Whatever the motivating factor, private practice acquisition
alone does not solve the underlying issue: providing continuous, connected care
for patients. The challenge is to fill in the communication gaps between the
primary care provider (PCP) and specialist, the emergency room physician and admitting
hospitalist, and the hospital back to the PCP. Here are just three of the
opportunities I see that can make strides toward connecting the care dots for
patients:
·
Give employees access to both your full staff
directory and on-call schedule info on their mobile devices (smartphone,
tablet, Wi-Fi phone, etc.)
·
Helps coordinate care across multiple hospital
departments by facilitating communication among staff for patient admittance,
transfers, and discharges
·
Provide a practice’s after-hours answering
service using the hospital call center
·
Reduces the cost of external answering services and
expedites communication with providers on call
·
Implement technology and policies to ensure
follow-up of incidental findings discovered during radiology and lab tests
·
Enhances patient care and safety while decreasing
liability from unexpected, non-critical findings potentially getting lost in
the shuffle
