How many times have you been glued to your phone or laptop, tracking an important package as it travels from the original location, through each stop, until it finally makes it to your door? You may have even made a point to be home all day in order to sign for it. Perhaps this package contained the newest iPhone, a Christmas gift you didn't want unknowingly intercepted by the intended recipient, or another valuable item you don't want stolen off of your front porch or lost in transit. Waiting for that package can feel like time is moving backwards. Imagine how your patients feel, already anxious about their medical issue, as they wait for a CD copy of their x-ray or CT scan to arrive by mail. There has to be a better way to deliver imaging to patients. In fact, there is.. and it doesn't have to cost your practice a dime.
What’s Patient Access?
Purview's Patient Access allows patients to access their medical images from any device with an internet browser, and to share them directly and instantly with their healthcare team. That’s right, no more CDs. No more shipping costs. No more delayed appointments or unnecessary duplicate scans. Patient Access is a next generation technological advancement in the healthcare industry. It was created to ease your workflow and provide a smoother, more efficient delivery process for medical imaging.
Patients and providers, alike, benefit from this digital healthcare tool. By enabling patients to share their images directly with their referring physician or specialist for a follow up appointment, you not only save your practice significant time, but costs as well. Just think about it: How many CDs do you burn each month? How much do you spend on the material and shipping costs? Multiply the cost associated for one patient by the total number of patients seen in a day.. a month... a year.. perhaps even double that due to the number of duplicate CDs needed when the original is lost or damaged. The cost adds up. Not to mention the cost in valuable time, too. Burning and mailing a CD eats away at your staff's productivity. The patients' care is then delayed when they must wait for their CD to arrive in the mail. While expedited shipping ensures next-day delivery (at a hefty price), in some cases, the images need to be read immediately. Delivering imaging access online enables this.
You can provide this as a free service to your patients for a fraction of the cost that you spend on CDs. Or you can charge patients a nominal, safe harbor fee of $6.50 and offer this service at no cost to your practice. Either way, a platform like Patient Access saves money and precious time for you, your patients, and their referring physician or specialist.
What's the Difference Between CDs and Online Access?
There are two scenarios for how patients can share their medical images with a specialist or referring physician:
Scenario A: Your patient needs to share their x-ray with a specialist, but they've lost their CD and call you for a duplicate CD, which they need to have tomorrow. At least $20 and 24 hours later, they have their CD in hand for their appointment (and fingers crossed they remember to bring it!).
Scenario B: Your patient needs to share their x-ray with a specialist at their appointment tomorrow. They login to their Patient Access account on their cell phone, pay a one-time fee of $6.50 for the image they want to access, click "share" and send it to their specialist within 5 minutes, 24 hours before the appointment.
Did you notice a significant detail in Scenario B? They didn't have to call your office, interrupting your staff's work, in order to get their scan mailed to them.
How Do Patients Share Their Images with Physicians?
It’s quite simple to share and access medical images through Patient Access. The user-friendly portal is web-based, so patients and their physician can access it anywhere at anytime as long as they have an internet connection. Instead of having to put anything in the mail, your imaging center or practice uploads the DICOM file to the patients' account. Your patient will then login with their Access Code, a unique patient ID which you will provide them, and patient information in order to securely access their medical images. From there, they select the image they want to share. If you implement Patient Pay, the patient would select the images she wants to access, and pay the fee with her credit card directly in the web-based portal or app.
The patient selects the image she wants to share, clicks "share" and sends an email containing a link to the image file to their physician. Once the physician receives the email, they click on the link and can view the diagnostic image on their own desktop viewer or from any device with an internet browser via the included web-based diagnostic viewer.
Final Thought
We believe online medical image delivery contributes to improved medical outcomes. This method eliminates any delay in care for the patient, and truly makes the patient accountable for a role in their own healthcare. This delivery method makes it simpler than ever for patients to be involved in their healthcare and keep their follow up or second opinion appointments. Their physicians are able to receive and read their images more easily and more efficiently. Additionally, the patient has a better view of their own medical imaging, which might enable them to ask questions and have a better understanding of their health.
Lastly, if you had to name the one cost that you would like to decrease at your business, time would probably be at the top of your list. Time is money after all. Give your patient the ability to access and share their medical images whenever they need to, and you will see a significant amount of time saved for your staff who no longer has to spend hours burning, labeling and shipping CDs as well as speaking with patients on the phone about their CD logistics. Patient satisfaction will increase too, as they'd rather not have to call in and deal with those logistics either. Overall, your financial costs will decrease and your workflow will be more efficient than ever. Sounds pretty good, right?
