Practice Point: Meaningful Reports Drive Process Improvement – Part 3

Happy New Year and welcome to 2014! As we usher in this year, we will need to reflect on our previously implemented processes and look forward to ways we implement process improvement. Obviously, we must carve out time to implement new processes including Meaningful Use Stage 2 and transition to International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision. Each of these mandates has the same underlying practice management objectives to meet select goals—diligently document, critically review, and meaningfully report data. One of the ways to accomplish these tasks is to incorporate the use of a specialty wound care electronic medical record (EMR). The specialty wound care EMR provides discrete and reportable data fields that allow a successful transition and implementation of the mandates. At the end of the day, it’s all about your data and reporting methods.

As we have discussed in previous columns, using a smart specialty wound care EMR to manage your wound care business allows you to leverage the data and reporting. Optimizing the reports module is key to managing your practice. It is important to ask questions about the care of patients being managed, as well as the health of your facility. What reports drive your process improvement plans? Have you defined reports to manage your daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly requirements? How do you measure your weekly healing rates? What are your outcomes, benchmarks, and trends? More important, how do you manage your outliers?

In the previous 2 columns, we looked at specific reports to drive process improvement and case management for your patients. In this column, we will look at a report sample focused on the health of your facility that will assist managing your business efficiently and effectively.

Read the rest of the article at Advances in Skin & Wound Care.

An excerpt from an article originally published in Advances in Skin & Wound Care, written by Cathy Thomas Hess, BSN, RN, CWOCN, VP and Chief Clinical Officer at Net Health