Tag Archives: referrals

How Can A Referral Management Software Compliment An EHR/EMR To Achieve A Highly Performing Referral Network?

Managing patient referrals is a laborious process for large enterprise hospitals. These large multi-specialty set-ups are joint ventures or mergers or acquisitions. The bigger the network, the more complex is their referral process. So these hospitals are relying on computers and customized software to make sure their productivity and patients’ well-being.

In the field of medicine, we need computerization to manage the enormous volume of data that these large enterprise hospitals create and store for each patient. EHR software saves practices time and money, as well as helps them communicate instantly with insurers, hospitals, and referring physicians. Using referral management software with EHR/EMR enables communication between different care providers on patient demographics, diagnostic reports, test results and any sensitive information.

Electronic Health Records

Electronic Health Records (EHR) are digitized forms of patient’s chart data. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users. An EHR has the patient’s clinical data including demographics, progress notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data and radiology reports over time.

Pros of EHR

  • Financial Incentives – Medical providers who convert patient records into electronic ones get financial incentives from CMS.
  • Speedy process – With an EHR system, doctors can immediately place orders for imaging or laboratory work. This reduces errors because a doctor’s handwriting is difficult to decipher.
  • Unlimited access to medical records – With the help of a patient portal connected to the EHR system, both patient and provider can get access to medical records very easily.

Impacts of EHR on the existing referral workflow

  • Easy management of patient data – As mentioned earlier, Electronic Health Records (EHR) are digitized forms of patient’s chart data. It helps is managing all patient-related information like medications, vitals, diagnostic reports, medical history, etc.
  • e-messaging between providers – In order to attest referral information, telephone tag between providers is common. It is a time-consuming process. With EHR software, physicians can e-message across practices. One situation that benefits in particular from e-messaging is referrals. Rather than playing telephone tag to get an appointment scheduled, the physician electronically sends a message to schedule the appointment.

Why is a Referral Management Software is needed in addition to an EHR/EMR?

Large Enterprise hospitals have implemented an EHR/EMR system because it helps them manage their patient data securely. Providers face difficulties in managing paper-based patient records. So EHR implementation is indeed a boon to them. Yes, indeed EHR/EMRs are doing a great job but are they doing enough for patient referral management? What are the challenges enterprise hospitals face in their referral management even after implementing an EHR/EMR software?

  1. Insurance pre-authorization – The process of waiting for the insurance company to respond and approve the procedures or medication is time-consuming. If this process is automated it would save time and efforts of providers, insurance companies, and patients.
  2. Communication between EHR/EMRs – EHRs can communicate only with EHRs within the same network. Sending patient and referral information to providers who do not use the same EHR is complicated.
  3. Patient Referral Leakage – When a PCP refers the patient out-of-network, it leads to referral leakage. PCP can avoid patient referral leakage if the patient is referred to within the network. When that is difficult, patient referral leakage is inevitable. If the patient is referred out-of-network and is not happy with the care given, the chances of the patient coming back to the PCP is less. Referral leakage causes revenue loss and patient dissatisfaction.
  4. Referral Analytics –  As a large number of referrals flow in and out of the network, it is difficult to track the exact number. It is also tedious to track the number of referrals in various status and to close referral loops.
  5. Referral updates and referral loop closure – When PCP refers patients out-of-network, the chances of getting referral updates are minimal. The specialist is usually busy and does not update the referring provider about the referral. Referral updates are crucial in closing referral loops.

How can a Patient Referral Management Referral Management work in cohesion with an EMR/EHR system?

