Is Your Medical Records Department Too Big?
Ask yourself this question, and then honestly answer it using our poll below: “On a typical day, how much time do you spend updating your EMR with incoming information?”
If you answered anything more than 2 hours a day, chances are your practice is throwing money down the drain due to extra “dead weight” in your medical records department.
It may sound obvious, but for practices with live EMR systems, there is no need to have a huge staff in your medical records department. In fact, many medical practices have a medical records department that is as much as twice as large as they need! You may be reading that and thinking, “Yeah right…it seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day as is. How could we really get everything done…and do it with fewer people?” The answer lies in leveraging remote records services in tandem with your EMR.
As a practice administrator, you have been charged with the unenviable task of figuring out how to make your practice more effective, all while decreasing overhead and administrative FTE per physician. That’s a tall order! However, it may be a bit less overwhelming than it appears.
Let’s dissect that “twice as much staff” statistic mentioned earlier. A typical medical records department usually requires a staff member (or two) for filing incoming patient information in the EMR, as well as a staff member (or two) for keeping up with outgoing records tasks such as fulfilling release of information requests. However, the technology of EMR platforms allows these duties to be done by remote records services using a secure connection to your EMR, meaning you no longer need staff members focused on these tasks because you can offload them to a third party. Essentially, you could outsource your entire medical records department if you wanted to! And you could use your freed up staff in other areas of the practice that need attention.
Consider that EMR technology opens the door for decreasing overhead expenses and required staff levels by enabling trusted remote records services to take on some of your records tasks burdens. Not only that, but often these services help you increase efficiency and patient satisfaction within your practice because tasks get done at a faster pace than if you were to do them yourself.
So what are you waiting for? Start a conversation with one of the experts at ScanSTAT about the ways you could improve your medical records department using our variety of remote records services.