Creating a culture of accountability in patient access

Texas Health Resources (THR), a 14-hospital system in north central Texas, has taken steps over a number of years to standardise best practices and improve outcomes across its Patient Access organisation. To support this effort, revenue cycle leaders implemented a process to capture patient encounters for monitoring against the system's strategic objectives for patient experience, financial performance, quality and compliance. Each encounter is captured and tied to the patient account for a digital audit trail of information exchanged across the continuum. A central point of access facilitates secure sharing of data, reducing rework and back-and-forth between entities in search of patient information. In this article, system directors of Patient Access will share how THR is documenting the revenue cycle experience from the initial scheduling call to the in-person visit at admission. Readers will consider a process to combine voice data with fax and electronic records for a comprehensive view of the patient's path from pre-service to registration and beyond. The article will share strategies for establishing accountability by monitoring and scoring patient encounters against key measures, tracking individual and team performance across the revenue cycle. Readers will take away tools and metrics needed to support the process, as well as evaluate outcomes achieved in patient experience, compliance and financial performance.