Are You Using Data Wisely?
There is no getting around it; if you are in the medical field, most of your day is filled with information gathering. This information is entered into an online database and then left out in cyberspace until you decide to take advantage of it. Turns out, this information can be used and interpreted in a way for your practice to save money and provide your patients with better health care.
Information
This information can help save on administrative costs. Almost one-fourth of your practice’s budget is spent on administrative costs. Automated coding, typically available in electronic medical record systems, can help eliminate the need for one of your staff members to enter each code manually. This helps prevent mistakes, which can be costly if you are charging the wrong amount for a service, and also frees up a staff member so they can focus their attention elsewhere.
Analytics
Utilizing analytics can help improve clinical decision making. Using an electronic system that has each patient’s medical tests, lab reports and prescribed medications in one, easy-to-access place can help save time. Being able to quickly see what has already been ordered enables physicians to make well-informed clinical decisions quicker; it also prevents double-prescribing or duplicate ordering when patients are seeing more than one provider.
Fraud
Identifying and eliminating fraud is easier when you use analytics. While we wish this was not the case, fraud and fiscal abuse are not uncommon in the medical community. You can now use analytics to keep a close eye on what tests and treatments each staff member is ordering as well as the payments received.
At the end of the day, analytics can be used to help your patients. The information gathered at multiple visits can help a physician identify the early stages of a disorder or simply remind a patient to keep up their healthy lifestyle. You’re already collecting data from your patients; you might as well use this information to make them healthier.