ED bedside registration: when it does not work
Editor’s note: Last week, we talked to a patient access manager who said her facility succeeds using bedside registration in the Emergency Department. This manager says it only causes problems:
Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL, has a bedside registration protocol that is simply “not efficient,” according to Colleen Edwards, system director of Registration and Patient Business Services at the five-hospital, 1,500-bed system.
For her facilities, bedside registration causes:
- Frustration among clinical staff who view registrars as interrupting the care process
- Discomfort for registrars trying to conduct business in a traumatic environment.
- Addition of staff members to cover overflow units in the ER.
“In general what I’ve learned since we’ve done this – and we’ve been doing it for a good five-plus years – is that patients here are to be treated as expeditiously as possible, but our function gets in the way,” Edwards says. “We become extremely inefficient. A nurse comes in, we step back out. A doctor comes in, we step back out. It is the least efficient system we have.”
You as the patient access manager must fully gauge whether or not bedside registration will work for your facility before diving in. And you must have a solid communication plan in place with the clinical team long before the initiative is rolled out.
About the Author: The Patient Access Resource Center is your one-stop resource for managerial, training and compliance needs of the patient access manager. Here, you can find the latest news, benchmarking reports, newsletter articles, and practical scenarios to help your every-day needs.
Sandra Wolfskill, FHFMA | Jan 23, 2009 | Reply
For bed side registration to work well, technology, process and relationships with clinical staff must be carefully interwoven and timed appropriately. There are many reasons why bedside works and many reasons why it fails or is less than efficient. As our industry starts to talk more about the “hospital of the future” and focuses on patient care, our challenge in the finance world will be to meet clinical and patient needs while still protecting the financial side of the house by doing the right things to ensure payment for services provided. Patients tell us that they like bedside registration, so therein lies the reason planners and C-suite leaders continue to talk about it and push it. A dialog about the very specific details of what works well and what does not is a valuable contribution to our collective body of knoweldge.
Cheryl Staske | Jan 28, 2009 | Reply
Is anyone collecting copays at bedside either in the ED or Inpatient/Outpatient area? If so, how is it working and what is your annual TOS collections?
Dom Nicastro | Jan 28, 2009 | Reply
Cheryl:
I am going to try to tap a provider I know who may help.
Thanks for the question!