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First, there are the direct costs. The lost revenue from an average office visit can vary greatly depending on your specialty and focus, but let’s say it’s $100. Then there is the money you spent on salary/benefits/overhead to prepare for that visit (even though the patient didn’t show). Perhaps that’s $50. So at a bare minimum, you are losing $150 per no-show; but the real cost is actually much higher.

One no-show will frequently snowball into several. Eventually, some patients give up on their therapy when they don’t see results from the hit-and-miss treatments they attend. Others are discharged by practices that see the writing on the wall. All the authorized care you could have provided is now lost revenue for your practice.

Finally, because the patient did not achieve optimum results, you also miss out on the opportunity to gain word-of-mouth traffic or to strengthen the relationship with the referral source that sent you the original patient.

When you add up the total cost of no-shows, you quickly see it’s worth your time to get personally involved, and not simply delegate this critical task to your front desk.

This content was excerpted from the “The 10-Step Management Action Plan.”

1. You waste valuable provider time. Manual scheduling methods often require the practitioners to do much of the scheduling. The billable time that could be spent on patient care adds up quickly. In some cases, clinicians spend 30 or even 60 minutes a day on scheduling.

2. You under-utilize vital department resources. If you write, erase and reschedule dozens or hundreds of appointments a day by hand, that inefficient scheduling approach will lead to excessive down time due to last-minute cancellations…open time slots that go unfilled…and costly scheduling errors.

3. You lose patient visits because you are not connected to your HIS/HMS. If you schedule by hand, you have to re-enter patient data that’s already in your hospital system…then spend valuable time checking that hospital system for discharges and schedule changes…and still you likely experience a high rate of missed visits because you don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the hospital.

4. You don’t have the visibility you need to meet key requirements. Inpatient Rehab Facilities (IRFs) have to comply with the Medicare 3-Hour Rule; addiction centers need to know the whereabouts of patients 24/7. If you schedule patients manually, You can easily spend hours of precious staff time cross-checking records to meet these requirements.

5. You can’t manage your department with the information you need. Manual scheduling methods lead to even more tedious, manual work when it comes time to track activity. Your providers are spending time filling out logs while your clerical staff has to compile data by hand into spreadsheets. And when all that manual work is done, you still don’t have accurate information to make informed management decisions.

A cutting-edge inpatient scheduling system solves these problems

Read about the IRF
where therapists do
NO SCHEDULING

Madonna Rehab Hospital schedules 120 patients and 80 therapists with SpectraSoft Inpatient Scheduling. See the case study…

Instead of asking high-paid professionals to run back forth to a wall board, give your clerical team an inpatient scheduling system that equips them to handle virtually all of the scheduling themselves.

You simply define common appointment types in the system: then as cases come in, the system automatically blocks out the appropriate  time, resources and staff members qualified to handle the case. Combine that with automated text alerts and email communication between your providers and schedulers, and suddenly you’ve gained 30 minutes or more per provider that you can put back into patient care.

Reconnect with the rest of your hospital

High-tech scheduling logic can also adapt faster to last-minute cancellations and scheduling conflicts with other departments in the hospital, so you experience less down time. You can easily integrate a department-wide inpatient scheduling system to  communicate with your hospital’s HMS system. Then you don’t have to re-enter data already in your hospital system — and you are alerted instantly when discharges or scheduling conflicts occur elsewhere in the hospital.

Manage smarter

With inpatient scheduling software, all of your department activity is tracked and available at your fingertips. You can generate dozens of reports covering staff productivity, department revenue, resource utilization and more — all in seconds.

Put the focus back on the patient

Best of all, inpatient scheduling frees your people to do their jobs more efficiently. For example, one rehab hospital that moved to inpatient scheduling software now manages 120 patients and 80 therapists a day with just 1.75 clerical FTEs — compared to four or five FTEs required at institutions of similar size.

On Monday, August 23rd, 2010, SpectraSoft moved into its new headquarters in Chandler, AZ. This state-of-the-art facility features many energy-saving green features in keeping with the company’s focus on innovation and efficiency.

