One way healthcare organizations can improve their revenue cycle is successful issue tracking, according to Cynthia Ethier, senior healthcare consultant of revenue cycle transformation at Hayes Management Consulting.
Ms. Ethier shared the following tip with Becker's Hospital Review.
"Successful issue tracking ... can help hold your staff accountable as well as track progress of tasks during a project. When documenting all issues you can prioritize while ensuring the issue does not fall through the cracks. Formal documentation shared with all parties keeps everyone in the loop and on the same page including who reported the issue, why it is considered an issue and who it impacts.
"Issue tracking can be handled using in a couple different ways, including using a commercial software package that assigns a ticket number or using an Excel spreadsheet. In order to be effective, you will need to ensure that all vital pieces of data are collected so you can track and monitor progress, prioritize and identify next steps and have a communication tool. Communication is key as you want to ensure that all parties can review to understand the issue, status and responsible party.
"Issue tracking must be reviewed with all parties involved on a regular basis to ensure issues are reprioritized and resources are allocated properly to meet all targeted due dates. The Issues List is a tool you need to communicate and hold people accountable so that you can move issues to completion to accomplish the ultimate goal of the project.
"By effectively tracking your issues, you can improve your revenue cycle by prioritizing the issues with the largest impact on fiscal management, revenue cycle processes and workflows and ensure personnel are held accountable to meet target dates and goals."
Read more advice for improving revenue cycle 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.
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