Action logs can help healthcare organizations improve efficiency in resolving revenue cycle issues, according to Susan Eilman, senior healthcare consultant at Wellesley, Mass.-based Hayes Management Consulting.
Ms. Eilman shared the following tip with Becker's Hospital Review.
"Time is precious — especially when you are resolving revenue cycle issues. Higher level management may not always have time for creating agendas and meeting minutes to document critical issues but it's important to communicate on issues so that productivity is enhanced, mistakes are not repeated, and revenue is not affected.
"One way you can prepare for meetings but spend your time effectively is to eliminate a meeting agenda and meeting minutes and instead prepare an action log. Action logs keep meetings on track, prioritize issues, assign tasks, and creates a time to follow-up on meeting items. They also make the meeting focus more on resolving current issues to enhance revenue.
"Having active participation in weekly revenue cycle meetings is challenging when the focus is on discussing the issues and not so much on resolving them. Assigning tasks out to staff and designating deadlines for completion is one example on how to do this. Use your time wisely in maximizing your revenue by ... utilizing action logs for immediate resolution, and document when the issue has been resolved."
Read more advice for improving revenue cycle performance here.
If you would like to share your RCM best practices, please email Kelly Gooch at kgooch@beckershealthcare.com to be featured in the "RCM tip of the day" series.