Chart Links Participates in PT Products’ Software Roundtable
Jim Hammer, COO of Chart Links, was invited again this year to participate in a software roundtable interview with editor of Physcal Therapy Products, Arati Murti. Here are a few of the questions and answers that were exchanged in the January 2010 edition:
PT Products: Budgets are tight in today’s economy; what are practice managers focused on in terms of software features/needs?
Jim Hammer: They’re focused on what really counts-features that provide a tangible return on investment: Compliance in coding and charting that will reduce payor denials and audits; reduce lost charges and increase revenue opportunity; Denial and revenue cycle management that will increase cash flow; and Automation of manual workflow processes (like referral and plan of care management) to create operational efficiencies and reduce labor costs.
PT Products: In what features/business areas can managers save money/time? (What software features can be used differently or combined?)
Jim Hammer: By using software to reduce the phone calls and faxing associated with physician approval of therapist-generated plans of care, both time and money can be saved. At one of our hospital-affiliated outpatient centers, both therapists and physicians were documenting electronically. However, the authorization process between the two systems required manual intervention with printing, sorting, bundling, faxing, scanning, and data input. Chart Links created a real-time interface to eliminate the manual paper chase in the workflow. By eliminating backlogs of unauthorized paper plans of care, the client has delivered quicker continuity of care (time) and has reduced billing delays (money).
PT Products: What’s the most challenging business “bottleneck” that you hear of from your customers, and how can software help avoid that situation?
Jim Hammer: Plan of care authorization management is still a manually burdensome and paper-laden process in our industry. Time is lost making phone calls, printing, signing, faxing, and waiting for paper forms to be authorized. With a Health Level 7 (HL7) interface and workflow automation, this process can be transformed into the electronic age to avoid the unnecessary paper chase.
PT Products: In terms of software needs in 2010, what are the important differences in concerns for hospitals/facilities versus private practices?
Jim Hammer: Data exchange. Hospital-affiliated outpatient rehabilitation centers must focus on how they will connect to the hospital information system and to local area referring physicians via Health Level 7 (HL7) interfaces. Standards and definition around health information exchange will be critical in the coming year.
Features and Benefits of Therapy Documentation Software
By trading in pens, papers, labels and folders for therapy documentation software, therapists can
- spend more time with their patients
- monitor key performance measures
- report on outcomes
- save an enormous amount of filing space in their facility
Here are some of the areas that can become automated with the right therapy documentation software:
Patient Arrival Notification. For a busy outpatient facility to maintain its schedule, it’s critical to know exactly when patients arrive. Look for a complete workflow management system that notifies therapists by pager when a patient has checked-in at the front desk.
Evaluations. A robust therapy documentation system will offer a vast array of discipline-specific evaluation forms. Look for a system developed by therapists that contains an extensive library of numerous sections. The system should enable the therapist to to customize the library of sections into sets and forms that meet the guidelines or preferences of his/her documentation approach.
Flow Sheets. A good therapy documentation system will provide electronic management of clinical data entry that allows for review of patient progress over time. The automation of flow sheets should accommodate multi-disciplinary documentation requirements. It’s also good practice to link the flow sheets back to a progress note.
Plans of Care. Look for a therapy documentation system that auto-generates plan of care reports directly from the evaluation. The report should include recommendations, plans and goals for the patient. To help administrators effectively manage multiple clinicians, the system should notify managers of incomplete or overdue plans of care as well as physician approvals. To save time and further streamline processes, look for a system in which plan of care reports may be electronically signed and faxed directly from the desktop.
Progress Notes. A good benefit of a therapy documentation system is its ability to track patient progress. The patient shoud be monitored on the system from scheduling and check-in through the evaluation and on to discharge. By automatically creating a daily progress note for each patient at check-in, the system is able to link documentation to billing and help eliminate lost charges.
Clinical Messaging and Correspondence. It’s one thing to document INTO a system and another thing to get information OUT. Make sure that your therapy documentation system can transmit authorized patient-specific information in a secure electronic format. The system should provide customizable letters, forms and reports that streamline communications related to patient treatment and reimbursement.
Patient Education. Most therapy documentation systems print-on-demand patient handouts (i.e., home programs, exercises) or even interface to third-party electronic formats. Many offer an ability to scan-in existing sheets as well as to make your own. Make sure the system includes instructional and educational materials that may be customized prior to distribution.
Therapist Productivity Management. With automation comes the ability to generate reports. Reports become an effective tool to manage the facility more effectively. Check to make sure that your therapy documentation system offers tracking mechanisms for therapist productivity by units, service analysis, billed time, total time spent, and other criteria.
For more features and benefits of a full rehabilitation workflow management system, visit our rehabilitation software website.
Electronic Documentation Software for Rehab
A recent article in Physical Therapy Products, titled “Electronic Efficiency: Using software for business and treatment solutions” and written by Nina Silberstein, covers stories of four therapists that are using electronic therapy documentation software.
Among the therapists featured was Tracie Rodak, PT, who works for Spartanburg Regional, a large not-for-profit hospital in South Carolina that is a customer of Chart Links’ therapy documentation software. Tracie is the manager of the outpatient pediatric rehabilitation program and treats the special needs population that includes childres with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and autism.
When asked about the software’s capabilities for managers who want to track productivity, Tracie had this to say:
“…when a patient is checked in, our therapists automatically get a notification that says the patient is here. It creates an incomplete note and charge ticket. [The therapists] are constantly working down their lists [of how many notes they have left and how many evals and plans of care are due daily]. Technically, they can’t sign a file unless they’ve done all the parts. The nice thing is that they can’t sign the note and forget to bill. The system won’t let it happen. As a manager, I can see everyone’s incomplete notes, where before, I wouldn’t have any idea unless there was a problem. I’m able to manage better.”
