It’s More Than Just Making an Appointment

First impressions matter and your patient’s first impression begins in Patient Access. Are your pre-registration and registration staff well-equipped to provide excellent service? If you cannot confidently say they are, your patients and revenue cycle may be suffering.

The quality of your patient’s experience is directly related to the ease and level of service provided by your registrars and patient access teams. There are a few things to consider: Is your pre-registration process more than just scheduling templates and phone management? Is your registration team able to handle conversations regarding patient estimates, especially high balances after insurance? Can your Patient Access team act as financial counselors and offer payment assistance to your patients?

Patient Access sets the tone for the whole patient experience. Do you know what tone you are setting? While Patient Access is the lifeblood of the hospital, focus on this team can fall by the wayside to other priorities. The reality is that lackluster Patient Access performance not only affects your patient experience, but also your financial performance. Some symptoms of a broken patient access process are:

  •                         -Long patient wait times
  •                         -Long processing times
  •                         -Lost orders
  •                         -Front-end denials, such as missing authorization or not passing medical necessity
  •                         -Lack of up-front collections
  •                         -Inadequate pre-registration

To succeed in the future, health systems will need to have the customer orientation of a five-star hotel and operate like a factory floor. As AccuReg CEO Paul Shorrosh emphasizes, “It’s much more than transactional. It’s relational, it’s interventional, and it’s transformational.” First and foremost, a registrar’s job should be “patient-centric.” Time needs to be spent on high-value activities that require a human touch, such as communicating amounts due and collections. By automating and applying consistent business rules to the front end of your revenue process, you can save time, prevent denials and identify issues that need to be resolved.

Technology requires humans. AccuReg recognizes that technology needs to be designed around the humans doing a difficult, complex job. Just like at a five-star hotel, educating your staff on excellent service should also be a top priority. Ongoing and consistent coaching and training will help your team feel empowered in their roles, helping them not only provide a better patient experience, but also drive revenue cycle results.

Quality care begins with Patient Access and quality Patient Access begins with AccuReg.

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