I am not aware of any medical software program that can interact directly with the patient yet, and I think that's a long way off. Course, I don't get around much, so maybe someone will enlighten me. The reason that our employees need to enter the data is that it is garbage in, garbage out.
I think the best way to save human labor is to get computers to interact with other computers, so my alternatives are:
Computers can call to confirm patient appointments.
Computers can check eligibility for every patient on the schedule.
Computers can send billing information to the clearinghouse.
Computers can post payments to your PM software.
Computers can send and receive lab and test reports.
Your receptionist can put every non-urgent phone call to voice mail.
Using a portal will save you time spent on the phone.
Insurance companies can send your check directly to your bank.
I'm sure there are more similar ideas.
It seems that the profit in medicine tide is going out, so payroll is a big deal. Medicine always needed more than adequate staffing to handle the stressful times and prevent patients from falling through the cracks, but now that is too expensive.