How great it would be if a Patient Referral Management software could integrate seamlessly with an EMR/EHR system? It can help in ensuring end-to-end Patient Referral Management without disturbing the existing system.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution provides easy steps to integrate with a practice’s EMR/EHR system. The patient demographics, diagnostic reports, test results or any sensitive information can be transferred safely. The solution is HIPAA-compliant with complete data security. It has the following features,

  1. Insurance pre-authorization – HealthViewX solution supports automated insurance pre-authorization that reduces the manual work of the referral coordinators. It will save a lot of time for the hospitals.
  2. Intelligent Provider Match – The solution supports an “Intelligent Provider Match” Feature that helps in finding the right specialist/imaging center easily. With this feature, it is easy to find a receiving provider within the network. It will reduce the patient referral leakage.
  3. Referral Timeline – In HealthViewX Referral Management System, any referral has a timeline, to capture and notify the progress of the referral to all the stakeholders. A referral will be mapped to a status which helps in tracking it better. For e.g. – If a patient does not show up for the appointment, the status of the referral can be changed to no-show and a reason can also be given. With the help of a referral timeline, the referring provider can track referrals, share information and seamlessly communicate with the receiving provider.
  4. Improved communication – HealthViewX Referral Management Solution supports messaging and calling features for the referring and the receiving providers to stay connected.
  5. Data Management – The solution is HIPAA compliant and enables secure data exchange of all patient-related documents.
  6. Seamless Integration – The solution can seamlessly integrate with any EMR/EHR/RIS or Third Party application thus providing minimal disruption in the existing referral flow.
  7. Referral Data Analytics – Referral data-centric dashboard gives complete data about the number of referrals flowing out, the number of referrals in various status, patient follow-ups, etc.

HealthViewX Referral Management solution helps in building a secure referral network in no time. We can seamlessly integrate with the existing EHR/EMR system and add value to the system by solving major challenges. Our expert team will guide you in changing to a Patient Referral Management Software with minimal effort. Schedule a demo with us to know more about our solution.

 

Reference

https://vittana.org/12-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-electronic-health-records

 

Why Patients Require Improved Referral Management From Their Doctors?

Why are patients not happy with the existing referral management?

In the existing referral management workflow, patients face many challenges,

  • Location of the receiving provider’s hospital – The patient will prefer visiting his PCP as the PCP will be in his locality. In order to visit a provider in a hospital which is not is the same locality requires a lot of effort from the patient’s side.
  • Patient unhappy with the receiving provider – Many times, the patient may not be happy with the care he receives from the receiving provider. Delayed treatment, waiting time, missed appointments are important reasons for the patient being unhappy with the receiving provider.
  • Time-consuming diagnostic procedures – The patient may have to repeat all the diagnostic tests taken earlier in the new hospital. This is time-consuming and costly for the patient. The referral does not help the patient with an earlier treatment but only delays it.
  • Patient as a communication channel – The patient is made to communicate between the referring and the receiving providers. It may be required for missing patient information, diagnostic test results, patient medical history, allergies, etc.
  • Patient insurance coverage – The process of pre-authorization is done by the referring provider. If not done properly, the patient may have to pay for the treatment in spite of having an insurance.

What challenges do providers face in the existing patient referral management workflow?

  • Limited provider information – Physicians do not have information about the providers within their network. This is to blame for unnecessary out of network referrals. Providers who refer out of network could avoid at least one-third of these if they had access to more robust information about providers in their networks. Even when physicians have access to their health system’s provider directories, they are not using the directories because they don’t have the level of information that is needed.
  • Patients moving out of the network – When physician refer their patients out of their network, patients leave their network. In general, providers referring patients out of their network are less likely to have access to availability, location, network affiliation and insurance information. This is not the best options for a patient. Further, lack of information within a delivery system can result in missed opportunities to connect a patient with a provider with similar expertise who could see the patient sooner, which improves patient satisfaction and retention, as well as care coordination.
  • Inadequate referral information – Even when physicians refer their patients out-of-network, the chances of a successful referral are less. This is because many providers who receive referrals rate the referral information poor. Without referral information, receiving providers cannot treat their patients effectively.
  • Inefficient patient appointment scheduling – For providers who schedule an appointment for the patient, they prefer doing it through phone to shared electronic health records system. When heavy use of the phone occurs, it is difficult for providers to see capacity in their network to book the next available appointment. So they bypass the network and book the appointment before the patient leaves the office.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management Solution at your aid

1. End-to-End referral lifecycle management with bidirectional EMR/EHR Integration HealthViewX platform supports dynamic forms, workflows, task lists, reports, data visualization and has great integration capabilities. It can automatically pull referral orders from EMR/EHR in real-time. It also helps in configuring all other referral coordinator workflows and tasks with maximum automation. Thus our platform can achieve an efficient end-to-end referral management system.

