The end of an era for outpatient registration
Department at Shands closes after 30 years
The end of June 2002 was the "drop-dead date" for closing down outpatient registration as it had been known at Shands Hospital for some 30 years, says Tim Carney, assistant manager of outpatient financial arrangements.
The action is the culmination of a five-year decentralization process in which registration staff were upgraded and disseminated to the Gainesville, FL, organization’s auxiliary departments and administrative personnel at Shands’ physician clinics were empowered to create minimal patient accounts.
In 1997, when the process began, there were about 18 employees in the outpatient registration, Carney says. Three of those handled "walk-ups" — patients who had not been pre-registered — and the others called patients in advance of their appointments to get demographic information, he adds. Including management personnel, the department’s staff numbered in the low to mid-20s, Carney notes.
Now, he says, the staff for outpatient financial arrangements totals 62, including two assistant managers and two coordinators. Along with closing the traditional outpatient registration department, Carney says, they want the title of "registration" gone. "It’s not a complete enough word anymore," he explains. "All of these people are verifying and making financial arrangements, just like on the inpatient side."
On May 6, he says, the outpatient registration department shut its doors for walk-up business, while continuing to have staff answering telephones. "When you’ve had something for 30 years," Carney adds, "you don’t just stop. Even though we went to every manager and director [with the notice of closing], it doesn’t mean we got to everybody in an organization with 10,000 people."
One of the discoveries made after the May 6 closing was that the "stragglers" who still were calling outpatient registration were using it for the wrong things, he points out. "Oral surgery [patient accounts] always should have been going to the inpatient side, but [physician staff] were calling outpatient registration and getting accounts created," Carney adds. "Psychiatry has been calling outpatient registration for EEGs [electroencephalograms], which also should be run through the inpatient side."
Although the accounts were not getting verified, they "fell into a big pile" because they were not high-dollar accounts, he notes.
People who call the outpatient registration number now will get a recorded message telling them that patients may register at the site of service, adds Beverly Varshovi, associate director of admissions. The message also will include numbers to call for people who need to reschedule or who have questions about their bill.
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content