Whenever healthcare system management considers buying a software solution, it first wonders whether its existing electronic health record (EHR) or electronic medical record (EMR) provides the same functionality or not.
In most situations, healthcare providers working within the provider system prefer a standalone EHR system as long as it is in the same network.
However, after a healthcare system adds complex layers of external provider resources and networks and becomes a part of a Clinically Integrated Network, it requires more advanced functionalities.
EHR systems are mostly designed with the fee-for-service model in mind and they fall short when it comes to addressing the challenges of value-based care.
Although companies can use traditional referral management to deal with external referrals, these measures still fail to address medical requisition forms efficiently.
This is where a medical imaging requisition management solution can help healthcare systems. In this article, we will explain why you need medical requisition management despite having an EHR system.
What Is Requisition Management?
Requisition Management is a process of creating, processing, approving, and tracking purchase requests within a system.
Although the method is known for the procurement of equipment and streamlining supply chains, it has a broad application in handling medical requisition forms.
Medical requisition forms, also known as referral forms, are used by doctors and local physicians to communicate the type of examination a patient needs for a medical assessment.
These forms describe where a patient needs diagnostic imaging and helps technologists carry out tests accurately.
These forms also contain important patient history, as well as relevant information that dictates how your exam will be taken. This information may seem trivial to most people.
However, for patients who have pregnancies, diabetes, or any other medical condition, this information is critical for performing procedures accurately.
Moreover, requisition forms can also contain provisional diagnoses or information on physical findings, which is something that helps radiologists interpret exam results.
In some cases, these forms even contain insurance information. Regardless, requisition forms contain valuable information needed for accurate and timely diagnosis.
Most hospitals receive hundreds of thousands of imaging requisitions issued by community-based physicians. However, paper-based healthcare workflow, they are a significant obstacle to efficiency.
At the same time, without an effective system to manage these forms, there is always the added risk of losing and misplacing these referrals forms.
Effective requisition management can streamline requisition workflows by eliminating paper and fax from your medical imaging requisitions department.
Considering these systems support all modalities, from receipt to scheduling, as well as protocoling, they can provide an efficient workflow for handling requisitions forms effectively.
Learn how St. Mary’s General Hospital saved staff time and brought efficiency to report distribution
Why Is Traditional Requisition Management Insufficient?
Handling requisition forms manually create various problems for the healthcare system. It lacks the seamless workflow of an automated system and forces both patients to always carry their paperwork with them. The manual handling of referral forms increases the risk of losing them.
Moreover, manual systems are not ready to handle a large number of requisition forms. Even when providers try to improve their output, they need to hire additional staff to process the additional requisition forms. Without an efficient system to process these forms, the likelihood of errors increases.
| Traditional Requisition Management | Automated Requisition Management |
| Prone to errors | Highly accurate |
| Lacks efficient interoperability | Cloud-based |
| Time Consuming | Fast |
| Potential of Frauds and Risks; No Transparency | Transparent |
| inconsistency | Consistent |
| Tedious | Easy to implement |
| Needs more staff | Requires less staff |
| Costs quickly add-up | Cost-efficient |
| Delays | Accelerated approval of requests |
6 Key Features of Automated Requisition Management
An automated requisition management solution allows providers to integrate all requisition forms into a single, comprehensive cloud database.
The provider can then use this cloud database to transfer send information elsewhere or sync it with the patient’s Electronic Health Record. Below are some of the key features of an automated requisition management solution.
eRequisition Management
Automated requisition management streamlines the entire requisition workflow by eliminating paper and fax from medical imaging requisitions. The end-to-end management of requisition works for all modalities from receipt generation to scheduling.
Integration
Automated Medical Requisition Management solutions can easily integrate not only with a patient’s electronic health record (EHR) but also radiology information system, expanding the health system’s Clinically Integrated Network.
Real-Time Requisition Reporting
Another problem with traditional requisition forms is that referring physicians are unaware of the status of their requisitions.
An automated medical imaging requisition Management solution keeps track of each requisition form and notifies physicians about the form’s status as it moves through the system. This helps providers save time and resources wasted in requesting follow-ups.
Customizable for any Type of Workflow
One of the best things about a Requisition Management solution is that we can configure it for any specific administrative and clinical workflow.
A customized workflow addresses the pain points of every provider and helps them further optimize internal processes. Providers can customize how the information is collected, select multiple routing options, and create specific workflows for each requisition type.
Electronic Consultation with Radiologists
An automated requisition management solution enables referring clerical staff, physicians, and technicians to consult with radiologists more effectively while staying within the system.
With the help of secure alerts, providers can send follow-ups to individual people based on their roles.
Complete and Appropriate Referrals
Requisitions requests received manually are often incomplete, something that results in either unnecessary or delayed patient imaging.
automated requisition management solution eliminates these problems and resends feedback to referring providers using secure messaging between multiple providers. This easy and secure line of communication allows providers to ensure a complete referral loop and conduct comprehensive follow-ups for every referral.
An automated requisition management solution takes away the burden of paper-based medical imaging requisitions and completely streamlines the medical imaging requisition workflows.
The ability to electronically manage requisitions throughout all transitions of care helps providers accelerate referral forms and streamline end-to-end requisition management.
At the same time, the cloud-based solution ensures security, scalability, and ease of implementation for processing requisition requests.
In the end, it provides you with a hassle-free, automated system that creates an efficient workflow, giving you a solution that provides good value for its money.
