Clinicians Save Time, Improve Compliance and Simplify Physician and Staff Workflows
When Federal health officials recently announced their goal to eliminate fax machines from physician offices by 2020, it sent ripples throughout the nation’s entire healthcare industry: if your organization is stuck in a 1990s time warp, it’s time to leverage 21st century technology that delivers a better, more efficient platform for efficient operations.
This directive should not come as a surprise. Sophisticated technologies such as shopping apps on smartphones and tablets have become the go-to for many Americans who demand a more efficient way to conduct their own personal business. Consider the streamlined process of reserving a table at your favorite restaurant or making a doctor’s appointment.
Of course, the ultimate convenience and ease of shopping online in the comfort of your own home exemplifies the power of this connectivity. Coupled with home delivery through Amazon and other online retailers, this growing trend is quickly replacing the need to visit a shopping mall, struggle to find a parking spot and fight the crowds.
Thankfully, mobile technology is bringing many of these benefits to hospice clinicians, and concurrently impacting overall efficiency throughout the organization. Today, smartphones and tablets are utilized every day to make it easier and more efficient to not only improve administrative transactions but to also enhance patient care coordination and management.
What Began as a Mobile Pharmacy App…
What began as a technology advance to streamline pharmacy ordering and delivery is now a platform for integrated ordering and fulfillment of durable medical equipment and medical supplies. The maturation of Enclara’s E3 Mobile is best understood by tracing its roots in pharmacy where the transformation process first began.
E3 Mobile was designed to enable users to order medications on behalf of prescribers through a smartphone or tablet. For the first time, hospice clinicians began to order new medications and refills through the E3 Mobile app, virtually eliminating the need to pick up the phone and contact Enclara or a local pharmacy to order and dispense medications.
The new technology was an immediate “hit,” providing a more powerful experience and making medication management more efficient. User feedback confirmed that the technology enabled them to spend more time with the patient and less time on the phone. Streamlining all the processes involved in pharmacy ordering and supporting physician communication of prescriptions proved to deliver faster access to new medication orders — while alleviating previous challenges between physician orders and the patient medication access queue. Nurses no longer had to call a pharmacy or spend time deciphering the handwriting on a script.
It quickly became clear this technology advance was also the key to easily ordering new refills, allowing clinicians to readily identify formulary and non-formulary medications and providing control of the approval process. Users reported that they could quickly review medications, diagnoses, and allergies, view recent orders and effortlessly track a package.
…Quickly Grew Into a Centralized Patient Management Hub.
They say that success breeds success. The positive experiences with pharmacy ordering stimulated the next steps in broadening the capabilities of Enclara’s E3 Mobile platform.
Durable Medical Equipment (DME) ordering was the next logical expansion. With the integration of E3 Mobile with Hospicelink, the industry’s most comprehensive DME Benefits Management Solution, clinicians gained a seamless mobile solution for ordering pharmacy and DME within the same Android or iOS app.
This level of integration quickly drew the praises of hospice staff members. A simple, intuitive design made ordering pharmacy and DME as easy as Tap. Order. Dispense.™ Empowered with a single app for ordering both pharmacy and DME, clinicians could identify formulary and non-formulary designation for medication and DME items, again giving them control of the approval process. Furthermore, they gained one point of access to patient demographic, medication, and DME equipment history and status.
This upgrade further increased efficiency and productivity for hospice staff, creating even more time for patient engagement. Combining the pharmacy and DME service line spend with Enclara’s real time analytic dashboards was a vision come true for hospice executives.
But There’s More….
Completing the centralized management hub, Enclara then integrated E3 Mobile with Medline, a leading global medical supplies distributor and manufacturer.
Clinicians could now transmit orders from E3 Mobile to Medline for quick direct-to-patient shipping, with oversight rules management that gave them control of the supply approval process. This improved efficiency and productivity reduced supply closet pick-ups, again creating more time for patient engagement. Clinicians also gained access to patient demographic, medication, and medical supply history and status, as well as patient-specific ordering data to help reduce supply waste and increase staff productivity.
The integration of Medline brought to reality a trifecta: the winning combination for ordering pharmacy, DME and medical supplies within one single app.
Over 10,000 Hospice Clinician Users — and Growing
Today, over 10,000 hospice clinicians are using E3 Mobile as a centralized patient management hub to improve care coordination and patient engagement. Unmatched in the marketplace, the solution’s simple, intuitive design eliminates duplicate entry and inconsistent patient records across systems through EMR integration.
Hospice staff members find this kind of mobile technology easy to use, efficient and reliable, with improved compliance across-the-board as nurses can readily access all patient information and perform important tasks, such as ordering medication, equipment and supplies from one point of entry.
Bottom line: think of E3 Mobile as a dynamic step forward in technology for hospice staff looking to optimize their workflow, improve communication, and increase the amount of time they can dedicate to patient care.
Enclara has many tools and processes in place to support your hospice’s technology needs. Contact us if you have questions.
