Simplifying Medical Management Solutions for Healthcare Providers

Simplifying Medical Management Solutions for Healthcare Providers

GE Centricity For over 100 years, GE has provided the medical community with break through technologies that advance the practice of medicine. Centricity Practice is 4,500 customers strong, supported by 600 dedicated employees. Our annual R&D budget of over 13M insures clients they will always have the best technologies, backed by one of the most respected companies in the world.

Centricity Practice Solution is a completely integrated clinical and financial management solution that helps you take care of the whole patient, from first visit to final reimbursement and every point in between. The patient centered design provides a portal which acts as the hub for your practices information. Launch points link to all of your critical practice functions including; charts, scheduling, patient information, A/R and collections, EDI Management, and Reports.

Scheduling can be done automatically or manually for provider’s facilities and resources. Advanced rules improve the scheduling workflow, enhancing patient satisfaction.

Patient notations and alerts identify account update requirements such as HIPAA consent forms at the point of patient contact. Insurance cards, registration documents, and other important patient documentation is scanned into the system, eliminating the need to store paper records, while providing quick anytime access to this information.

Centricity automatically checks for patient preferences and scheduling conflicts, alerting the scheduler to potential problems that would result in an inconvenience for patient or providers. Centricity eliminates the need for manual entry in complex scheduling cases through predefined appointment templates. Rather than setting up each appointment individually the scheduler can create an entire series of appointments and let the system manage the workflow to ensure the patient is scheduled correctly.

Information through out Centricity is gathered and presented in a user-friendly format allowing staff to quickly make decisions about patient visits, financial inquiries, and physician schedules.

When a member of the clinical staff first opens the application, they are presented with an overview of outstanding items. On the left is their schedule for the day, on the right, messages and patient chart updates.

When evaluating a patient’s chart, the physician is presented with a customized chart summary view. This snapshot view provides a photograph of the patient, a customized flowsheet, lists of chart documents, as well as problems, meds and allergies. From here the physician can again “drill down” into additional detail information.

As we take a deeper look into the chart, starting with problems, you will notice that each problem is associated with it’s appropriate ICD-9 code. Physicians can select problems either by description or code. When a problem has been selected, you can also view all associated documents or view more details and prior assessments.

Medications are organized in a similar fashion. Inactive problems and medications are never erased from the database, they are instead “behind the scenes” but viewable at any time. Details regarding refills, dates, and prescribing physician are easily found on the right.

Physicians like to organize charts in different ways. Centricity Practice Solution provides that flexibility on a user by user basis, meaning a physician can set their preference once which then applies to each individual chart he or she views.

This brings up a discussion on how we actually get information into the chart. The keys here are flexibility, automation, and discrete data. When data is brought into the chart, it needs to be in a format that agrees with the rest of the database. While electronic text is better then nothing, it does not allow you to track and report data. Centricity has always utilized a consistent clinical vocabulary across all customers. This allows customers to truly compare outcomes “apples to apples” and provides consistency amongst all users. As more and more physicians opt into pay-forperformance programs, being able to report quality outcomes data is critical. GE is a pioneer in the field of P4P, being one of the founders of Bridges to Excellence and the Leapfrog group, which are employers based programs rewarding physicians for quality care. Centricity Practice Solution is one of the only solutions available today that is certified by CCHIT and NCQA. Customers can instantly identify if they have a passing NCQA score, and easily submit for certification. This validates GE’s leadership in the arena of Quality Outcomes, and allows our customers to take full advantage of opportunities available in their markets

We can now begin the process of documenting the visit. This workflow can be set up differently for different providers. Centricity’s implementation team utilizes six-sigma methodologies and best practices, leveraging the success of the thousands of current users to assist in building efficiencies while implementing Centricity.

Connectivity with other devices and IT systems is a critical component of an efficient workflow process. GE has an advantage in this area considering we are not only a software vendor, but have a long history in smart devices. Many devices, GE or otherwise, connect directly with Centricity Practice Solution, eliminating the need for double entry and helping to prevent data errors.

The systems accommodates point and click, voice recognition, voice navigation, macros, and the obvious one, typing. We know physicians need flexibility in this area, Centricity provides many options to adapt to individual styles.

Centricity Practice Solution also contains an extensive clinical decision support engine, which delivers nationally recognized guidelines for the right patient, at the right time, without disrupting clinic workflow.

Utilizing this evidenced based content, physicians are alerted to therapeutic recommendations based upon this patient’s current chart information.

When documenting a patient’s problem physicians are presented with a form very similar to a paper routing slip. This of course can be customized to each provider’s preference.

The assessment and plan auto-populates based upon information already documented in the visit.

Patient instructions are then created through an easy to navigate screen.

In this case, the physician counseled with the patient about losing weight in conjunction with starting an exercise regimen, increasing fluid intake, and utilizing a low sodium diet. The physician would like the patient to return in one month.

The physician can then print this information so the patient has a complete summary of the visit as well as a listing of specific instructions.

To finish the documentation, the physician chooses the appropriate visit code. This information is now in the billing queue, submitted for payment processing through Centricity EDI Services. Centricity will check your E&M coding with our E&M advisor Screen.

Centricity EDI Services is a web-based Electronic Data Interchange service offering integrated comprehensive all payer claims management. EDI Services offers proactive support, which ensures same day delivery of claims, and proactive monitoring, which identifies irregularities in claim payment levels. By establishing a single connection through EDI Services, customers are linked electronically to thousands of payers for the processing of claims and remittances, eliminating the need to connect to individual payers. This one stop connectivity approach consolidates claim functions such as electronic claims submission, electronic remittance processing, paper claims, mailing services and outsourcing of patient statements.

The EDI Services dashboard provides a snapshot of all claim based activity while reports provide valuable information to help identify ways for reducing rejections and improving cash flow.

While the office staff is ensuring timely and accurate payment for the visit, the physician can follow up with custom letters which can be auto-faxed, or sent by secure email communication. Additional documents in the chart can also be selected and sent to other care providers or patients.

Reporting on your patient population is as simple as running an instant query. These inquiries can be created on the fly, or chosen from a saved list. We are instantly presented with a list of patients who fit the criteria.

In addition to these instant queries, Centricity users have the ability to benchmark data, not only inside their clinic walls, but across enterprises and even nationwide. Here we are viewing Centricity’s Quality Outcomes reporting tool which allows for canned and ad-hoc reporting, on a clinic, enterprise, or national level.

With Centricity Patient Portal, patients can access information and communicate with your office at their convenience.

Patients can view physician approved sections of their medical record.

Additionally, patients can fill out health questionnaires before they arrive in the office, saving critical input time. This information is brought into Centricity Practice Solution as discrete data elements.

The portal can also be used to request refills, ask a question, or record on-going health monitoring information.

GE is strategically focused on enabling healthcare professionals around the world to discover new ways to predict, diagnose and treat disease earlier. We call this model of care “Early Health”. Centricity Practice Solution is a powerful component of this model which provides robust financial, clinical, and administrative capabilities that accelerate the revenue cycle while connecting patients to caregivers more quickly, efficiently and reliably.