By: Linda Kloss, MA, RHIA, FAHIMA
How are leading healthcare organizations dealing with new regulations and challenges in release of confidential health information? Verisma explored this question at its first annual Disclosure Management Summit (user conference) this past May and confirmed five critical drivers for transformational change.
1. ROI Volume and Complexity is on the Rise
A typical academic medical center may process over 150,000 health record requests from patients and third parties each year. Requests are increasing in volumes year–over–year and the typical health system is more complex with the expansion of service lines and consolidations with ambulatory practices. Electronic health records allow access to digital information, but require careful assessment that information to be released is accurately obtained from multiple systems and often in multiple formats.
2. ROI Process Variation Across a Health System is Costly
The only way to reduce cost is to reduce preventable process variation through an end-to-end ROI workflow design. Healthcare is coming to understand this and is embracing lean and six sigma techniques across clinical and administrative functions. ROI processes that vary from site to site across the health systems adds costs. ROI is ripe for redesign to realize tangible cost reductions.
3. ROI Process Variation is Risky
ROI is an administrative process that must conform to federal and state laws and organizational standards and policy. The only way to reduce compliance risk is to build in compliance checks throughout the end-to-end ROI workflow and to build in full accountability to track and reduce errors and risks. Health systems can no longer tolerate inconsistent and ad hoc ROI processes across the enterprise.
4. Enterprise Standardization Reduces Cost and Mitigates Risk
Best-practices in ROI calls for a uniform set of policies and procedures across the entire health care enterprise. Uniformity in turn, requires technology to guide compliant workflow and allow managers to track and trend processing and release quality and productivity. Health systems will organize ROI services according to their goals and objectives, but technology-enable standardization is essential whether ROI is centralized, decentralized or outsourced.
5. Enterprise ROI Improves Customer Satisfaction
Best ROI practice health systems report important gains in customer satisfaction from standardization. Regardless of whether the patient initiates a request at the physician’s office or hospital, the request process is the same and he/she is able to secure the complete record without going from site to site. Enterprise ROI is an important element of a health system’s overall customer engagement initiative.
It’s time to modernize Release of Health Information with enterprise-wide compliant technology and up-to-date management practices. Learn how health systems using Verisma’s ROI and disclosure management technology and services are moving from siloes to enterprise approaches that are reducing risk and cost, while improving the satisfaction of patients and staff. To learn more about how Verisma can help transform ROI in your organization, contact us at solutions@verisma.com or call us directly at 866.390.7404.
In our subsequent blog posts, we will explore and dive deeper into each of these five critical drivers and we hope that you will engage and share your thoughts with us.