Medical Admin Insanity
More thoughts from my recent visit to the eye doctor. I only saw one doctor, but expect that there may have been as many as three working in this facility based on the number of patients cranking through. THERE WERE 8 RECEPTIONIST TYPES.
What these people did was mostly greeting new patients, typing in their personal and insurance info, and filling out insurance paperwork to go to their insurance company, as well as haggling with folks at insurance companies about paperwork mistakes. I was amused to find that the person who spent half an hour doing this for me could not say definitively whether or not I had a $5 copay for my visit and allowed me to choose whether I would copay with possible refund or not pay with possible invoice. Oh yeah, they also personally escort each patient to an exam room, where a physician or technician will eventually work with them.
Here's how we eliminate most if not all of those nice and well meaning 8 people. I walk into the eye clinic. I wave a RFID tag at a reader or type in the URL for my patient record and insurance info wiki (http://radlook.blogspot.com/2006/08/patient-record-is-wiki.html). I type in my person PIN number. I sit in the waiting room (the half hour of data entry and confusion about copay were done when my medical record wiki was accessed). When it is time to go into an exam room, my name is displayed on a monitor in the waiting room along with a map showing how to get to the room I am assigned. Above the door is a panel displaying my name. I go inside and wait for the technician/doctor.
There is no paperwork, and thus no paperwork errors. A claim for my medical services is added to my patient wiki and my insurance company is digitally notified that they need to access the wiki and process the claim. All of the administrative work that is currently required to run my eye doctors office is eliminated and we're all better off for it.
While we're at it why not give real-time insight into a doctors patient queue? I usually sit for an hour or more in the doctors office because his schedule took an unforeseen hit. I suspect in 90% of cases, someone could have let me know that I could arrive an hour later and still see the doctor at the same time. We could save money by eliminating the waiting room and patients could walk into the doctors office at the moment that the doctor was ready to see them. But perhaps doctors haven't noticed that other people's time is also important to them...
What these people did was mostly greeting new patients, typing in their personal and insurance info, and filling out insurance paperwork to go to their insurance company, as well as haggling with folks at insurance companies about paperwork mistakes. I was amused to find that the person who spent half an hour doing this for me could not say definitively whether or not I had a $5 copay for my visit and allowed me to choose whether I would copay with possible refund or not pay with possible invoice. Oh yeah, they also personally escort each patient to an exam room, where a physician or technician will eventually work with them.
Here's how we eliminate most if not all of those nice and well meaning 8 people. I walk into the eye clinic. I wave a RFID tag at a reader or type in the URL for my patient record and insurance info wiki (http://radlook.blogspot.com/2006/08/patient-record-is-wiki.html). I type in my person PIN number. I sit in the waiting room (the half hour of data entry and confusion about copay were done when my medical record wiki was accessed). When it is time to go into an exam room, my name is displayed on a monitor in the waiting room along with a map showing how to get to the room I am assigned. Above the door is a panel displaying my name. I go inside and wait for the technician/doctor.
There is no paperwork, and thus no paperwork errors. A claim for my medical services is added to my patient wiki and my insurance company is digitally notified that they need to access the wiki and process the claim. All of the administrative work that is currently required to run my eye doctors office is eliminated and we're all better off for it.
While we're at it why not give real-time insight into a doctors patient queue? I usually sit for an hour or more in the doctors office because his schedule took an unforeseen hit. I suspect in 90% of cases, someone could have let me know that I could arrive an hour later and still see the doctor at the same time. We could save money by eliminating the waiting room and patients could walk into the doctors office at the moment that the doctor was ready to see them. But perhaps doctors haven't noticed that other people's time is also important to them...
posted by DRL at 9:11 AM
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