Revenue Cycle

Tip: Find the right software for better registration flow

Patient Access Weekly Advisor, July 2, 2008

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At Hanover Hospital in Pennsylvania, the central registration team had to find a product that could easily manage patients going to any one of three areas.
Hanover had concerns about pagers and plastic numbers because of the additional time required to sanitize them between each use, so they ultimately chose the Q-Matic software system, which issues a paper number.
Not only has the new software decreased patient wait times in central registration from about three minutes to less than one minute, it has also improved registrars’ productivity.
When looking at software to improve registration, Laurie Wolf, patient registration manager at the 135-bed facility, says managers should ask themselves the following questions:
How do I get started with so many vendors out there? Hanover tested two products in the registration area before it made a choice.
Do I have a backup plan? Hanover purchased plastic numbers as a backup in case the power went out or there was a technical breakdown with its new system.
What do I need to consider from a patient privacy perspective? All departments need to be in constant communication on the new system. At Hanover, the laboratory shares the same waiting room with registration. “One of the issues we had was we didn’t want registrars calling patients by name, but we had to have the lab not calling anybody by name as well,” Wolf says.
How are we going to orient customers to the new system? When Hanover transitioned to its new software program, it put up a sign in the main check-in area that informed patients what it was doing. For the first several weeks, Wolf and a registration staff member worked the lobby showing patients how the system works and why Hanover made the change.



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