Margaret Mary Community Hospital Implements Chart Links Rehabilitation Software for Therapists
Chart Links is happy to announce the implementation of its therapy documentation and scheduling system by a team of 19 physical, occupational and speech therapists at the Outpatient Rehabilitation Center of Margaret Mary Community Hospital (MMCH), a not-for-profit critical access hospital providing inpatient and outpatient services in Batesville, IN.
The hospital provides a broad scope of services including 24-hour emergency, family-centered maternity, outpatient rehabilitation, home health, hospice and oncology. The MMCH Outpatient Rehabilitation Center provides speech, occupational and physical therapies. Other Rehab Services include vestibular therapy, work conditioning, aquatic therapy, sports medicine, lymphedema therapy, driver’s assessment, and a wheel chair clinic.
The software implementation includes functionality for electronic therapy documentation, cross-discipline therapy scheduling, referral and insurance authorization management, charges and more. It also includes inbound admission/discharge/transfer (ADT) and outbound billing and results interfaces to the Meditech hospital information system.
“We chose Chart Links due to its adaptability for both inpatient and outpatient therapy documentation,” says Carmen Pride, PT, Manager of Physical Therapy at MMCH and project lead for the system implementation. “As we become experts using the system, the time therapists spend documenting will go down and the quality time therapists spend with patients will go up. That will result in better patient outcomes and increased patient satisfaction levels.”
Chart Links software streamlines all of the daily tasks associated with a patient’s physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech language pathology, or audiology visit. The software manages adult and pediatric therapy treatment by automating evaluations, flow sheets, plans of care, progress notes, patient education, and clinical correspondence. It also manages payer compliance, provider reimbursement, outcomes reporting, administrative functions, business intelligence and enterprise productivity.
To learn more about Chart Links Rehabilitation Software, visit http://www.chartlinks.com.
Chart Links at APTA CSM Booth #654
Chart Links will exhibit at the American Physical Therapy Association Combined Sections Meeting on February 9-12, 2009 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada at booth #654.
The Combined Sections Meeting (CSM) focuses on programming designed by all 18 of the APTA’s specialty sections. The event brings together more than 7,000 physical therapy professionals from around the nation for 5 days of programming, networking opportunities, and an exhibit hall filled with products and services.
Stop by to see John Rea or Robert Stafford at booth #654nd learn about our therapy documentation software. Our rehab software streamlines the daily clinical and administrative tasks in an outpatient setting:
- Therapy Scheduling
- Patient Arrival Notification
- Referral Management
- Authorizations
- Therapy Documentation (plan of care, progress notes, evaluations)
- Patient Education
- Marketing
- Regulatory Compliance
- Etc.
Learn more about our rehab software in general.
For a complete listing of tradeshows at which Chart Links will exhibit please view our tradeshow schedule.
Therapy Documentation Software Return On Investment
When it comes to automating therapy documentation, funding is one of the biggest challenges outpatient rehab facilities face.
If you’re struggling to make a compelling business case for electronic medical records to your hospital board of directors, consider all of the operational areas that will yield quantifiable results. As you build your case, marry up metrics to timeframes as a part of your formula for return on investment.
Efficiency Improvements
When you automate therapy appointments, appointment reminders, referral management, authorization tracking, evaluations, plans of care, progress notes, flow sheets, and more; information can be called up and acted on almost immediately. List out and quantify all of the administrative task time this saves. Consider improvements in communications alone as it relates to time spent on referrals, authorizations and appointment reminders. The staff productivity gained allows for major improvements in therapist work flow which, over time, allows more patients to be seen in the same amount of time.
Cost Savings
One of the greatest cost savings brought by electronic therapy documentation is the elimination of transcription costs. Because therapists enter clinical documentation directly into the system, traditional paper-based methods are greatly reduced, if not eliminated. Determine your current cost per therapist or per page for transcription. Estimate, conservatively, a reduction in transcription costs. This will likely be one of the most significant contributors to your overall cost savings with an electronic therapy documentation system. Don’t forget to consider other paper chart costs in the ROI equation:
- supplies for creating and storing charts (from folders, stickers and dividers to cabinets)
- labor expenses for managing chart pulls, filing and audits
- copying expenses for documentation to attorneys, payers and physicians
Revenue Enhancements
Electronic therapy documentation opens new doors for driving revenue that should be considered as a part of return on investment. Consider how much more compliant, complete and accurate documentation becomes when it has the checks and balances of automation. Coding levels and claim errors correlate directly to documentation of the encounter. When therapy documentation occurs electronically, therapists report greater confidence levels as it pertains to Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) Edits, Medicare time tracking (or the eight minute rule), authorization tracking, and other compliance issues that can help or inhibit proper reimbursement. Consider improvements in billing accuracy as a part of your ROI analysis.
Quality Improvements
Some of the less tangible returns of electronic therapy documentation include quality. In most cases, electronic documentation allows for quicker, more legible, better organized and more comprehensive patient documentation overall. Across the outpatient rehab facility, automation standardizes clinical documentation, reducing inconsistencies in structure, poor handwriting, and lag time in documentation and approvals. Patient education sheets are readily accessible and up to date. Plan of care reports are auto-generated from the evaluation, able to be monitored, electronically signed, and faxed from the desktop. These and many other improvements in quality should be considered in ROI.
Summary
In an outpatient setting, electronic therapy documentation impacts both the therapist and staff productivity. A good business case for return on investment should focus on
- efficiency improvements
- cost savings
- revenue enhancements
- quality improvements
If you need help putting together your Return on Investment business case for an electronic therapy documentation system, please contact us.