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What should ED managers be doing while they wait for The Joint Commission to publish a new standard for medication reconciliation?
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Sheri Lasater, manager of patient access for Penrose-St. Francis Health Services in Colorado Springs, says that wait times have been minimized for scheduled patients through a comprehensive pre-registration program.
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The patient access department at Methodist Charlton Medical Center in Dallas recently switched to an automated quality assurance (QA) system. "I had recently come from a very automated facility and was well aware of the benefits a good automated system can provide," says Jeanette Foulk, director of patient access.
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Time to upgrade some of your copiers? Are you planning to sell the old machines to recoup some money to use for new ones? Think twice before placing your "for sale" sign on the copier because you might be selling more than just the machine.
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The role of your patient access staff has undoubtedly changed dramatically and will continue to become more complex. It's likely, though, that the way you evaluate competencies doesn't reflect this evolution.
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Patient access staff are the very first contact many patients have with physicians and facilities. Whether staff are registering patients in the emergency department, call center or at the front desk of a physician's office, "this first impression has long-lasting effects," says Colleen McMahon, senior manager of the integrated call center/ University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) physician service division, registration and scheduling.
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You may not think of it this way, but your department has a wealth of data that would impress others. Have patient wait times decreased dramatically, have patient complaints become almost non-existent, or have your accuracy rates doubled? Don't resist the urge to brag.
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While you wish that no patient ever had to wait in any registration area, that's not realistic due to patient volumes and other factors beyond the control of your department.
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If you want to see how satisfied your customers are, some type of survey is probably the tool you rely on. Kathleen Bowles, a hospital admitting supervisor at The Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, says that patient satisfaction scores "are a concrete reflection of our efforts, that everyone in the department can understand."
