Riverside Health System
Newport News, VA (comprised of four hospitals and five outpatient centers)
Power Portals: Empowering Self-scheduling Tools for Physicians and Patients
The Challenges
Today’s physicians are inundated with mandatory paperwork and a continuous stream of phone calls. Behind all the paper, insurance company verifications, HIPAA forms, authorizations and referral management are the hands of office support staff—waving white flags of surrender.
Additionally, today’s average consumers find their schedules packed with business, family and social obligations, so they turn to any means to better organize their lives. Tools that provide a high degree of service and efficiency are in great demand. The Internet has become a popular medium for researching, selecting and acquiring everything from books and banking to travel and groceries. So it’s not surprising that consumers are increasingly turning to the Internet for information and access to healthcare.
An effective way for progressive hospitals and health systems to respond to this demand is to view web-based self-scheduling tools as a demonstration of their commitment to provider and patient satisfaction. For them, portal technologies become a fundamental business decision to enhance the organization's value proposition and market share.
For progressive Riverside Health System in Newport News, Virginia, business development was the impetus for change. John Piper, System Manager of the call center, leads a staff of 10 schedulers who book an estimated 145,000 appointments per year. Serving eastern Virginia, the Riverside health system consists of four hospitals and five outpatient centers. In 2003, Piper’s challenge was to increase the number of outpatient orders for Riverside services—at a time when he had minimal scheduling staff.
The Solutions
Provider Portal: A Tool for Building Business
The Provider Portal electronically connects networked physicians to Riverside’s scheduling system--Schedule Maximizer through the web. Using the Provider Portal, scheduler simply select a date and time for the appointment. Then a rules-based cross-checker searches for conflicts to ensure resources are maximized but not over-booked. The Provider Portal also includes Authorization and Referral capabilities based on the insurance plan and procedure being scheduled or requested. Additionally, it enables schedulers to run Medical Necessity checks based on up-to-date ICD9 and CPT4 codes. According to Piper, “Rules-based scheduling is critical to our operations; our schedulers cannot memorize all the scheduling rules.”
According to Piper, “The practices that use the portal can’t imagine operating any other way”. He added, “We could never take self-scheduling away from our customers; it is part of our strategic plan.”
Consumer Portal: Empowers Patients with 24x7 Self-scheduling Option
In December 2007, Riverside rolled out its Consumer (SCI’s Patient Portal) Portal—a self-scheduling option for patients in its mammography and bone density departments. This self-service tool enables Riverside patients to schedule and view appointments online at their convenience. Patients can review their appointment history and see current appointment details, including: date, time, location and status of upcoming visits as well as other pertinent information such as prep notes, procedure descriptions and directions. Riverside’s Consumer Portal:
- Attracts new patients
- Enables access 24/7
- Helps build loyalty with existing patients
- Provides a cutting-edge benefit for a savvy community—a niche that Riverside’s competitors have not addressed
The Results
Since implementing SCI’s suite of advanced Access Management products, Riverside has realized the following results:
- Fewer inbound calls
- Labor savings
- Better Customer Service
- Increased orders with each new physician office brought live on Provider Portal
Piper documented that through Riverside’s marketing efforts portal use has increased to 35 percent of its total appointment volume, which translates into that many fewer calls coming into the call center.
"This is significant because our strategic goal is to maximize our current call center workforce to be able to increase outpatient appointment volume without increasing our staff; the portals are key to meeting this goal.”
He has also noticed how web-based scheduling seems to match up with another positive change. “Because Provider Portal is accessible 24/7, scheduling is not just limited to when the call center is open, and as a result we’re seeing more after-hours and weekend use.”
By implementing its Provider and Consumer Portals, Riverside has reduced the number of phone calls between the physician office and the patient, as well as calls into the call center, enabling scheduler’s time to attend to other duties. This Virginia health system has increased market share and patient compliance. And, most important to Riverside, it has achieved improved levels of patient and physician satisfaction.
Self-scheduling usage at Riverside continues to grow. Among Riverside’s referring physicians, there are more than 100 practices actively using Provider Portal with a target of 50-70% of scheduled appointments being booked through the portals in the near future!
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“SCI Order Facilitator has streamlined our orders workflow, increased provider and patient satisfaction and reduced operational delays.”
Mary G.
Manager Centralized Scheduling
Baptist Health Care
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