2. Payer-specific prior authorization process automation – HealthViewX platform has a payer management module that maintains and manages

  • different payer details
  • their modes of prior authorization
  • direct authorization procedures
  • payer forms
  • online portal links

With this information already present, it provides the referral coordinator the capability to automate

  • prior authorization submission
  • status checks coupled
  • fax integration

3. Automated Specialist / Patient Notification & Reminders with Customizable templates and configurable channels of communication

HealthViewX – Template engine platform along with the communication engine gives the flexibility to the referral coordinators to

  • choose the relevant format and mode of delivery for Specialist / Patient communication
  • tie it along with the referral workflows by setting trigger rules and reminder rules.

4. Secure Online referral portal for Specialists with easy touch points via Fax /SMS/Email

HealthViewX clearly understands the specialists’ referral preferences by,

  • Multi-channel referral consolidation that brings all the referrals from every possible source into a single queue.
  • Detailed referral information through which that the Specialist receives all the necessary referral details.
  • Ability to communicate back and forth (electronically or via fax) in a simple and secure way.

These are few notable features of HealthViewX that have enabled referral loop closure from the specialist side.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management application is the next-generation software for patient referral management. It has provided the best solution to the challenges faced by FQHCs. To know more about HealthViewX solution, schedule a demo with us. Our patient referral management experts will guide you through our HIPAA compliant solution.

How Can A Patient Referral Management Software Help Federally Qualified Health Centers In Solving The Opioid Crisis?

What are opioids?

Opioids are a drug class that includes the illegal drug heroin as well as powerful pain relievers, such as

  • Oxycodone
  • Hydrocodone
  • Codeine
  • Morphine
  • Fentanyl

and many others.

Why is there an opioid overdose crisis in USA?

In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to opioid pain relievers. So healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates. Increased prescription of opioid medications led to widespread misuse of both prescription and non-prescription opioids. It all happened even before it became clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive.

How has the opioid crisis affected the American population?

  • In 2016, more than 42,000 people died from overdoses involving opioids. About 40% of all opioid overdose deaths were because of prescriptions.
  • Every day in the U.S., hospitals treat more than 1,000 people in emergency departments for not using prescription opioids as directed.
  • On an average, 115 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose.
  • Roughly 21 to 29% of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them.
  • Between 8 and 12% develop an opioid use disorder.
  • An estimated 4 to 6% who misuse prescription opioids transition to heroin.
  • About 80% of people who use heroin first misused prescription opioids.
  • Opioid overdoses increased 30% from July 2016 through September 2017 in 52 areas in 45 states.
  • The Midwestern region saw opioid overdoses increase 70% from July 2016 through September 2017.
  • Opioid overdoses in large cities increased by 54% in 16 states

Drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., and opioid addiction is driving this epidemic.

What are the measures taken up by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)?

In response to the opioid crisis, HHS is focusing its efforts on five major priorities:

  • Improving access to treatment and recovery services
  • Promoting the use of overdose-reversing drugs
  • Strengthening our understanding of the epidemic through better public health surveillance
  • Providing support for cutting-edge research on pain and addiction
  • Advancing better practices for pain management

How does the opioid crisis impact Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs)?

Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in the United States is a non-profit entity consisting of clinical care providers, that work at comprehensive federal standards. FQHC is a dominant model for providing integrated primary care and public health services to low-income and underserved population. To receive federal funding, FQHCs must meet the following requirements.

