Yesterday morning, I had a bone density test completed. The entire test lasted three minutes, which included the explanation from the technician of what was to be done and how quickly it would go. It took more than 30 minutes, however, of paperwork to be shuffled before I was called for the test.
As I have mentioned before, my physician office has been up and running on its EMR system for a couple of years now. I wish their affiliated imaging and mammography center was also paperless. It was a busy Monday morning. I stood in line, filled out paperwork asking for information that they should already have had in their system. I sat down to fill out another form and waited to be called back to reception to finally be processed for my appointment.
I watched all four intake people go back and forth to the copy machine to make numerous copies of patient forms. As I sat back down again and waited to be called by the technician, I imagined walking up to the reception area and speaking with an actual person, but swiping my insurance card and checking my patient information on a computer screen and signing off with my electronic signature. In five minutes or less. And being called by the technician shortly thereafter.
Show busy consumers this type of workflow and they would support a lot of automated processes. As I drove out of the facility's parking lot, I thought to myself, one day, we will get there.
Photo by anolobb courtesy of Creative Commons license.
