Post-Visit Patient Contact: An Accountable Care Necessity

Contacting individuals after any type of hospital interaction boosts patient satisfaction, mitigates risk and optimizes provider performance.

2013-03-11

LA GRANGE, IL, March 11, 2013 (Press-News.org) A growing body of research demonstrates that contacting individuals after any type of hospital interaction boosts patient satisfaction, mitigates risk and optimizes provider performance. Timely patient surveillance assesses well being, fortifies medication and follow-up compliance, and provides a critical feedback loop for both provider performance and issue resolution. This touch point is essential in order to thrive in today's accountable care environments.

Dr. Tom Scaletta, founder of Smart-ER, explains. "My passion for patient contact began fifteen years ago when I took over as medical director of a community emergency department struggling with satisfaction. We hired a callback clerk who checked on patients by telephone. This simple act created an immediate, profound, and sustained improvement in our Press Ganey ranking. In fact, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation lauded our original process as a best practice."

Smart-ER was named after its intended goal, to enable smart communication that produces effective responses. Software engineers created a secure and robust system that can be used to support any healthcare service line. Key components include:
(1) A simplified process to upload EMR data to a private cloud server.
(2) A workflow engine that can send electronic self-assessments and serve as virtual call center.
(3) A customizable question/response structure that alerts department leaders of issues.
(4) A monthly report with rich provider feedback.

Under value-based purchasing programs, hospitals with proven performance in quality and satisfaction are rewarded. Patient contact is a reliable path to success in this regard. In outpatient settings -- emergency departments, urgent care centers, radiology suites, and procedure labs -- patients may be reached by email or text message, reducing or eliminating the need for callback staff. For post-hospitalization cases, a diagnosis-specific, rules-based system facilitates discharge navigators in preventing readmissions.

An investment in the accountable care technology that Smart-ER offers will enhance patient loyalty and make hospitals more appealing to patients, providers, and payers.

About Tom Scaletta MD
Tom founded Smart-ER in 2012 and serves as company President. He has an undergraduate degree in mathematics and computer science and worked as a computer programmer before entering medical school. Tom completed an emergency medicine residency at Northwestern Hospital and currently chairs the emergency department at a hospital system in the Chicago area. While President of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, Tom collaborated on a Code of Professional Conduct with the Emergency Nurses Association (2006). His papers, The Seven Pillars of Emergency Medicine Excellence (2007) and The Calculus of Patient Satisfaction (2012), have been published by Medscape.

For further information about Smart-ER, please contact us at info@smart-ER.net or (855) 935-5243.

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