Clinical and HIM Quiz:
Is content working for you – or against you?
Timely information is crucial to HIM and clinical management. But it has to work for you, your organization and, most importantly, your patients. It
means gathering information efficiently and accurately. It means storing it safely. And it means getting it to the people who need it.
Is your information where it needs to be?
Take this quick quiz to find out.
When a clinician calls your department asking for a piece of patient information, you:
A. Quickly direct him or her to the appropriate location within the EMR.
B. L aunch a hectic search involving many calls, many people and way too much time.
Every time your department receives a release of information request:
A. The appropriate ROI clerk quickly assembles the packet without leaving his or her desk.
B. A
n ROI clerk launches an elaborate investigation, culminating in a well-worn path to the file storage and a heavy depletion of photocopying toner.
When a physician needs to complete a signature deficiency, he or she:
A. Receives a notification within the EMR, opens the appropriate documentation within the EMR and signs it electronically.
B. A
rrives at your department, often in a, um, less than charitable mood.
Your remote coding team:
A. Has all documentation available electronically, never needing to swing by the office except for the occasional birthday party or holiday celebration.
B. S pends almost as much time finding what they need as they do actually coding.
Patient content and information not contained within your hospital EMR:
A. Resides in a single, secure electronic repository.
B. Is scattered throughout your organization – in clinical wings, under desks, in rusty filing cabinets, maybe even in an alternate dimension.
When considering the security of information, you:
A. Sleep soundly at night knowing everything is tucked away in a secure, HIPAA-compliant repository.
B. W
orry endlessly knowing that your organization is just a misplaced file away from a HIPAA violation.
The thought of an audit:
A. Is almost a welcomed one – everything is where it needs to be, secure and tracked.
B. N
ags at you with a dull sense of pain, like filing for taxes or Thanksgiving at Uncle Joe’s.
When asked about your organization’s DNFB rates, you:
A. Smile broadly, knowing that your team closes charts quickly, and you have the numbers to back it up.
B. C ringe while frantically thinking of a way to change the topic.
How happy are you with the way your organization receives, stores and manages information?
A. E xtremely – everything is in its right place, and our staff is free to focus on valuable tasks.
B. S omewhat content, but that’s a stretch.
How happy are physicians, staff, patients and other constituents after interacting with your department?
A. Ecstatic – we can always help them find what they’re looking for quickly and efficiently.
B. F rustrated, often grouchy, and sometimes even worse.
A’s = 1; B’s = 0
Add up all the A’s and scroll to the
second page to see your score!
Self-scoring your quiz
If you scored:
9-10: Great news! Everything is where it needs to be.
9-10 A’s
Are you using an effective, flexible IT solution to help you manage your patient information? Based on your score, it sounds like you’re using an
enterprise content management (ECM) solution. As a result, information flows to the appropriate staff within the processes and systems they know
and understand. Your team can complete its assigned tasks quickly and effectively, saving time for more valuable work. Physicians are happy, and
you sleep well knowing that you’re doing all you can to empower effective care and service.
6-8: You’re on the right track, but there’s room to improve.
6-8 A’s
You’re aware of the challenges facing your department, and you’ve helped your team overcome a few. Still, there are opportunities to improve, and the
right enterprise content management (ECM) solution can help you address those. For example, capturing that content outside your EMR is only part of
the equation. Ideally, you want clinicians and staff to be able to find that content within it. ECM features automated workflow that direct information to
the appropriate people based on workloads and rules you define, supporting smoother, more efficient processes.
3-5: You’re spending too much time finding – and fighting – information.
3-5 A’s
More often than not, information isn’t in its proper place. With the right enterprise content management (ECM) solution, things can move more
quickly and efficiently, saving you time and money – even allowing you to assume a greater workload without adding team members. A significant
piece of the puzzle is the EMR. Your organization likely spent a great deal of time and resources choosing and implementing one. Clinicians and staff
use it. Why not place the information those people need within it? With content such as faxes, forms and exam results a simple click away, people
can work more effectively.
0-2: Life is a chaotic, informational free-for-all.
0-2 A’s
Your team struggles daily with paper folders and filing cabinets. Don’t worry. Things can (and will) get better. The first step is simply getting a handle
on that unstructured information, gathering it and storing it somewhere secure yet accessible to authorized staff. A scalable, flexible enterprise
content management (ECM) solution will help you get there. Once you’ve tackled the storage aspect, you can then take the next step and ensure it
works for you. Using ECM, you can redefine and automate your processes – from release of information to chart analysis and deficiency tracking –
and make content available within the systems your organization already uses, such as the EMR.
To learn more about how an enterprise content management (ECM) solution can help your HIM department run more smoothly,
please visit Hyland.com/Healthcare.