  • Be in a federally designated medically underserved area (MUA) or serve medically underserved populations (MUP)
  • Provide comprehensive primary care
  • Adjust charges for health services on a sliding fee schedule according to patient income
  • Be governed by a community board of which most of the members are patients at the FQHC

The opioid crisis is taking a hit at FQHCs because it is affecting the poorer population to a greater extent. The underserved population is more affected by this crisis because they are not able to give up on opioids even when they cannot afford it. When such patients visit an FQHC, the physicians must refer them to deaddiction centers or rehabilitation centers for treatment. Considering the increasing number of opioid addicts, the number of patients visiting FQHCs will also be more. This implies that FQHCs have to create more referrals every day. FQHCs are finding it difficult to handle such a huge number of referrals.

Challenges faced by FQHCs

  • Prior Authorization – The referral coordinator does the insurance pre-authorization for the patient referrals in healthcare. Considering that physicians refer one out of every three patients to a specialist, it is difficult to do prior authorization. This makes patient referral system time-consuming and ineffective.
  • Finding the right specialist/imaging center – There is no effective approach to finding the right specialist/imaging center. So the chances of missing out on a good specialist/imaging center are high. The list of imaging centers and specialists an FQHC has will not be up-to-date as new specialists and imaging centers are opening up often.
  • Open Referral loops – This happens when the receiving provider fails to update the progress of the referral. 25% to 50% of referring physicians do not know if their patients actually visit the specialist or imaging center. As many patient referrals are initiated on a daily basis, tracking it manually is difficult for the referring provider. This ultimately results in an open patient referral loop.
  • Patient referral leakage –  When a patient moves out of the network, it results in patient referral leakage. It has an effect on the revenue. The main problem with this is the missed revenue opportunities for health systems. These organizations miss out on reimbursement for medical services that they had provided earlier when patient leakage occurs. This applies to healthcare systems that adopt value-based care or payment models such as accountable care organizations (ACOs).
  • Outdated referral workflow – The current referral workflow is outdated. The providers find it difficult to cope up with the increasing patient referrals in healthcare. On an average, a referring provider spends half an hour to one hour per referral and even more time in following up.

How can HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution help FQHCs?

A typical FQHC does a lot of outbound referrals where the PCP’s refers his patient to a specialist practice when the patient needs expert advice or advanced treatment for a specific problem. The PCP generates a referral request with the EHR system to a central team that has referral coordinators. The patient’s insurance is pre-authorized, the physician refers the patient is to a specialist or imaging center. This is how a referral works. It involves a lot of manual work and keeping track of the referral is highly impossible because a referral coordinator deals with thousands of these in a day.

This is when an automated Healthcare Patient Referral Management System comes in handy. Electronic healthcare referral management system helps healthcare organizations in the seamless processing of the referral process.

HealthViewX solution has implemented a referral consolidator that brings all the referrals in a single queue. The referral coordinator can validate the documents, attach new ones, merge it to an existing referral, create a new referral for it etc. The feature also lets the referral coordinator validate the patient insurance eligibility. Based on the specialist availability the referral coordinator can create a referral. The system can integrate with EMR/EHR and can also coordinate between the referring and the receiving sides. A referral has a status attached to it looking at which the referring provider can understand in what stage the referral is. Any referral has a timeline view which is common to both the receiving and the referring providers. In the timeline view history of the referral can be seen for eg: patiently related notes, previous status of the referral, etc. Documents attachment and status change can also be done at any time of the referral process. With the help of HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution, the referring and the receiving provider can always have an eye on the referral and also close it in time.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management Solution features

  • Insurance Pre-authorization – HealthViewX solution supports automated insurance pre-authorization that reduces the manual work of the referral coordinators.
  • Intelligent Provider Match – The solution supports an “Intelligent Provider Match” Feature that helps in finding the right specialist/imaging center easily.
  • Seamless communication – HealthViewX solution has an inbuilt audio calling and messaging application which is secure and enables faster communication
  • HIPAA compliant data security – The solution is HIPAA compliant and offers secure data exchange. It supports almost all formats of files and keeps the patient documents safe.
  • Referral history – The timeline view provides the history and current status of the referral. A status helps in knowing the referral progress.
  • Referral loop closure – Referral updates are hard to miss that makes it easier to close the referral loops on time.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management application solves most of the outbound referral problems for FQHCs. To know more about HealthViewX solution, schedule a demo with us. Our patient referral management experts will guide you through our HIPAA-compliant solution.

