• Text messages. If patients opt-in, our system also texts them
either a reminder to fill out the online forms or pre-op instructions.
Patients can then reply back to the message so we know that they
received it. We can also send text message updates to the patient's
family during surgery (though our procedures have such a quick turn-
around that we don't use this option at this time).
• Quality data. Another cool feature: The software can give us data
about our cases. As you probably know, it's often a struggle to get
quality indicator data. Doing retrospective chart reviews can be time
consuming and tedious. Our software lets us narrow down our
patients based on how they responded to questions in the pre-op
forms. For example, we can run a GI Quality report, which would
break down how many patients answered "yes" to questions regarding
if they ever had
polyps discovered
during a colonoscopy.
These added services
often come with an
additional charge, but
they can be huge
time-savers for your
staff.
The right soft-
ware vendor
The first pre-admis-
sion software we
chose was hard to use
for both our patients
and staff members.
8 6 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M a r c h 2 0 1 7
