Currently when patients come into a clinic, whether the clinic uses an EMR or paper charts, a chart is created. Notes are written- that works fine, as long as there’s only one injury being managed. The real problem comes up when patients get a second injury.
What can easily happen is that the notes for the two different dates of injury get shuffled together. Incorrect documents given to the provider can then further confuse the patient’s examination, and delay the claim being closed.
This is the problem with administering multiple claims in the clinic. So what’s the solution?
Patient’s injuries need to be organized around the date of the event. Unfortunately that’s not the way that we’ve created healthcare records. Traditionally you have a chart that is organized chronologically.
To solve this problem we have to re-organize the way we write and create our EMRs for Work Comp. Because in Workers’ Comp, each claim has it’s own universe, it’s own set of unique information. These need to be the drivers of the organization in the chart. All you really need to know is what date of injury is this patient here for? Once you know that then you know what the injured body parts are, and you can put your finger on the last, correct, and appropriate notes.
Once you’re working in a system that’s correctly organized by date of injury, it now presents an opportunity for everyone in the clinic to start contributing to the creation of the correct visit note. Now the front office has the opportunity to prepare the patient for an exam based on that specific date of injury. A medical assistant can open the EMR, verify the date of injury, and check-in about pending actions and RFAs.
This allows the doctor to focus on making medical decisions instead of doing clerical research. The patient’s visit goes really smoothly and the patient feels that the doctors are informed and the clinic cares about moving their claim forward.
Take a good look at how different members of the clinical team are helping as injured workers come into the office. It says a lot about the quality of care perceived by the injured worker.
