Diagnostic facilities and hospital outreach labs are the foundation for modern healthcare’s ambitious pursuit of longevity and better health for all. They have also become significant profit centers that increasingly compete for market share. Here a reputation for vanguard diagnostic methods, expediency and accuracy can catapult a lab or imaging center into the leading market position—if not for a common barrier standing in the way. Most still see over 50 percent of their orders transmitted on handwritten or EMR-printed requisitions.
Based on my experience as a physician who has submitted countless orders of my own, I can tell you these methods take up too much time, invite dangerous errors, and have no built-in mechanism to collect the patient’s portion of the cost. In fact, the diagnostics industry is finally moving away from these archaic methods in favor of an approach that assures the right order with the right codes is submitted for the right patient—and collects patient co-pays right at the point of service. What’s more, the results come back for the correct patient, electronically filed in the right chart, establishing a “one patient, one record” paradigm.
You can view the rest of the article here to learn about the four specific facets of this “perfect order”.
