Minimizing Physical Contact with Patients in Your Health System
In these days of social distancing, the process for checking in patients at hospitals has changed significantly. Instead of patients being able to freely walk through the main entrance, hospital staff dressed in full PPE greet each patient as they drive up in their car. Next, they check each patient’s temperature to rule out or confirm COVID-19 symptoms, then promptly complete required intake paperwork including collecting identification and insurance documents. Typically, staff members collect IDs, insurance cards and registration forms, put them in plastic baggies and have other staff members take the documentation inside the hospital to enter it into their system. While this process may be safer than interacting directly with patients unprotected, it is certainly inefficient and does not deliver an ideal patient experience.
What if there was a way to check-in patients safely and efficiently, while avoiding direct contact?
There is. The Trace® platform from Vyne Medical provides a couple of options that can help hospitals create a contactless patient access point.
Option 1 – SecureSend™ Request Form
Trace SecureSend™ allows patients to send protected digital files electronically. Patients are provided with a link via email or text where they are able to submit the requested documentation. Information is uploaded and transmitted in a protected format via a web server where files are encrypted both in transit and on the server, preventing content from being viewed or extracted by anyone other than the sender or recipient.
This encrypted data-sharing functionality creates a fast, easy and more accurate and complete data exchange by enabling providers to send a link to a patient which the patient then uses to upload images and/or documents of medical orders, ID cards, insurance cards, medication lists, and more. Uploaded information is automatically associated with the patient in Trace.
Option 2 – Trace Import
One of the many features in the Trace platform is a button allowing the importation of varying document types. Staff may use their hospital-issued mobile device while using Trace and take photos of the patient’s documents (registration form, photo ID, insurance card) via the device’s camera. Uploaded information is seamlessly associated with the patient in Trace where it can be indexed directly into the patient’s EHR system record. The captured images reside on the hospital’s mobile device; thus, maintaining the integrity of the hospital’s mobile device security parameters.
As we all become more sensitive to the threat posed by close contact, it stands to reason that the safety solutions hospitals and healthcare providers institute in response to COVID-19 may prove to be long-standing best practices that transcend this era of crisis response. Contactless registration and other solutions like going paperless can help reduce the transmission of germs while also being eco-friendly and reducing the cost of supplies. Vyne Medical provides hospitals with the tools they need to digitally exchange data between patients, hospitals, physician offices, and payers.
We are here to help. Contact us to schedule a call with one of our Vyne Medical healthcare solution experts today.