Let’s say a patient needs an exam that a primary care physician can’t perform. The doctor’s office prescribes the order and sends the patient off to the service provider. If you’re the service provider, such as a hospital or imaging center, you wait for the patient to arrive with a written order or the order may be faxed without confirmation of receipt. This is not optimal in any way. Today, new ambulatory order management software programs streamline the process. This offers many benefits to both medical practices and service providers.
What’s wrong with ambulatory orders now
The status quo for ambulatory order management is messy, inefficient and error-prone. Manual processes often leave the patient unclear about the specifics of the service, where it’s being provided, what to expect and so forth. The referring physician may never know if the service was provided. Incomplete or erroneous billing codes may make reimbursement. The whole process chews up staff time. This is not a patient-centric approach to healthcare.
Automation and the streamlining of ambulatory order management
New order management platforms like iOrder automate the ambulatory order process. The system creates an instant record of the service order for the referring physician, the service provider and the patient. Anyone involved in the service delivery process can check the online record and immediately know the details of the order.
Better patient care
The patient is the main beneficiary of the streamlined ambulatory order process. After iOrder qualifies the patient for a service or study, the patient will receive clear instructions, including directions to the service provider and information about preparing for the visit. There will be reminder text messages. If there are questions, the patient can call the referring physician’s office and speak with someone who has instant access to everything the patient needs to know about the service.
The system automatically notifies the doctor about the results of the service – or if the patient didn’t show up. This can actually save lives. If patients don’t follow through on an ambulatory order, their health can suffer. Doctors are too busy to follow up. Streamlined ambulatory order management facilitates effective physician care for the patient.
More profitable facilities
Streamlined, automated order management translates into more productive office staff at the service provider as well as the referring physician’s practice. By entering an order one time into an online system, office staff avoid the numerous phone calls, faxes and emails that inevitably arise with manual order processes. Increased productivity means higher profits, as people get more work done in less time. A reduction in no-shows will provide more profitable room utilization.
Faster reimbursements that take less time for the admin staff
Delivering the service is only part of the ambulatory order management process. Getting paid can turn out to be as much or even more work. An automated, streamlined order management system can help in this regard. iOrder, for example, solves ICD-10 / CPT code mismatches. This minimizes payment denials and reviews.
iOrder streamlines your ambulatory order management process. If you want to learn how iOrder helps your facility run better with cleaner orders from referring physicians, let’s talk.
