eHealth Technologies Blog: Liz Butt, Director of Customer Success
How much focus are you putting on the efficiency of your intake process? This is a key touchpoint where you make the “first impression” with a new patient and their initial experience will have a memorable impact. Are you creating a positive encounter – or are you driving them to another care option? When there are missteps or delays in the intake process, patients are less likely to be retained within your health system. This directly impacts referral satisfaction and bottom-line growth. Here’s just one example of what can happen when patients don’t come back: No-show rates can be up to 30% across the nation and costs the healthcare industry $150 billion each year, according to Health Management Technology.
Now that’s motivation to focus on your intake process!
Your staff is already stretched thin. Completing all the steps necessary to properly execute intake with new patient referrals can be time-consuming. Booking an appointment is just one part of it – collecting all the patient’s paperwork and past medical history is another.
What can healthcare leaders do to ensure their intake process is seamless for patients and efficient for their teams? Partnering with an experienced resource like eHealth Technologies can have a significant impact on creating intake best practices and improving outcomes in your department. Our team not only helps manage new patient volume surges – we apply our industry expertise and broad-based medical records and image knowledge to ensure that your clinical teams have what they need to prepare for a patient’s first appointment.
Streamline and strengthen your intake process
From a process standpoint, appointment scheduling is often delayed while your department tracks down critical information about a patient’s past medical history. Our team will support these efforts by reaching out directly to patients to locate and obtain their medical records, images, and pathology slides. Here’s how it works:
- Patient demographics are provided to eHealth Technologies, enabling our team to work with patients and start making calls to track down past locations where they received tests or services.
- We handle all the necessary follow-up calls with a patient to make an initial connection and/or to clarify information that was provided.
- Once we know where records and images are located, our team submits the records request in our portal on your behalf and the collection process begins.
- When records are received by eHealth Technologies, they are organized and delivered directly into your EMR or PACS system.
This entire process happens without any additional action needed from your team.
Many of our clients have benefited from this unique eHealth Technologies process known as Concierge Services. While the exact configuration of our services varies depending on the client’s specific process and need, most departments ultimately yield three valuable benefits:
- Time savings for department staff – our team eases the burden of record collection. The most time-consuming activities shift to the eHealth Technologies’ customer intake specialist team.
- A positive experience for your patients – we understand the stress your patients are experiencing. You can trust that we will approach your patients in a thoughtful, friendly, and comforting way as we obtain the necessary information to prepare for their first visit with your clinicians.
- Streamlined process to expedite patient intake – the diligent process employed by eHealth Technologies ensures there are no delays identifying and collecting the information needed for a patient’s initial appointment.
Collectively this is a win-win. Satisfied patients, clinicians, and staff. Patients have a positive experience as they get ready for their first appointment with a new provider. Clinicians and staff have the patient information they need, without having to handle many of the administrative burdens, allowing them to focus on everyone’s top priority – patient care.
