The healthcare industry is busier than ever. While patients are grateful for quality dermatology care, staying competitive in the marketplace can be challenging for those just starting out or looking to expand their practice.
Here are three ways PathologyWatch can streamline your dermpath workflow to be easy as pie:
Ensure Tantalizing Turnaround Times on Lab Results
Patient satisfaction and health outcomes can be impacted by long turnaround times, mainly when a patient’s condition requires a quick response to starting treatment. If this is a new practice, a great way to reduce overhead expenses without compromising accuracy or quality patient care is to partner with a digital pathology service provider.
There are at least two benefits of this partnership. First, studies show that using a lab with experience in digital pathology to read slides improves your chances of receiving a result within 48 hours. The most important asset you can share with your patients after their examination or procedure is information. When you have a solid partnership with an experienced lab, tracking the status of samples and obtaining results quickly is meaningful to patients.
Second, since slides are digitized, they can be shared among experts. Best of all, your patients will display an attitude of gratitude as they view their results and discuss treatment options with a better understanding of their case.
Serve Up an EMR Interface
Studies show that three out of five dermatologists have already adopted EMR technology, a logical choice for a busy dermatology office. “When a dermatology practice sees 40–50 patients per day, relying on paper to manage the workflow can create inefficiencies and impact the time to deliver results to patients,” explains April Larson, MD.
But not all EMR technology performs the same or cooperates with other systems. “To move beyond the challenges of paper, dermatopathology lab services like PathlogyWatch can build an HL7 interface directly to the dermatology clinic’s EMR to optimize margins of error and turnaround times, preserving precious staff and provider time,” adds Larson.
PathologyWatch utilizes an HL7 interface, enabling the lab to quickly send reports directly to your EMR of choice. In some instances, it populates a patient’s diagnosis and treatment details. This means all of the patient’s information is centralized and easily accessible. “The adoption of technology can save the staff from menial, time-consuming tasks and allow them to participate more in patient care, which increases both staff and patient satisfaction,” says Larson.
Provide Support a la Mode
Every system has hiccups and challenges. Find a lab with friendly staff members who are responsive to patient billing issues, technical problems, or just general questions. This makes it easy and comfortable when your staff unavoidably need to reach out for help with patient care in the dermatopathology arena. This is especially important because your team often takes the heat from unhappy patients, so it helps when your ancillary partners are eager to help and relieve those burdens.
Running a dermatology practice is an incredibly rewarding experience. By finding supportive partners, updating medical records processes that streamline work, and partnering with innovative services that offer both accurate and speedy results for patients, your dermpath workflow will be the icing on the “pie.”