The prescription for better billing: palm devices and PatientKeeper Charge Capture software give Children's Specialized Hospital more accurate billing.

CHILDREN'S SPECIALIZED HOSPITAL (CHS) is the largest pediatric rehabilitation hospital in the United States. Its talented and caring staff provide a wide array of medical, rehabilitative, educational, and developmental services to infants, toddlers, children, and young adults. But, CHS had a serious problem: It knew it was losing out on potentially millions of dollars in revenue each year for medical services it was providing but wasn't charging its patients for. Because these services weren't documented, CSH wasn't even sure how much revenue it was passing up. And, that was money that could have been reinvested into the hospital to provide even better care to its patients.

CSH was using a paper-based system to track and bill for services. When the official patient encounter paper form wasn't handy, the staff used anything--notepads, scraps of paper, 3x5 cards, their own memory--to keep track of the services they had performed or ordered each day. With this paper-based system, an incredible number of charges were lost because the caregiver didn't always remember to record them.

Even if the caregiver did remember to record the service, the average charge took two to three weeks to make its way to accounts receivable where the hospital could begin the process of billing the payer, usually an insurance company. But, most insurance companies put a time limit on how long a hospital can wait to submit a bill. So, if the hospital misses this deadline, they're only reimbursed for part of the payment, if at all.

A healthy solution

When choosing a new system to help it better track and bill for services, CHS needed a system that fit the way caregivers worked. Ease of use was CHS's chief concern. If the solution wasn't easy to use, it would in effect add work to the caregiver's day rather than ease the load. And, if it didn't fit the way they work, caregivers would be less likely to adopt the new system.

So, CHS opted for a mobile solution: PatientKeeper Charge Capture software on a handheld device that easily slips into the caregiver's coat pocket. CSH and PatientKeeper chose the Palm IIIxe and Palm m 125 devices as the two mobile platforms to deliver this application. Palm was the device platform of choice for this project due to its:

* Simple, easy-to-use and intuitive user interface High acceptance and adoption by caregivers

* Durability and reliability

* Low price point

* Flexibility to be customized to support CSH's billing practices

* Ease of implementation within new facilities

CSH implemented a phased rollout of the Charge Capture application. First, a group of 30 physical therapists were trained by PatientKeeper trainers. With just one hour of training, the caregivers were comfortable working on the Palm devices and proficient at using the PatientKeeper Charge Capture Suite. (Charge Capture is one of five modules. Subscribers can read more about this suite of products in the extended version of this article online at: http://Advisor.com/doc/14645.)

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CSH installed twenty handheld synchronization cradles that connected directly to the hospital's network. Here are the results of the rollout:

* Annual revenue has increased by $10 million over 24 months due to increased caregiver productivity, reduction in unclaimed charges, and organizational growth.

* Revenue loss from late billings has been entirely avoided, alleviating the risk of losing up to $1M annually in unrecovered reimbursement.

* Bill submission lag time has been reduced from two to three weeks to less than one week.

* Caregivers now have an automated, accurate, and complete record of performed services.

* Caregiver satisfaction has increased.

No more patient encounter forms, 3x5 cards, random scraps of paper, or relying on memory--Children's Specialized Hospital's new system has a clean bill of health!

MOBILE BUSINESS BENEFITS

Because caregivers come to patients, and not the other way around, mobile devices are a perfect fit for hospitals. Caregivers can keep patient data close at hand and easily document the services they order and perform for patients.

Subscribers can read more about PatientKeeper software online at http://www.Advisor.com/doc/14645.