Pressure. Billy Joel sang about it. So did Queen and David Bowie. And right now, the sentiment feels pretty spot on for healthcare.
As a healthcare leader, you can’t predict how regulatory requirements will continue to evolve, which cybersecurity threats will emerge, where the reimbursement landscape might go next, or what new workforce constraints you’ll face. But you can control what’s inside—your technology, processes, and resources—and use them to strengthen your performance today while making your healthcare organization better prepared for what comes next. Let’s take a look at a few of these challenges, and how you can take control.
Challenge: Complex Reimbursement and Funding Landscape Impacts Revenue
Solution: Use eClinicalWorks to Maximize Allowable Reimbursement and Strengthen Revenue Cycle Performance
It’s no secret that federal funding cuts, changing payer requirements, and the challenge of keeping up with it all can put a healthcare organization’s revenue at risk. The good news is there are things you can do to help avoid that risk.
First, capturing the full allowable reimbursement for the care provided becomes even more important. This is especially relevant for healthcare organizations offering multiple specialties and services, where an encounter includes care that can be coded to a higher allowable level. A well-optimized eClinicalWorks EHR environment, along with provider training and AI functionality, will lead providers to the appropriate documentation for the services delivered. This minimizes the chance of undercoding and helps ensure the documentation supports the level of service provided.
Second, eClinicalWorks and revenue cycle processes should work together as a connected system. Eligibility, pre-authorizations, documentation, coding and other processes affect your chances for a first-pass clean claim – which drives consistent cash flow, profitability, and efficiency.
Challenge: Provider and Staff Burnout
Solution: Optimize eClinicalWorks to Reduce Burden and Create Capacity
As complexity grows and pressures mount, staff and providers feel the stress of it all. They’re asked to continually adapt to new requirements and responsibilities. Meanwhile, shrinking teams are left to push through with fewer resources.
eClinicalWorks optimization helps reduce that burden. Did you know that research has found an association between provider satisfaction with their EHR and job satisfaction? That means their experience working within your eClinicalWorks system can translate to a provider retention issue. How efficiently they can navigate the system, complete documentation, and get support influences their day-to-day experience and allows them to focus on work that is meaningful and fulfilling for them.
Optimization helps to ensure your eClinicalWorks system supports your goals and the way providers and staff get work done. The process starts by identifying inefficient workflows and processes where errors frequently occur. Your optimization strategy can include automation for repetitive tasks, rules and templates for documentation accuracy, greater visibility into the data driving your operations and finances, and training for providers and staff.
Challenge: Competing IT Needs and Limited Resources
Solution: Reprioritize Initiatives and Build an Environment Designed to Adapt
When times are uncertain, it can be difficult to see a path forward for large technology investments. But putting IT progress on hold indefinitely can deter you from making the types of advancements you need to combat the very pressures creating the uncertainty.
Let’s think about things differently. The goal isn’t to stop investing. It’s to prioritize the initiatives that can make the biggest difference now. The types of targeted projects we mention above, as well as many other healthcare IT projects, can be approached in smaller phases, allowing healthcare organizations to make progress, see incremental results, and work within budget constraints.
As you evaluate healthcare IT priorities, several questions can help focus investment:
- Will this initiative help strengthen allowable reimbursement or collections?
- What staffing constraints could be addressed through optimization or automation?
- Are there tools and systems that, in their current form, no longer deliver sufficient value to justify their cost?
- How can we make better use of the technology we already have?
- Can a larger initiative be approached in phases to deliver measurable benefits sooner?
Challenge: Growing IT Complexity and Resource Constraints
Solution: Choose a Healthcare IT Partner with the Breadth to Move Priorities Forward
How are you currently accessing the expertise required to support your healthcare IT environment? Given today’s complexities, you may be looking to minimize vendors for individual systems and support and move toward partners who can support you in a more holistic way. This consolidation can simplify vendor management, improve coordination across interconnected systems, and give healthcare organizations access to specialized expertise as priorities change.
For eClinicalWorks users, Ero Health combines deep eCW expertise with broader healthcare IT capabilities available through our partnership with Med Tech Solutions, spanning infrastructure, cybersecurity, integration, revenue cycle, managed services, and other specialized areas. This wraparound approach gives healthcare organizations a better way to address changing eClinicalWorks and IT priorities while reducing the complexity of managing multiple technology partners.
The Bottom Line: Control What You Can
You can’t control every external pressure affecting your organization. But you can make sure the technology, processes and expertise within your control are working to help you succeed despite the challenges you’re facing today.
Is your eClinicalWorks, along with your overall healthcare IT infrastructure, positioned to help you succeed amid growing external pressures? Talk with Ero Health about optimizing your eClinicalWorks system, simplifying and aligning your full technology environment, and strengthening your ability to adapt.
