Medical record requests are a challenge for everyone, but especially for the provider. Some providers have to deal with hundreds of requests a year, and the process can be time-consuming and cumbersome. Outdated processes or haphazard organization can cause duplicate patient records to be requested — and we often need to resend that data, possibly spending more time fulfilling the request in the process.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandates that medical records requests be fulfilled within 30 days of receipt. This can be a tall order for hospices and home health agencies that receive hundreds of requests each month. In response, many hospices are turning to technology to help them improve their compliance rates and increase efficiency.
Medical Records Request Management
In a world where 80% of caregivers say that they have a strong preference for home health and hospice agencies that use real-time communications technologies and telehealth, it’s important for hospices to find ways to make their processes more efficient. Agencies have to keep up with the demand to access medical records at any time — but can we do this without sacrificing quality?
Managing medical record requests is an essential part of a hospice’s on-demand technology strategy. The concept of medical records request management is simple: Hospices and homecare agencies should be able to receive, process, and fulfill requests for their patients’ medical records in real time. For example, WorldView offers a way to:
- Receive requests for medical records from payers, legal departments, or other interested parties through our website or mobile app.
- Process each request using our proprietary interface, assign its fulfillment to the relevant department, and seamlessly transmit the completed request back to the provider.
- Track each step of the medical records request process in detail to stay on top of the workload.
- Identify and correct any problems that might occur with the medical records themselves before releasing them.
This helps us to ensure that all documents are processed correctly and quickly, which means less time spent on paperwork and more time spent providing quality care. If a record needs something altered before release, we can go back and make that change electronically without having to sift through paper copies of their medical history.
Moreover, effective medical records management means having control over the information contained in the medical record. We can determine who has access to it by granting certain people levels of access (e.g., only specific employees in a homecare agency) and also determine who does not have access. This can also act as a liability shield.
Using One Centralized Platform for Medical Records Request Management
The growing burden of clinical documentation has naturally made it difficult for medical facilities to manage their patients’ medical records. In addition, the healthcare industry as a whole has seen an increase in the number of requests for medical records.
WorldView’s healthcare solution provides a secure, comprehensive solution for home health and hospice medical records management. It can help simplify the process of managing patient medical record requests. It’s designed with a user-friendly interface that lets providers easily request, track, and deliver the data they’re looking for from anywhere.
With the right document management software, you can:
- Eliminate duplicate entry by automating data entry and retrieval from any system or database.
- Reduce maintenance time by eliminating bulky spreadsheets and manual processes.
- Streamline process submission and delivery with easy-to-use software.
- Properly assign requests based on type and department.
- Create customizable workflows.
- Create searchable compilations of reports with a table of contents.
Home health and hospice agencies that adopt document management software can save money on paperwork by filing documents electronically instead of printing them out and storing them in file cabinets. They can also increase compliance with state regulations by providing an audit trail that can show auditors what happened at each step of a patient’s journey through the agency.
Document management systems also help reduce errors by eliminating the need for paper copies of records and allowing staff members to access information from anywhere. That can reduce the likelihood of a record being lost or misplaced during transfers between facilities.
The Benefits of Medical Record Request Management Software
WorldView offers a record retrieval management software that can help hospice and home health agencies manage the process of requesting and retrieving medical records. The software enables department collaboration and assignment for record retrieval and an administration panel to monitor request progress and easily adjust:
- Work process flows
- Secure communications management
- Task assignments and notifications of completion
- Internal notes between different workers
HIPAA compliant communications are a necessary aspect of medical records request management. Our software solution ensures that all communications are secure, monitored, and logged by the administrator to ensure compliance with HIPAA regulations. This can help to improve reporting by providing an audit trail for all requests received and handled by the organization.
For instance, rehab therapy medical records management requires a system that can handle both incoming requests and outgoing responses. The right system will make sure that each request sent out is completed in a timely manner and has all the information needed. You need to have a way to keep track of who has given authorization for the records release in your system so permission can be verified before sending out any additional information.
Embrace Digital Medical Records Management Innovation
With WorldView, providers can create a home health agency compliance plan using premium document management software. We can help them manage the process of requesting and retrieving medical records in an effective and efficient way, allowing them to:
- Assign tasks to individual departments.
- Monitor request progress and make adjustments easily.
- Easily collaborate with other departments, resulting in a more streamlined system.
In other words, by switching to WorldView, hospices and home health agencies can set their records management goals on autopilot. Contact one of our representatives to schedule a demo today.
