EHR

Productivity.  The mere mention of the word elicits a variety of reactions throughout a business office.  How we measure and drive productivity can have a significant impact on metric performance, as well as team morale. Topics such as how to measure multiple actions taken on an account, accounts worked numerous times each day, complex vs. straightforward account populations, and group vs. individual productivity standards are just some of the issues that need to [...]

What’s more dangerous than a black hole of accounts not assigned for anyone to work? A population of accounts that appear as if they are assigned, but are not being managed at all. This is what we call an “invisible black hole”. This might seem like a rare or abstract concept, but these are actually easier to create than one might think, and the more complex the system – the more likely [...]

Customization in Epic is a blessing and a curse.  If you can get it right, it can drive reporting and workflows that far exceed functionality of other EMR platforms.  When it goes wrong, it can result in information overload and cumbersome workflows that kill productivity and put accounts at risk.  One underutilized reporting feature that is highly customizable within Epic is the Watch List. In this month’s blog, we’ll discuss the flexibility [...]

Epic is a platform within the healthcare industry which generates a strong love/hate relationship.  On one hand, it centralizes information and opens communication across the provider spectrum. On the other hand, many supposed efficiency gains are bogged down in tedious workflows while promised reporting transparency remains unavailable or hidden in a mountain of reporting options which may all yield different results.  Five examples of underutilized Epic functionality that revenue cycle leadership should [...]

Workqueues (WQs), worklists, spreadsheets, reports. They are all trying to help us answer the same question. What accounts should we work and in what priority? How frequently is your PFS management team asking staff to re-sort their workqueues, work off spreadsheets for special projects, or work through a stack of paper denials? Workqueue build in Epic is one of the most critical pieces of your install and ongoing maintenance. After all, these are the primary workdrivers for your exception-based workflows. But are you really working the exceptions? Are your workqueues setup as effectively as you’ve been led to believe?