We invite our customers and those interested in our scheduling technologies to visit when you are in the area. Please update your address book with the new SpectraSoft address:

SpectraSoft, Inc.
585 N. Juniper Dr., Suite 140
Chandler, AZ 85226
Ph: 1-800-889-0450 (same)
www.spectrasoft.com (same)

Excerpted from the blog post: 10 Little-Known Facts about Web-Based Scheduling

1. It’s more affordable than you think

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At first glance, a SaaS solution can appear expensive compared to software; but when you look closer at the total cost of ownership, you will see that web-based software can save you money and eliminate a lot of headaches, too. For example:

• Hardware costs. You often have to buy newer PCs, servers and back-up systems to use the latest software. Web-based systems shift most of the actual computing to the host system, so most current hardware will easily meet the need.
• Additional software. For multiple locations or larger offices, you need application server software, an MS-SQL database and newer operating systems.
• Implementation and maintenance. You frequently need expensive IT consultants to install the software, set up servers and configure your machines.
• Upgrades and support. Once you buy a software system, you must still pay for an annual support agreement and occasional upgrades over time. These services are typically included free with a web-based system.

When you consider Total Cost of Ownership, it can take several years — if ever — before software becomes less expensive than SaaS.

2. You get more speed, power than software

When people think of SaaS, they often think of low-end applications with minimal features. Fortunately, as SaaS has grown in popularity, so has the infrastructure to support it. The .NET technology behind many of today’s SaaS allows for features that are difficult to match with software. And because much of the actual computing is off-loaded to machines more powerful than a typical office PC, you gain speed and performance over virtually any software system.

“Our web-based scheduling system delivers speed and features that even our industry-leading software can’t match,” says Steve Petrie, CEO of SpectraSoft.

3. It never becomes out-dated

Unlike traditional software systems that require you to buy upgrades and updates every few months or years, most SaaS solutions include all upgrades and updates for free. That means every time you log in, you are always using the latest, greatest, most up-to-date version of the software.

4. You get more for less

The high cost of a top software system rarely includes “frills” like upgrades, technical support, data backup and more. These services can easily add 50% or more to the lifetime cost of the software; yet they are usually included in most SaaS offerings at no extra charge.

5. You can get started faster

Once you identify a problem that new technology could solve, you will continue to experience losses and frustration for as long as it takes to get a decision approved and the solution implemented. With traditional software, that can be a long, uphill trek: the prohibitive upfront cost leads to delays… any additional required hardware and software must be purchased… your IT person must complete the on-premise installation…and so on. SaaS solutions can solve your problem fast, since there are minimal up-front costs to approve and little or nothing to install.

6. You get everyone to work as a team

If your practice has more than one location or department, it’s not uncommon that different users are using different methods to solve the same problem. For example, one hospital department may be scheduling patients with an appointment book, while another department is using spreadsheets. With SaaS, everyone in your organization uses the same version of the same integrated system, so everyone follows the same process and can share the same data.

7. You avoid expensive commitments.

The main reason so many practices stick to low-tech, manual methods is that it costs too much to automate. The upfront cost of a cutting-edge software system is often prohibitive. SaaS offers a low-risk, pay-as-you-go alternative that makes it much easier to add new technology that pays for itself in months…instead of years. And if you’re not happy, you can quit at the end of your subscription without having to eat the cost of a huge upfront investment.

8. Avoid the ‘disaster waiting to happen’

Practice owners used to worry about storing sensitive information at a third-party location, or that if the Internet goes down, their SaaS system would be useless. Now they realize just how vulnerable their in-house systems can be to breaches, crashes and down time. In fact leading SaaS vendors maintain security, redundancy and data backup standards that would be difficult or impossible for most health care organizations to match.

