While Otolaryngology — the study of ear, nose, and throat conditions — may be a mouthful for most people, it is second nature for the staff of Asheville Head, Neck & Ear Surgeons. A widely respected clinic with facilities throughout North Carolina, Asheville Head, Neck & Ear Surgeons (AHNE) is committed to providing all patients with respectful, quality medical care, and often looks to technology for solutions that streamline operations to enhance patient care.
The intake paperwork burden for patients and staff
At check-in, AHNE collected HIPAA consent for treatment, insurance authorization, and patient practices and policies forms from each patient. They also collected treatment consent forms on the clinic floor, but in both instances the process was taking too long. It could take patients up to 15 minutes to complete the forms, and more staff time to make copies, re-key data, scan forms, and attach the resulting PDF to the patient’s medical record. The originals were then disposed of through a shredding company. Errors were introduced when patients missed a field, or staff re-keyed data incorrectly or attached a PDF to the wrong patient’s chart. “We had at least two staff members touch each form and three entities for proper disposal,” said IT Manager Sam Clark. “And shredding paper is not as cheap as you might think.” AHNE needed a better way.