As integrators in today’s healthcare space, we know the importance of getting things right, and getting things done quickly. One of the most efficient ways to ensure a timely, efficient integration of a new practice? Fine-tuning processes from start to finish– while limiting the risks and potential impact that can come with human error.

People are what make the world go ‘round, but when it comes to data, it pays to support people with a streamlined, integrated system. When you rely solely on staff, contractors, and team members from acquired practices to get the numbers right and provide the records you need, liabilities increase. Here’s three reasons you need integrated, automated data processes across your practices.

The less it’s integrated, the more likely there will be errors

It may sound like a simple problem to solve- need a report on how a practice is performing? Simply ask someone to provide it. But when it comes down to accuracy, even something as innocuous as asking for a report from an employee at a practice you just purchased can be difficult. 

We’ve seen it before- an employee in the billing department of an acquired practice provides the information they know, but misses other valuable reports. You bake their numbers into your reporting, and you never know you’re off– until those numbers don’t add up down the line. That employee could have been jaded knowing their job is on the line– or they genuinely could have not maintained good records. Either way, their inefficiency could cost you.

With an integrated system, you don’t have to worry about missing, hard to translate, or inconsistent data. When you need it, you can access it– and it will always be accurate.

Less integration means less efficiency

When a new practice becomes a part of your platform, the patient experience should be as seamless as it’s ever been. Patients shouldn’t have to resubmit information, appointments shouldn’t need another confirmation, and providers shouldn’t have to miss a beat. When your practices are well-integrated, that’s not an issue- in fact, an integration process like ours here at FiveSix Healthcare updates information by the minute. However, siloed data that comes from previous staff members and old processes, no matter how accurate it may seem, is only as good as you can understand and implement it. When you rely on staff reports and data that may be old, inaccurate or outdated, patients, providers and your bottom line can suffer. 

Too many people in the data can lead to too much risk

It’s ideal to maintain a seamless relationship with an acquired practice’s staff- whether they’ll be absorbed into your model or transitioned into other roles down the line. But when it comes to data, less can actually be more, and relying on too many different people or older processes can make one person’s good intentions a big issue for another. 

Say, for instance, a practice had adopted a new way to categorize new patients before being acquired. You absorb the practice into your platform, and pull their data into your system- except the person you get the data from never fully adopted the new patient categorization model. Maybe it was user error, maybe they missed the training, or maybe they thought it would be easier to stick with the original model. This can make things confusing, to say the least– and it makes figuring out the actual new patient numbers for a newly acquired practice a living nightmare. Even though they may have been well-intentioned, that staff member’s data couldcost a platform practice quite a bit in time, money, and disgruntled patients.

Using staff members and shared resources to aggregate and track valuable information may be affordable, but it’s certainly not the most efficient way to integrate new practices into your platform. Optimizing the human element for patient care and experience, and leveraging smart tech and integration for information flow allows you to absorb an organization into your ecosystem without missing a beat– and lets you provide your new patients and potential new staff members with an incredible experience from day one!