. Does the patient know what insurance they have? Are they on Medicare, Medicaid, or some other coverage? Will their insurer cover their stay at your facility?
Sometimes, all of this information needs to be exchanged in as little as 15 minutes to ensure a patient meets insurance guidelines and also receives appropriate, safe care.
Without interoperable systems
Let’s look at the intake process from two perspectives. First, how do care transitions work when healthcare EHR systems are not connected? The first inefficiency that usually happens is that there are a lot of phone calls back and forth. But because calls are real-time, it means the discharge and admissions staff have to be immediately available, even though they may have other tasks that need attention.
The back-and-forth of the phone calls often lead to sharing information via fax, which requires finding and printing out information from the EHR and possibly even gathering paper notes before sending. On the receiving end, there’s the wait for all the pages to print, and then manual verification with the patient or patient’s family of the accuracy of the information. Although some organizations are at least partially digital, with the ability to cut and paste information into their eligibility systems, this still takes additional time and is not a guarantee that complete patient information will be shared. Overall, the process to share complete medical information can take an hour or more in a best-case scenario.
With interoperable systems
In the same scenario with interoperable EHR systems, complete patient data can be sent electronically, so there is no need for back-and-forth phone calls, helping admissions staff work more efficiently. Faxing is greatly decreased, if not eliminated altogether, and systems can flag missing or inconsistent data, which helps staff identify and avoid errors such as potential drug interactions or allergies and missed diagnoses.
This information exchange can happen in minutes, helping discharge and admissions staff meet payor deadlines for transitions of care, while also making the move from one setting to another easier and less stressful for the patient and their family.
The benefits of interoperable systems also extend to other care settings, including home health or home medical equipment providers. If the father in our example needs a walker or physical therapy after his return home, interoperable systems support faster referrals. Skilled nursing facility (SNF) staff can add all the necessary information to the medical record and share specific needs and recommendations with other providers to make sure everything is ready at the right time. In addition to the added convenience and accuracy, this helps care teams reduce duplication of tests and procedures, which saves time and reduces costs.
Even after the main health event has passed, the patient will have follow-ups and evaluations. Having all the information in interoperable systems lets updated information flow seamlessly between different departments, specialties or providers, and helps reduce the chance of missed appointments, contradictory treatment recommendations or gaps in treatment history. And from a patient’s perspective, when providers share information, there is less frustration caused by having to share medical history information repeatedly or from delays in treatment due to poor care coordination.
Interoperability across the provider ecosystem
Interoperable technologies that connect providers during the entire patient journey are essential for delivering high quality patient care. Sharing holistic, complete patient data leads to more accurate diagnoses, personalized treatment plans, fewer errors resulting from incomplete or fragmented information and improved patient safety and outcomes. These tools also make the patient journey easier, allowing your staff to focus on care rather than paperwork, and increasing patient and family engagement and satisfaction.
Request a demo today for a closer look at MatrixCare.
Michele Spadola
Michele is a Senior Product Manager in Interoperability at MatrixCare, specializing in Senior Living and Long-Term Care (SLTC). Since joining MatrixCare in 2016, she has leveraged her 17 years of experience in the healthcare industry, which began with a primary care physicians group before focusing on SLTC. With over 30 years of professional experience across various industries, Michele has developed a strong expertise in managing certification and integration projects, leading to her current role in product management.
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