References

Refer Your Patients Through HealthViewX Referral Management Software

Existing Referral Management Workflow

When primary care physicians feel that their patients need advanced treatment or diagnosis, they refer them to specialists or imaging centers. Let us consider a typical example were in a referral takes place,

Dr.James runs a dentistry specialty center. This specialty clinic has certain clinics who refer most of their referrals to them. One such clinics is the clinic run by Dr.Anderson, a PCP.

  1. Patient visits Dr.Anderson –  Patient Mark met with a minor accident that caused him head injury. He visits Dr.Anderson who is his PCP. After examining him, Dr.Anderson wanted a specialist’s advice on this.
  2. Dr.Anderson does the insurance pre-authorization – Dr.Anderson does not have a dedicated team for doing the insurance pre-authorization. He spends 15 minutes per patient on the pre-authorization process. This implies that if he does pre-auth for 8 patients a day, he is spending two hours a day on this. This is time-consuming considering his busy schedule.
  3. Dr.Anderson initiates the referral – He usually sends dentistry related referrals to Dr. James. Though it is a trusted specialist center, Dr.Anderson is not happy with the way he has to send referrals to Dr.James. He has to fill out a form every time he sends referrals to this specialist. He downloads the form from the specialty clinic’s website and fills in the necessary details and diagnosis. Then he sends the faxes the referral to the specialty clinic.
  4. After sending the referral – The specialty receives the referral from Dr.Anderson but it doesn’t notify him about the same. Now, Dr.Anderson does not receive any updates about the referral’s the progress from Dr.James or the patient Mark. Though Dr.Anderson has received positive feedback from the patients who he had referred previously to Dr.James, he is still worried if Mark was taken care of.

In this case, the referral workflow lacks standard referral channels and communication methods. It makes the referral experience bitter for the referring provider.

New referral channels for a better experience with referrals

On detailed analysis of a dental specialty’s current process, we realized that the crucial part of the problem is the channel through which the referrals are being received. Our HealthViewX Referral Management solution supports two new sources for sending or receiving referrals. They are the desktop direct and the type-enable pdf options. The best part is that it is not necessary for the referring provider to use our platform directly.

Desktop Direct is a secure platform that enables providers to share patient referral information from their desktop. It is a light-weighted healthcare application white-labelled for the practice with the ability to send and track patient referrals from a referring provider’s system. It supports sending out medical referrals in electronic formats and tracking the referrals. The receiving provider can upload the test results or relevant documents for the benefit of the referring provider. The referring provider can download the patient medical referral data securely for future reference.

In case of a type-enabled pdf, we send the referral form as a pdf to those clinics who refer to the specialty regularly. We send via email or give them a plugin. The form will be easy to fill out and with a click, the referring provider can send it to the receiving provider.

HealthViewX Referral Management features that benefit the receiving provider

Though it is not necessary for the referring provider to use our platform, the receiving provider must have the HealthViewX platform. It has the following features that make the referral process easier for the receiving provider as well.

  • Single Referral Workflow Queue Consolidation – It collects Fax, Phone, Email, Website form and all possible channel referrals. It helps in managing them better in a single interface.
  • Timeline View – Both the specialist and the PCP can view the timeline data of the patient in which the referral history is present. Documents and notes can be attached anytime for one another’s reference.
  • To and fro Communication – At any time of the referral process, the PCP and the center can communicate with the help of the inbuilt secure messaging and voice call applications.
  • Referral Data Consolidation – It has options for printing the consolidated data about the referrals and the referral history of any patient as a hard copy at any time in pdf/excel.
  • Secure Data Management – HealthViewX Patient Referral Management is HIPAA-compliant. It manages all patient-related documents securely.
  • Referral Analytics – Helps in tracking the number of referrals and gives complete information about the referrals processed, missed, scheduled etc with the help of a Referral Data-centric Dashboard.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management application simplifies the referral process for the referring providers. It also provides a better workflow for the receiving providers. This, in turn, increases patient satisfaction and revenue. To know more about HealthViewX solution, schedule a demo with us. Our patient referral management experts will guide you through our HIPAA-compliant solution.

