Happy New Year to all my Tuesdays with Theresa (TWT) friends! After the December TWT meeting and looking back over 2020 it was interesting to see all the topics we covered and yet there is still so much more to talk about. In February of 2020 we focused on Physician Office Link with Multi Document Viewer. Physician Office Link (POL) functionality has been part of the OR Manager system since nearly the beginning. In the last five years, hospitals have started to give physician offices access to their Hospital Information System (HIS) and adding access to OR Manager was a simple process.
One push back that I hear often from schedulers when discussing POL is fear. Fear that the surgeon offices can make mistakes, see other bookings, change the schedule, book cases at any time, change the procedure duration, select the wrong procedure, etc. The fear is what usually keeps schedulers from implementing the functionality. I always tell those folks that they still wear the crown and are still the king/queen of the schedule, they just have less work.
The surgeon’s office will fill in the information needed to book a case. Information that is frequently missed can be set up as mandatory fields and won’t be missed anymore! The offices have LOTS of rules that are set up in Security Manager to ensure they don’t make a mistake and follow all the scheduling rules. The benefits range from ALL information needed is collected without any phone tag to better block utilization.
A new feature that adds to the benefits of using POL is Multi Document Viewer. Attaching all the documents to the booking electronically has been proven to be more efficient than faxing and/or utilizing a courier. Documents are never lost and are available to anyone in the perioperative space who needs access.
Having POL and Multi Document Viewer is the perfect pair for efficient OR Scheduling. The benefits definitely outweigh the risks.
About the Author
Theresa Sullivan, Director, Sales Support
Theresa has worked for Picis for 15 years and is currently the Director of Sales Support. With Picis, Theresa has implemented the Picis solutions across a variety of commercial and VA facilities, functioned as a Clinical Consultant in Sales, managed the Picis Reference Program and supported customers as a Senior Strategic Consultant in professional services. Before coming to Picis, Theresa was the Clinical System Administrator at a large medical center in Houston, Texas.
