I'm a long time Amazing Charts user (+ user board mostly watcher). Thank you to this community for your help (past and present). I remember as a practice manager visiting a kind AC physician user in Downey, CA in 2004 to shadow his practice before converting our practice from paper charts to AC. Later in 2012 I helped my brother start his Family Medicine & OB practice also with AC and we still use it to this day (2 MD's, 2 NP's).
The biggest challenge our teams have faced through the years with AC is Patient Referral Management.
So I'm working with a team that has developed a patient referral management platform (Referral Connect). It is still early stage and I am hoping that an interface for Amazing Charts can be built.
However, the team wants to focus on the EHR's that are most interface friendly and marketplace viable.
This is where this post comes in.
If I can show the team that there is a need and demand for an AC interface then the investment to build the interface may make sense.
Workflow example slides attached.
Does your practice also have challenges with patient referrals? I appreciate you sharing your experiences below.
GREAT idea, if not over priced ( I know that is a relative term, I am cheap) then would be interested. Does the other provider have to be a part of ReferralConnect? I looked at the website and it appears that one provider at one location is free (cheap enough for me) and the receiving office just needs to accept the referral. I will look at it more but this seems like it would be a worthwhile interface for AC. I know our referral system seems cumbersome.
Write the order, clear insurance, fax over referral, check with referral office to make sure they got the fax, check in a week to make sure pt has appointment, then try and remember to ask for the notes of the appointment so you're not blindsided the next time the pt comes in to the office
Thanks for the feedback Chris! Yes, as independent practices we definitely need to be selective (sometimes known as 'cheap').
The other provider does not have to accept a connection (there will always be some that do and some that don't). Benefit #1 below would apply to all referrals, benefit #2 & #3 would apply to connections.
1) Tracking & Closing the Loop The platform design helps staff more easily track, follow up on referrals, and ensure all consults/results are received (whether the other practice is connected or not).
2) Status Updates For those practices that connect, updates by specialists will be seen real-time by the primary care sender. For example: if the specialist connection updates a referral as 'Accepted', 'Scheduled', 'Appointment Kept', you would see those updates and not have to call, reach out, fax again, etc...
3) Direct Instant Messaging For those practices that connect, direct instant messaging on each referral can save phone calls, faxes, and improve communication.
We do probably 6-20 referrals a day (I relieve how broad that range is but Family Practice varies wildly from day to day), so I am quite intrigued! Anything.......and I literally mean anything aside from a huge fee, to make that process smoother and easier is something I'm excited to talk about.
Now if only we could get someone to simply the PA process (aka make it go away).....LOL!