Media, Pa.
"If I call someone to do it on the phone, they might be in their car or at work,
and don't have all of their information available," she says. "This way, they have
the time to research their information and they don't miss anything."
Ms. Mills says that Riddle uses online software for their pre-admission paper-
work. After scheduling their procedures, patients are given information on how
to use the software along with Ms. Mills' phone number and instructions to call
if there are any problems. They then log on through the center's website, where
the software gives them any previous medical history that's already charted. The
patient edits or fills in missing information, and when they arrive on the day of
surgery, they are shown the filled-in forms to double check for accuracy.
"Patients love it," says Ms. Mills, especially since they can print out copies and
take them to future doctors' appointments.
2
Patient financing options
Patients arriving at your facility might be stressed about how to pay for
their care. To reduce that anxiety, Riddle Surgical Center offers several
financing options for patients that are arranged ahead of time, according to
Bernadette Scarduzio, the center's business office manager.
The center offers plans that let patients make payments for up to 6 months
after surgery. Ms. Scarduzio says Riddle uses a third-party company that auto-
matically deducts monthly payments from patients' credit cards or bank
accounts. This means the center doesn't worry as much about hassling patients,
and patients don't worry about sending a check on time, she says.
Riddle recently partnered with a healthcare credit card company, which pays
co-pays to the center in full while patients spread out the cost over a period of
time. The application for a credit card is done quickly online, says Ms. Scarduzio,
making it even easier for patients to organize finances pre-operatively.
January 2015 O U T PAT I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T 3 5
