Collaborative approach will boost access career
Effective communication a must
Collaboration is the key when it comes to using your access management skills and experience as a springboard for career advancement.
That’s advice from Anthony M. Bruno, MPA, who recently assumed the position of director of corporate admissions and registration at Crozer-Keystone Health System in Chester, PA.
"Access skill sets have changed a lot over the past years, and the new one has to do with collaboration," says Bruno, whose last position was director of health care access management at Philadelphia’s Albert Einstein Medical Center. "With risk contracts, you need to have supportive, collaborative arrangements between hospital and physician to be effective in dealing with patients and with insurance companies to make sure you’re maximizing revenue potential and minimizing expenses."
Focused on the wrong customer
Many access directors concern themselves with one kind of customer, Bruno adds, when it’s another kind that needs attention. "Link with the physician liaison services that come out of the marketing department," he suggests. "Help educate them about what you’re doing, so they also can act as a resource for access services. They end up being advocates for us; we don’t increase our staff or budget, and we’re helping them do their job."
One of the ways to disseminate information on, for example, systems and processes in preadmission is to hold quarterly breakfasts or luncheons for physicians’ staffs, Bruno says.
"Give concrete, specific information on how their staff can access services and how patients can access services. Provide them with telephone directories and improve their ability to get services more expeditiously through fax, Internet, or group e-mail."
There is often turnover at physicians’ offices, so you can’t just give the information once a year, he adds. "You should constantly think about marketing."
Another thing that prepared him for his move to the corporate access position, Bruno says, is his attention to enterprisewide solutions that affect other departments as much or more than his own. Bruno was the driving force, for example, behind the establishment of a laser jet print system for creating admission and registration forms. (For information about another health system’s implementation of that process, see story, p. 18.)
Documents go to remote printer
The new system, which eliminates the need for an embosser, allows other departments in the hospital to receive documents directly through their own printers, Bruno says. When other departments complained about the plastic embosser plates and about receiving illegible copies of forms, he adds, "I thought about how I could come up with a solution to help them. We’re doing it not as much for access management, but for our customers. [Access directors should ask], What do my end-use customers need?’"
In the end, Bruno points out, "It helped us, too."
Another enterprisewide solution he instigated at Einstein was a universal consent form that is now being used throughout the health system.
That kind of universal thinking, he adds, "says something about the leadership skill of not only the individual, but the department. You constantly have to think about how people feel about your department and raise the level of awareness of how important the access department is."
His approach to management, he says, can be summed up by a quote from Albert Einstein written on a poster he keeps above his computer terminal: "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
"I personally believe in that a great deal," he explains. "Do I have all the knowledge of patient registration, information systems, etc.? No, but I try to bring in people who have parts of that knowledge, and with imagination, create a more efficient and prosperous organization."
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