9. You can use it anywhere

Perhaps the biggest loss of revenue you face is the “drip-drip-drip” of tiny mistakes — repeated over and over — that add up to a fortune: scheduled patients not seen…visits not documented or billed…and under-billing of treatment.
The first solution is to automate mundane tasks, so your people can focus on practice profitability. Reminder calls should be made by a phone system, not your front desk; CPT codes should be generated by your documentation system, not your therapists, so your practice bills for the full value of the services you render.
Second, integrate data across your practice. For example, PTs shouldn’t have to re-enter patient data already taken by the front desk. When information flows smoothly from front desk to clinician to billing, everyone in your practice works together seamlessly and fewer responsibilities fall through the cracks.

10. It goes with everything

In the recent past, many practices sacrificed the performance of best-of-breed software, to get the integration offered by “suites.” These low-end systems made it easier for scheduling, documentation and billing functions to communicate with each other. Now there is no need to sacrifice. SaaS systems like SpectraSoft’s AppointmentsEverywhere web-based scheduling integrate seamlessly — both with other SaaS solutions like BillNetPRO web-based medical billing and with installed systems like DocuPRO rehab documentation software.

Conclusion

To thrive in today’s challenging reimbursement environment, you need to respond both to what payors are doing, and to the areas of your practice where you can operate more efficiently. The challenge is: you don’t have many chances to get it right. That’s why you need partners — billing networks, technology firms, fellow practices — who can offer their experience in solving these problems.

The electronic signature feature built into DocuPRO automatically inserts the date and time when the note was signed and verifies the authenticity of the electronic signature. The system even flags any outstanding visits waiting on documentation, so there’s truly nothing to remember…and that can lead to greater peace of mind for any practice owner worried about liability or denials.

Below are key excerpts from the CMS manual. You can read the entire text of the requirement here.

All entries in the medical record must be dated, timed, and authenticated, in written or electronic form, by the person responsible for providing or evaluating the service provided.

• The time and date of each entry (orders, reports, notes, etc.) must be accurately documented. Timing establishes when an order was given, when an activity happened or when an activity is to take place. Timing and dating entries is necessary for patient safety and quality of care. Timing and dating of entries establishes a baseline for future actions or assessments and establishes a timeline of events. Many patient interventions or assessments are based on time intervals or timelines of various signs, symptoms, or events. (71 FR 68687)
  
• The hospital must have a method to establish the identity of the author of each entry. This would include verification of the author of faxed orders/entries or computer entries.
  
• The hospital must have a method to require that each author takes a specific action to verify that the entry being authenticated is his/her entry or that he/she is responsible for the entry, and that the entry is accurate.

Step 1: Specialize and Conquer

Most established physicians  already have a network of one or more specialists in your field. So if you simply promote yourself as a “physical therapy practice,” you’ll  find yourself at the back of the line — behind  all the other PTs contacting those physicians.

Instead, use the classic “divide and conquer” strategy. Pick just a portion of their referral business and sell yourself as the local expert in that niche. Perhaps it’s an area where you have special training or are achieving excellent outcomes. It may be a niche that makes up a healthy portion of the physician’s business, or one in which your competitor does not have a great reputation.

Then create a believable sales pitch for yourself. Generate outcomes and statistical reports from your scheduling and EMR systems that you can use as evidence. Call patients and ask for testimonials. Write down any specific education and experience you have in that specialty. Then create a letter, postcard, email, scripted voicemail message – anything you can do to reach that doctor — that covers those points quickly. Think about it – why would a physician call just any PT when the “golf injury specialist” is available to treat his patient’s swing pain?

Step 2: Work top down, not bottom up

Buying lunch for a doctor’s front desk staff is a classic example of “working up” the sales chain: the hope is that you will eventually get past the gatekeeper by appealing to her stomach. A better tactic is to work from the top down. Send the physician an email or voicemail similar to this:

(1) Hi, I know you may be too busy to talk to me, but…

(2) I’d like to offer your staff a valuable 15-minute session on how physical therapy can help patients with osteoporosis.

(3) Just leave me a voicemail or email to let me know if I have your permission to set up a time with your front desk to come in toward the end of the day when things slow down.

