| ue of capturing and maintaining the consistency | | | | Hospital staff report to different departments, |
| and validity of patients' personal and financial | | | | their 'main' job may not be patient registration, |
| information is quickly becoming a major headache | | | | they don't fully understand the system, or simply, |
| for hospital administrators. For Healthcare | | | | they want to get the patient registered in the |
| providers in the US and Europe keeping a | | | | shortest possible time with as little hassle as |
| consistent view of the patient is a critical aspect | | | | possible. |
| of the entire hospital revenue cycle. | | | | So what can hospital administrators do to reduce |
| The problem usually begins at the point of | | | | this problem? |
| registration. To understand why this happens let's | | | | Traditionally auditing has been the answer; which in |
| consider the following factors: | | | | a way becomes a game of cat and mouse of |
| - Patients access hospital services through multiple | | | | catching errors and correcting them before they |
| entry points (inpatients, outpatients, emergency | | | | get too far. The only preventive measures are |
| room, etc). | | | | besed on reporting on most common errors and |
| - The access points to these services do not | | | | trying to train all personnel involved so they can |
| always follow a consistent registration process. | | | | be avoided in the future. The high staff turnover |
| - It is extremely difficult to ensure that all hospital | | | | at hospitals and the difficulty in getting everyone |
| personnel conducting registrations follow | | | | trained to the same standards means errors |
| best-practices. Particularly where the registration | | | | continue to happen. |
| processes is de-centralized and clinical personnel | | | | But increasingly, the attention is turning to error |
| conduct some of the registrations. | | | | prevention. Some healthcare providers are already |
| -In general hospital information systems are not | | | | using systems that integrate with their Hospital |
| designed to help patient-facing employees through | | | | Information Systems to provide guidance through |
| the data capture process at registration. | | | | these processes. Such systems take the hospital |
| These factors result in duplicate patient records, | | | | employee through a process of questions and |
| incorrect patient information being captured, | | | | answers and check the validity of the data being |
| inaccurate insurance details entered in the system, | | | | entered. Using the hospital best-practices as the |
| and so on. Hospitals are then faced with having to | | | | starting point they ensure that errors are virtually |
| re-work all this data in the back office and footing | | | | eliminated before they are entered into the |
| the bill for delayed payments and loss of revenue | | | | system. |
| due to unpaid services. | | | | Using this approach even the most inexperience |
| Ideally, everyone registering a patient should be | | | | hospital staff can perform flawless registrations. |
| aware of what to do to avoid these problems. | | | | The amount of re-work needed decreases |
| However, the reality is that achieving this level of | | | | dramatically, the registration process becomes |
| expertise across the board and ensuring that best | | | | stress-free for those involved and hospitals see |
| practices are always followed becomes a | | | | their revenues increased and their AR days |
| management utopia. | | | | reduced. |