MANAGEMENT ESSENTIALS

‘Side-car’ add-ons can bring out the best of your technology

Knowing how to make full use of various technologies can improve your practice’s processes.

By Farrell “Toby” Tyson, MD, FACS

Farrell C. Tyson, MD, FACS, is a refractive cataract/glaucoma eye surgeon at the Cape Coral Eye Center in Florida. His e-mail is tysonfc@hotmail.com.

Making a large purchase, be it a new car or practice management software, requires we carefully evaluate all the options. Without the proper “side-car” options, your practice management software may be incomplete.

These side-car add-ons best utilize the efficiencies of your practice-management technology by incorporating analytical data, reducing redundancies and providing metrics for staff evaluations.

KIOSK CHECK-INS

When patients enter the office, a stack of forms greets them. The time they spend filling out these forms can take longer than the exam. New software and hardware can integrate with your practice-management system to allow bidirectional communication between both technologies.

One company, Clearwave Corporation (Atlanta), now produces a patient self-registration and insurance authorization kiosk. The terminal obtains patient data from the practice-management software and allows patients to update their information. This updated information links to the patient’s insurance company and obtains authorization.

The authorization and updated information downloads into the practice-management system, increasing efficiency by eliminating duplication of effort and reducing transcription errors.

CAPITALIZE ON ANALYTICS

Another software company, Brevium Inc. (Eagle Mountain, Utah), addresses the shortcomings of recall systems in practice-management software. Brevium is a full-featured recall add-on. It data mines the scheduler and billing modules in your system to find patients who have been lost to follow-up.

With this kind of software, a physician could, for example, create a search for patients who have not been to the practice in years or have a diagnosis code of cataracts but no history of a procedure code for extraction. The result is a list of patients to contact who would have a high return on the effort.

VOIP PHONE SYSTEMS

Many practices are converting to digital or voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone systems. To utilize the full extent of VoIP, look into the many available add-ons. For example, they can provide invaluable knowledge of your front desk’s performance by monitoring the number of rings before the call is answered, how many callers hung up and average call-length.

JOB SECURITY

Technology greatly improves these check-in-check-out functions. Staff may be hesitant to embrace these technologies for fear of being replaced. However, the technology should help ensure their job security by driving more patients through the practice. Next month, I will look at software add-ons that work in the clinical side off the practice. OM