A Leading FQHC In California Chooses HealthViewX To Manage Their End-To-End Referral Process

About the Federally Qualified Health Center

Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in the United States is a non-profit entity comprising of clinical care providers, that operate at comprehensive federal standards. The care providers in FQHC are a part of the country’s health care safety net, which is defined as a group of health centers, hospitals, and providers who are willing to provide services to the nation’s needy crowd, thus ensuring that comprehensive care is available to all, regardless of income or insurance status. This client is the health care safety net for their county’s poor and uninsured people. The FQHC gives the people access to high-quality health services that they needed and deserved. They are key regional health providers who treats more than 65,000 patients annually.

Challenges in the existing referral workflow of HealthViewX Federally Qualified Health Center client

The following are the major problems our Federally Qualified Health Center client wanted a solution for. Let us consider the challenges with a typical referral scenario to understand it better.

  1. Insurance pre-authorization – The physician must check the pre-authorization requirements, health plans, etc. He must retrieve patient-specific data like the history of medications, medical diagnosis and insurance coverage. The physician must then send it to the insurance company so that they can validate the same. This client did not a dedicated team or software to do insurance pre-authorization which increased their burden.
  2. Tracking the referral – Specialists are usually busy. They do not have the time to inform physician’s about the progress of referrals. So the physicians are unable to track referrals. They get no information about appointments, referral loop closure or feedback from specialists or patients.

How HealthViewX features helped this FQHC client resolve their challenges

Considering the existing workflow of the FQHC, their major problems are insurance pre-authorization and referral tracking. So how can HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution help in solving these problems?

The following features made the pre-authorization  and referral communication easier for this FQHC client,

  1. EMR/EHR integration – Our System integrates directly with electronic health records (EHRs). This enables healthcare professionals to easily obtain prior authorizations in real time at the point of care. It also eliminates time-consuming paper forms, faxes, and phone calls.
  2. Insurance pre-authorization automation –  There are two ways in which HealthViewX solution automates the insurance pre-authorization process. The first one is the api-based method. Through this, we retrieve information regarding the forms and communicate information back and forth between the FQHC and the insurance company. The second one is the form automation method.  Through this, we get all payer-specific form, fill in the necessary information and send it to the insurance company via efax
  3. To and fro Communication – At any time of the referral process, the PCP and the center can communicate with the help of the inbuilt secure messaging and voice call applications. By this, the physicians can get referral updates easily.

Useful HealthViewX Patient Referral Management Solution features

Leading FQHC in California has chosen HealthViewX due to the industry-leading patient referral management features. FQHCs across USA can benefit from Referral Management Software depending on their patient referral workflow,

  • Intelligent Provider Match
  • HIPAA compliant data security
  • Referral history
  • Referral loop closure

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management software has provided the best use cases for the major challenges faced by the FQHC. Are you a Federally Qualified Health Center missing out on your referral updates? Schedule a demo with us to know more about our solution.

How Can Dental Centers Improve Their Patient Referral Workflow?

Did you know? In a year, 15 billion faxes are sent out for referrals in the USA. Practices receive referrals through fax, online forms, direct messaging, email, virtual print, direct walk-ins, and other channels. A typical dental center is a high inbound referral setup. They need an effective referral management solution to manage the increasing inbound referral rates.

Existing Patient Referral Management Workflow in a Dental Center

A typical dental center or dental group is a high inbound patient referral setup. Dental centers receive volume of referrals weekly (ranging from 50 per week to even several hundred per week) depending on the number of patients visiting the center and number of clinics sending referrals to them. An effective referral management solution will help manage small or big volumes of referrals by reducing manual tasks and using automation and structure where possible.

