Patients and their families have higher expectations than ever before when it comes to the care they receive. With the rise of technology,  they expect information to be delivered quickly and seamlessly.  Simultaneously, regulatory requirements add pressure onto providers to enhance communication and care coordination. This leaves ambulatory surgery centers needing cost-effective patient outreach programs to achieve both financial and clinical outcome success.

Ambulatory surgery centers are expected to reach out to 100% of patients preoperatively and postoperatively.  As if the patient outreach process itself is not overwhelming enough, some regions and accreditation agencies require centers to accurately document these interactions. To meet new requirements, surgery centers need to efficiently utilize resources to perform and document these interactions.

Utilizing technologies, such as those provided by CipherHealth, allows endoscopy centers of any size to create a successful outreach program.  Why spend valuable staff time manually calling patients pre-procedure and post-discharge when there are technologies that can collect the same information in a fraction of the time and cost?

Pre-arrival outreach not only provides instructions to patients, but centers can also tailor questions to gather information regarding potential issues to ensure better outcomes and reduce no shows through procedure reminders. There are many pre-arrival questions endoscopy centers can ask patients to streamline the intake process.

Example Pre-Arrival Questions:

• Have you ever had any negative reactions to anesthesia?
• Have you ever had reflux, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, IBS, rectal bleeding, or difficulty swallowing?
• Have you ever had heart surgery that included a stent, pacemaker, or defibrillator placement?
• Do you have any allergies?
• Do you have an accompanying adult to take you home?

Post-procedure outreach is equally as important to the patient recovery process. Centers can use post-procedure outreach to customize questions about patients’ recoveries and their experiences, inform patients of expected side effects, and identify those who need care instructions. Centers should use post-discharge outreach to differentiate between patients on the right path to a successful recovery and those who need additional support.

With a new emphasis on OAS CAHPS, endoscopy centers can also incorporate patient satisfaction questions into their follow-up workflow. If a patient indicates that they would like to speak to a manager about their experience, the endoscopy center can perform service recovery and address any patient experience issues before the OAS CAHPS survey is completed.

Rising volumes of patients may make engaging with 100% of your patients seem overwhelming.  The good news is that it does not have to be. Your endoscopy center can utilize  outreach technologies, such as CipherHealth’s Patient Outreach software  to effectively and efficiently follow-up with all your patients pre- and post-procedure.