eHealth Technologies blog: Michelle Donowsky, RT (T), Executive Director of Clinical Optimization, eHealth Technologies
While we all have referrals come in from multiple sources for a myriad of reasons, one thing remains consistent, we need a complete set of medical records to truly assess the patient’s history and create a thorough treatment plan.
The question is: how do we want those records delivered?
All too often there are one of two options:
- a stack of paper records
- unlabeled files in the outside media tab that lead to a hunt and click chase through duplicates and old lab results
Imagine how much more efficient that outside consult visit could be if the clinical team were able to review the records that they deemed pertinent to the case, delivered right to the EMR in a structure that was easy to navigate?
Our partners that use Streamlined Integrations – Clinical Document Integration can control how and where records appear. The three main options are:
1. Delivery of a single indexed file, organized by document category, into your Outside Records Tab:
2. Delivery of records broken down into separate category PDFs, including record date ranges:
3. Delivery of individual records labeled by date of service, document category and subcategory:
Which fit is best for you? Our Implementation Team works one-on-one with each clinical department to determine the optimal configuration based on the department’s specific workflows. This collaborative process allows us to share best practices from clinical teams around the country, to ensure that clinicians have what they need, when they need it. For example:
- Solid Organ Transplant specialties tend to prefer individual Category/Subcategory delivery because in systems like EPIC’s Phoenix, it allows them to associate outside reports with the corresponding procedures.
- Oncology typically prefers a single completed indexed file. This allows them to see the full patient story in one hyperlinked document, organized by the record categories most important to them (Pathology, Rad/Chemo Reports, Genetic Reports, etc.).
- Cardiology gravitates to the category file method, giving them the ability to group and store relevant records by date of service and category (Cardiac Operative Procedures, Labs, MD Notes, etc.).
eHealth Technologies can help your team stop the hunt and click chase. Easy access to records can help reduce record review time for clinicians, leading to a more productive first patient appointment, improving the patient experience and increasing clinician satisfaction.