Dental centers usually have a dedicated team of referral coordinators who receive, accept and process the referral requests. These referral coordinators manually key in the necessary details  into an EMR/EHR system and create a referral. The time spent by referral coordinator in a completely manual process can be reduced by using technology. Productivity and efficiency is increased by introducing technology to aid the process. It results in piling up requests that are not yet processed. When the referral coordinator does not have the required information to process the referral, he has to contact the referring provider. This further incurs time and results in slow referral processing rate. This, in turn has a negative impact on patient experience. Hence, patient referral leakage also becomes imminent.

Consequences of a slow referral network

  • The dental center loses its revenue when referrals are not processed in time.
  • Providers stop referring the center thereby harming its reputation.
  • Patients may have severe illness and may need immediate attention. The waiting time may affect their health.

Challenges faced by a Dental Center

  • Referrals flow into the dental center through various channels like fax, online forms, direct messaging, email, virtual print, direct walk-ins, etc. A dental center has no specified source to receive referrals.
  • The dental center receives numerous referrals which are difficult for them to process. This is because there is no single system to consolidate and manage referrals
  • There is no tracking system to understand in which stage of a referral life cycle is any referral is in.

Let us review a typical referral process to elaborate the challenges faced by the dental centers.

  1. Patient visits the PCP – Andrews met with an accident recently. He met his PCP, Dr. John immediately as he was experiencing pain in his jaw. After examining him, Dr.John wanted him to consult a dentist. The doctor then initiated the referral.
  2. PCP initiates the referral – John created a referral in his EMR. He did not have time to do the insurance pre-authorization so he left it to Andrews. He then found a dentist and gave him referral information verbally. Now when he met the specialist, Andrews had to again elaborate his condition and problems to him. This is time-consuming for the specialist as he wastes time on the same information twice.
  3. Specialist requires more information – The specialist, Dr. James is a famous dentist in the locality. After receiving the referral, he schedules an appointment with Andrews. After the appointment, Dr. James wants more information about the patient’s history and diagnostic reports. Now, he has to wait for the PCP, Dr. John to send him the relevant information.
  4. No tracking system for referrals – As Dr. James is a famous dentist in the locality, he receives numerous referrals in a day. There is no tracking system for him to know how many referrals he received, how many were processed, in what status each referral is in, etc. So it is difficult for Dr. James to know understand the analytics of his specialty.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution at your aid

Patient Referral Management is complicated not only by the different sources but also by trying to manage all the referrals manually. The current referral management is no way close to the increasing demands of the referral process. Its inability to communicate between the referring and the receiving ends makes it slow and non-feasible.

Considering the challenges faced by dental centers, an Electronic Referral Management Software can help them better. After the complete analysis of a dental center’s referral workflow, HealthViewX realized that the crucial part of the problem is the lack of a system to consolidate referrals. On further analysis of their process, HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution introduced the following features to meet their requirements,

  • Multi-Channel Referral Consolidation – Referrals flowing in through many channels are consolidated in a single interface. It enables easier monitoring and facilitates timely referral loop closure.
  • Referral Tracking – HealthViewX gives a clear picture about how a referral has progressed with the help of a timeline view. Every referral has a status which conveys in which stage the referral is in. With the help of a customizable dashboard, the exact number of referrals waiting to be processed can be identified easily.
  • New Referral Channel – HealthViewX Referral Management solution supports a new channel for sending and receiving referrals. This is called the desktop application. Sources like email, website, direct message, fax, etc are not secure and difficult to handle. On the other hand, desktop application is a secure source for sending and receiving referrals. Also documents can be attached and sent as a referral.
  • Referral Data Consolidation – It has options for printing the consolidated data about the referrals and the referral history of any patient as a hard copy at any time in PDF/excel.
  • Secure Data Management – HealthViewX Patient Referral Management is HIPAA compliant. It manages all patient-related documents securely.
  • Referral Analytics – Helps in tracking the number of referrals and gives complete information about the referrals processed, missed, scheduled etc with the help of a Referral Data-centric Dashboard.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution helps dental centers in managing their referral network and increasing their revenue. Are you a dental center looking to track your inbound referrals very effectively? To know about HealthViewX Patient Referral Management System in detail schedule a demo with our team.