Ask registrar to shadow clinicians
Ask registrar to shadow clinicians
Both sides have a lot to learn
Registrars at Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh, WI, have learned a lot by shadowing clinical staff when they are first hired, reports Linda Swanson, registration coordinator.
Members of the emergency room (ER) clinical staff shadow a registrar for about one hour, and new registrars shadow a clinical staff person for the same amount of time.
“With ER nurses, we explain our insurances, different rules, Medicare queries that are mandated to be asked, and how denials occur if we list the wrong insurance,” says Swanson. “They better understand the financial side and all that registration does.”
Clinicians learned the reason why registrars ask patients if they had a kidney transplant or dialysis, for example. “Staff would wonder why a registrar was asking what they felt was a clinical question to the patient,” she explains. “They learned why we cared when the accident or injury occurred, and if liability is happening.”
Clinicians learned that this information was required for billing. “They didn’t realize that our systems needed this, along with the insurance company,” says Swanson.
Encourage teamwork
Mercy’s registrars learned to ask nurses whether a urine sample is needed if a patient says they need to go to the bathroom, and to ask nurses whether it’s appropriate to give fluids to patients who say they’re thirsty.
“These things just seemed like friendly customer service items to them,” says Swanson. “We have a grease board that shows the ER rooms and which nurse is responsible for that room so they know who to go to ask.” Clinicians also taught registrars that facial and head lacerations bleed more easily, so it appears it’s a major bleed when most of the time it is not, which can help calm anxious patients, she adds.
At Longmont (CO) United Hospital, ER registrars work alongside technicians and nurses, so the patient’s medical record is available as quickly as possible to allow ER nurses to enter clinical information. “This is a great way to encourage teamwork between departments,” says Dee Alugbin, manager of patient access. “Patient access gets a glimpse into the clinical world, and vice versa.”
Nurses and technicians learned that registration must be completed prior to patient discharge from the ER. “They have been shown the ramifications of incomplete registration,” says Alugbin.
At OSF Healthcare in Peoria, IL, registrars participated in a “Walk in My Shoes” initiative. “This was very successful. It helped to bridge the gap between what happens in the front versus what happens on the back end,” says Jacqueline Doerman, patient access services manager of the hospital’s Patient Accounts & Access Center.
Patient access managers scheduled registrars to work in various clinical areas, and clinical management scheduled their staff to work in the access areas. “The staff shadowed someone for a full day or part of a shift, depending on staffing needs,” says Doerman.
Clinical staff asked registrars, “What do you do on your end to make the patient ‘arrived’ in the system on our end?” “The clinical staff were shown the process, so they were able to identify what we were doing in the computer system that triggered the patient to show up as ‘arrived’ on their screens,” says Doerman.
Registrars also answered the question “What challenges do you face when transcribing orders?” “This came from the fact that some paper orders are hard to read. The clerical staff doesn’t have the clinical knowledge to decipher some of the tests and diagnoses,” explains Doerman. “The clinical staff offered to assist in this matter.”
Registrars at Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh, WI, have learned a lot by shadowing clinical staff when they are first hired, reports Linda Swanson, registration coordinator.Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.