Hospital Access Management – January 1, 2003

January 1, 2003

• Access training program hits the road, sharing success with other facilities

  The University Hospital of Arkansas in Little Rock is taking its Strengthening Bridges program for access employees on the road and finding some additional benefits for the home crowd as well as for a new audience.

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• Proactive registration dept. leads to hospital’s award

  When Southern Ohio Medical Center in Portsmouth received the Ohio Award for Excellence (OAE) in September 2002, indications are that it had a lot to do with the hospitals proactive registration and central scheduling department.

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• Innovative program boosts staff training, recruitment

  Thinking about ways to recruit access personnel and to give them the extensive education they need to do the job, Pam Partlow, RN, manager of central scheduling and registration at Southern Ohio Medical Center in Portsmouth, had an inspiration that led to a solution for both problems.

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• Registrars’ cash incentive raises hospital collections

  Brown County General Hospital more than doubled its upfront cash collections over the past year by offering incentives to both registrars and their bosses, says Barb Dailey, patient access director at the Georgetown, OH, facility.

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• Preprinted forms gone; data flow is enhanced

  Palmetto Health Baptist Hospital in Columbia, SC, has replaced its old embosser card technology with a Patient Link Up Enterprise (PLUE) system that has eliminated costly preprinted forms and increased the clarity and accuracy of the patient data flow, says Charlene Cathcart, director of admissions and registration.

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• How one system scripted religious questions

  In early 2001, while serving as corporate director for registration and financial services at Crozer-Keystone Health System in Upland, PA, Anthony M. Bruno, MPA, MEd, developed a script for patient access representatives to use when asking patients about the release of information regarding religious preference.

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• Emtala Q & A: Are blood pressure checks covered under EMTALA?

  Question: At a smaller critical access hospital, members of the community have been allowed to come to the emergency department (ED) to have their blood pressure checked. There is no documentation of the visit or of the vital signs.

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• Mind your EMTALA signage, expert cautions

  A number of hospitals have been cited in the past few months for lack of signs notifying patients of their rights under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), according to Stephen Frew, JD, a longtime specialist in EMTALA compliance.

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• News Briefs

  Demand for beds expected to increase; Final OPPS rule increases spending; Emergency care crisis indicated by AZ survey; HHS issues final report on regulatory reform; Patient violence called biggest threat to ED staff; Cash discounts surface as government concern.

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