Stay in delivery loop: Connect with your CIO
Consider this advice from your colleagues
For access managers who would like to be partners in the move toward integrated delivery systems, rather than passive recipients of important decisions, here's some advice from leaders in the field: Develop a good relationship with your organization's chief information officer (CIO).
"That's really the approach we've taken here," says Tabitha Warner, MHA, project manager for seamless access at Providence Health System in Portland, OR. "From the seamless access perspective, we work hand-in-hand with information systems [IS]." It's the business processes that drive the technology, but the IS professionals know what the cutting-edge technology is and what the possibilities are, Warner points out.
The key, she says, is determining the intersection between needs and possibilities, "finding where the needs can be met by existing technology, and if it's not able to meet them, working with IS to be our advocates."
The ever-changing health care environment and the requirements of insurance companies make it crucial to have a close link with IS, agrees Loretta Scott, systems analyst and former director of admitting at St. Joseph Hospital in Augusta, GA.
During her tenure as admitting manager, Scott had no problem remaining in the loop on key decisions, she says, partly because of the hospital administration's open attitude, and partly because she wasn't shy about inviting herself to meetings.
An IS users' group meeting, instituted by the chief executive officer and open to representatives of various disciplines throughout the hospital, is one way her organization promoted good communication with information systems.
"IS can make you or break you," says Peter Kraus, CHAM, systems liaison manager for patient accounts services at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. "You need to have your links - they need to know you're an important user of their product, and you need to forge good relations with them."
The best way to do that is to know what makes life easier for IS, he points out. "A lot of departments go out and buy things, order all kinds of software without any thought of compatibility, what the IS notion of network and connectivity is. If you have any freedom in this area, find out how they like things done. Let them be part of your decision making."
Access managers play vital roleScott points out that access managers have a valuable role to play in systems integration, with the ability to act as a liaison between, for example, the physicians' offices and the billing department.
"IS doesn't know what's happening with insurance or with physician offices because that's not their focus," she says. "That's why we have to have good communication."
Access services has a number of core competencies to bring to the table when it comes to links with physicians, Warner adds. "Customer service, data collection, front-line skills, that 'first impression' piece. There's a lot of opportunity to take those [skills] and coordinate them with the activities in a clinic."
Access personnel should be "stepping forward to market those core competencies," Warner says, "to show they are skilled at upfront functions so providers can focus their resources on providing the care, as opposed to managing a huge group of upfront office staff."
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