In a perfect world, all the tasks associated with health information management (HIM) would run like a well-oiled machine. Patient charts would always be complete and up to date. Inbound documents and requests would be handled in near real time. Charts would always be accurate and filed in the correct place. Naming and indexing structures would be established and followed at all times—everything has a place and everything in its place.
Patients, healthcare providers, insurers, attorneys and others have an expectation that your medical records department operates in perfect-world conditions. However, the reality is quite different for a wide variety of reasons, ranging from the sheer volume of work that HIM entails and the fallible human nature to staffing challenges and ensuring HIPAA compliance.
The weight of HIM expectations falls on your staff’s shoulders, causing frustration, burnout and turnover. Worst case scenario is the time and resources HIM takes away from patient care, negatively affecting patient outcomes and satisfaction. Best case scenario is you allocate even more time and resources attempting to meet expectations.
Either way, the expectations of HIM are quite different than the realities. Healthcare organizations turn to ScanSTAT for better aligning expectations of HIM with today’s staffing and operational realities.
Eliminate Backlogs
There is an expectation that HIM will not experience any sort of backlog. Period. However, the reality is that forces in and out of a medical record team’s control result in delays. These forces can include, but aren’t limited to:
- Staff has competing priorities, and patient care comes before HIM tasks.
- Staff receives a large record audit request.
- An employee quits, goes on leave or becomes ill.
- An organization expands and the current records department isn’t staffed to handle the increasing HIM workload.
ScanSTAT’s HIM services clear up any backlogs and bottlenecks.
- We seamlessly handle your administrative and back office duties according to your defined workflows.
- You tell us how you want us to file documents and complete forms, and we follow your processes.
- You can offload the busywork that can bog down your staff to us, often for less than the cost of an in-house solution.
Receive a large medical record pull list from a Health Plan for a Health Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) or Risk Adjustment review/audit? HEDIS, Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial risk adjustment audit requests can equate to thousands of transactions and seemingly endless hours of additional work, often with a deadline.
Rather than putting HIM tasks on hold to handle a review or audit, turn to ScanSTAT as your scalable resource. Our experienced release of information staff is ready to tackle any audit request quickly – without interrupting your regular, ongoing operations. We use technology to integrate with your EHR, provide intensive quality assurance on each and every record, and deliver records in the format requested. You can check on our progress using a web-based reporting system for real-time updates.
Improve Turnaround Time
Technology certainly has contributed to people “wanting what they want when they want it.” There is an expectation that records requests be fulfilled in near real time. However, the reality is that those in charge of completing records requests are juggling other responsibilities, tending to patient reception and care, taking customer service calls and more.
With ScanSTAT, ROI is completed within 24-48 hours and inbound document management tasks are handled the same day.
Make Even Better-Informed Business Decisions
Keeping a consistent, close watch on performance metrics will help your HIM department quickly catch and correct issues. It can help you find new ways to be more efficient and effective, as well as be HIPAA compliant, close gaps in referrals, increase patient satisfaction and provide even better patient care.
ScanSTAT understands how valuable reporting is when it comes to making business decisions and optimizing performance. We give you full transparency in all areas of our service. Any of your designated personnel can access all reports at any time – volumes, productivity, turnaround time, revenue and collections. Also, we provide a client dashboard designed to give client partners access and insight into our performance.
Overcome Staffing Challenges
There are internal and external expectations that all departments in healthcare are adequately staffed. But, staffing today is challenging for any organization, and healthcare facilities need talent experienced in HIM. These employees may be more difficult to find, especially in rural areas where the hiring pool is smaller. Bringing new employees up to speed on your EHR and processes is time consuming, and even seasoned applicants require a training period.
ScanSTAT has in-house experts well-versed in 30+ EHRs to handle HIM, and our services can be completed remotely. In most cases, we can be up and running in just a few weeks. We also can source and manage talent for you.
Contact us at scanstat.com/demo to learn how you can leverage ScanSTAT experts to meet expectations and make efficient HIM a reality.