Archived Publications eBook: The Dollars are in the Details | Page 18

Success factor 2: Close the communication loop with
the Quality Team.
Patient discharge instructions are accessed from the
Electronic Medical Record. (EchoAccess data exchange
can facilitate this with most EMRs).
Contact Center Care Coordinators make notations in the
EMR when an appointment is made for a specific patient. In
addition, a summary of referrals made, appointments made,
and appointments kept is generated from EchoAccess and
sent to the Health System Quality Team each month.
Tomorrow’s contact center enables better
communication, streamlines access to
care, bridges the transition from volume
to value-based reimbursement, and
provides trust-building personal
connections at key touchpoints.
Success factor 3: Create and track the “reason code.”
A special reason code captures the fact that this appointment
is part of the readmission reduction program.
Success factor 4: Email appointment times to the patient.
The result of the Readmission Reduction Pilot included the
substantive results summarized earlier. Another positive
outcome was that patient satisfaction scores began to
improve. Patients appreciated the care coordinators in
the Contact Center who made their life easier at a critical
time. One patient’s feedback describes it well:
“I love your Care Coordination Program. You took a
personal interest in me and made certain I saw my doctor
the week after my surgery. Thank you! I wouldn’t want to
go anywhere else.”
As the program matured, senior leadership began to
communicate the expectation that patients must be seen
for a follow-up appointment within a week after discharge.
This policy enabled the Contact Center to accelerate the
number of follow-up appointments that could be confirmed
with physician’s offices within seven days of discharge.
The increased number of timely follow up visits resulted in
higher quality patient care and fewer readmissions. It also
meant that physicians who agreed to schedule follow-up
visits within 7 days of discharge began to benefit from
additional payments from CMS (instituted in 2013 to
encourage prompt follow-up visits).
The patient wins. The physician wins. The hospital wins.
Success factor 5: Email appointment times to the
readmission team. Lessons Learned
Success factor 6: Communicate early and often with
participating practices. Contact Centers use multiple communication modalities,
including phone, email, Web-response, and text. Tomorrow’s
contact center enables better communication, streamlines
access to care, bridges the transition from volume to
value-based reimbursement, and provides trust-building
personal connections at key touchpoints. Readmission
reduction is only one component of that larger role.
A monthly referral letter is generated from EchoAccess that
includes patient names, addresses, phone numbers, and their
follow-up appointment dates and times. These letters are
mailed or emailed to each participating physician’s office.
The Contact Center also collaborated with marketing to
prepare and distribute a care coordination brochure,
which was provided to all participating physician practices.
The message began; “From hospital discharge back to
your care…”
“EchoAccess enabled us to centralize readmission reduction
as an integrated system priority—instead of each individual
hospital trying to accomplish it themselves.” (Worrell)
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Result
Lesson 1: The Contact Center must fill an expanded new role.
After their successful pilot, the SJPHS Contact Center was
asked to consolidate access functions for all six St. John
Providence hospitals from a central location. Services include:
Health Connect Online physician finder, physician referral
for all member hospitals, Oncology Center of Excellence
appointment coordination, physical therapy appointment
coordination, behavioral health appointment coordination,
readmission reduction discharge appointment coordination,
switchboard, diagnostic scheduling, and insurance plan
member services.
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Reprint from SPRING 2016 Provider Advisor