Video appointments, also known as telemedicine, are being touted by some as a silver bullet for solving capacity issues in ...
One of the reasons our clients choose Meddbase is because of the challenges they face in efficiently handling large data and coordinating non-clinical tasks. During the onboarding process, we often find that they are using multiple single-point solutions each with dedicated functionality. For instance, they may have one software for appointment scheduling, another for resource […]
One of the reasons our clients choose Meddbase is because of the challenges they face in efficiently handling large data and coordinating non-clinical tasks. During the onboarding process, we often find that they are using multiple single-point solutions each with dedicated functionality. For instance, they may have one software for appointment scheduling, another for resource allocation and yet another for claims and billings. Others still use pen and paper for data capture and in other aspects of their operations. Unfortunately, this disjointed approach creates coordination difficulties and negatively impacts margins because as the organisation grows, scaling each individual solution becomes an expensive undertaking — 40% of US healthcare providers say that their IT expenditure is growing at unmanageable rates.
Moreover, for public health facilities that cater to large populations and handle numerous hand-offs and referrals, keeping tabs on all the moving parts becomes nearly impossible. This highlights the urgency for an integrated, one-system solution that transcends verticals and eliminates silos. Such comprehensive solutions facilitate efficient operations, reduce workloads that perpetuate errors and enable holistic, organisation-wide monitoring and control.
Here are 5 benefits that public health providers can derive from the use of unified practice management solutions.
A comprehensive healthcare management system helps providers streamline workflows by minimising manual intervention that leads to a significant reduction in expensive errors. Take the medical billing cycle for instance. The process is intricate and requires precision at every step, yet an alarming statistic shows that up to 80% of all medical bills have been found to contain at least one error that can lead to claim denials and rejections by insurers.
These errors often arise due to the fragmented nature of disparate systems, which lack interoperability and necessitate manual data transfer between them. On the other hand, a centralised system empowers administrators to seamlessly trace a patient’s journey throughout the health continuum, significantly reducing the likelihood of inefficient handovers, redundant work and double billing. This enhances an organisation’s operational efficiency, mitigates errors and improves the overall quality of patient care.
A single, cloud-based practice management portal eliminates data cohesion issues that are endemic in environments with multi-system setups. This enables data management and analysis vital for evidence-based decision-making in public health management. By aggregating data from multiple sources and standardising data collection processes, public health agencies can derive meaningful insights, identify trends, and anticipate potential outbreaks or health risks.
A unified database plays a pivotal role when managing dynamic information, particularly critical details like a patient’s contact or insurance information. In a fragmented system, keeping multiple databases up-to-date becomes a laborious and time-consuming task, risking the possibility of outdated information. This can have significant consequences, such as patients missing crucial appointments or not receiving important outreach communication, ultimately hindering engagement efforts. Additionally, leveraging data analytics enables the identification of correlations between seemingly unrelated data points, such as a patient’s home address and their susceptibility to specific health conditions such as heart disease.
With integrated EHRs and communication tools, all members of a patient’s care team can access the patient’s data to have a broader view of their medical history and current therapeutic interventions. This makes it easy for them to share updates, test results, treatment changes and other pertinent information. Automatic alerts can also notify providers when there are updates to a patient’s record or changes in their condition. This level of coordination leads to higher quality, personalised care for patients and reduces the burden on clinical staff to deal with manual reporting, data entry and other administrative tasks. Ultimately, the risks of redundant tests, conflicting diagnosis and medication errors are curtailed and the providers can focus on providing patient-based care.
Centralised workflows provide a foundation for scalability and adaptability in public health management. As the needs and demands of public health evolve, expertly designed practice management software can easily be modified to accommodate new requirements. This flexibility allows providers to respond quickly to emerging health threats, deploy resources efficiently and implement new strategies without disruptions.
When data and processes are transparent and accessible across the entire organisation, it leads to increased accountability. With in-built audit trails for example, administrators can identify any discrepancies, errors or unauthorised actions, serving as a valuable tool for enhancing compliance and transparency. This transparency enables effective tracking of responsibilities, follow-up on outstanding items and evaluation of performance against set metrics. Most importantly, it allows early identification of issues that could potentially impact patient care or organisational outcomes, ensuring prompt action and resolution.
A comprehensive healthcare management system transforms collaboration through process standardisation, data centralization, and workflow simplification. With a real-time view of organisational and patient data, paired with streamlined digital processes, staff work more efficiently to provide the best care.
Overall, a centralised system leads to improved financial and operational performance.