Once you get the doctor’s permission, you have considerably more leverage when you call the front desk: “Dr. Smith asked that I come in and briefly share some important information with you. We specifically agreed on doing it toward the end of your day. How is 3pm Thursday?” Now you can market your practice with solid information…leave some brochures…and keep your lunch money in your pocket.

Step 3: Solve problems

Ask yourself, “What are the three biggest problems a physician faces when referring a patient to a specialist in my field.” Based on your experience, you may know that physicians are disappointed with the summaries and reports they get back…they hate it when they have to prescribe additional visits and deal with the insurance company…or when their patients have a bad experience, it reflects badly on the referring physician.

Solve these problems with a monthly postcard or letter, each one quickly highlighting the problem and describing how you can solve it. Send samples of handsome reports created in your documentation system…share outcomes data that proves you consistently treat certain diagnoses with a below-average number of visits…or reprint testimonials from patients and physicians who are impressed with your service.

Step 4: Network, network, network

Scour your scheduling system for patients whose primary physician is on your marketing list. Call a physician who is already impressed with you and ask if you can use their name when contacting other physicians. Your odds of getting past the gatekeeper and reaching the physician increase enormously when you can say, “Dr. Brown’s patient, Ann Smith suggested I speak with the doctor…” or “Dr. Jones from Memorial Hospital asked me to call Dr. Brown…”

Conclusion

Once you have all your information in place, you need to reach out to physicians. Our customers often ask us, “What’s the best way to reach physicians?” The one right answer is this: the best way to contact physicians is the best way YOU contact physicians. If you are comfortable at networking events, go to them. If you’re good on the phone, dial them. If you like to teach and explain, put together a brief letter covering your niche expertise and mail/email/fax it. Start with the methods you’re most comfortable with.

By following these four steps to more referrals, you not only build referral sources, you cultivate a network of physicians loyal to you because they clearly understand what makes your practice different and why they can refer their valuable patients to you with confidence. Good luck!

The Wall Street Journal reports that “Recent research suggests many missed appointments aren’t due to flaky patients but to scheduling errors or a doctor’s failure to consider transportation and other logistical challenges for the most at-risk patients.”

We agree. Automated appointment reminder systems and online patient portals are a great start, but there is much more to do. The WSJ article cites a wide range of factors that cause no-shows: transportation, wait times,  financial considerations, front desk practices.

All of these factors and many more will be covered in our free webinar: “5 Proven Strategies to Reduce No-Shows.” Also on the agenda:

• What you say in a reminder message is as important as simply sending them out
• Critical communication techniqes for your front desk and clinicians
• Key analytics that flag trends and help you prevent no-shows before they happen

Sign up for this complimentary webinar and discover how your organization can save thousands of dollars by reducing no-shows and cancellations.

Physicians Practice reports that more aggressive HIPAA enforcement could be on the way.  The article lists 3 reasons to anticipate a pending HIPAA crackdown…

(1) the HITECH Act passed in February calls for increased enforcement;

(2) the Department of Health and Human Services recent transfer of enforcement authority to its Office of Civil Rights is seen by some observers as a signal that the administration is taking enforcement more seriously than its predecessor did;

(3) future enforcement will be driven by audits, and will be less dependent solely on complaints.

This could affect your appointment scheduling, patient intake, documentation and billing.

What To Do

The best way to ensure HIPAA compliance is with a software system that is itself HIPAA-compliant, and also instills best practices in your daily workflow.  In most cases, your scheduling software acts as the hub for your organization, so that’s often a good place to start. Some of the features to look for in a system include:

Updated password protection
Custom security settings for all your users
Secure, encrypted, offsite data backup
Privacy-sensitive screen views

Ironically, web-based scheduling systems often provide more robust privacy features than traditional software, utilizing the same encryption features banks use to secure your financial data online.

If you are concerned about the HIPAA compliance of your organization, your SpectraSoft consultant can show you the security features in our web-based scheduler AppointmentsEverywhere.  Request a web demo today…

You can read the complete Physicians Practice article here.