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There's an app for patients to get information
Nevada Daily Mail
Nevada Regional Medical Center's Patient Portal app was a highlight of the hospital board meeting this past Tuesday evening. Information technology manager Marci Hardin gave the board a summary of the Patient Portal's capabilities during the board education portion of the meeting.
According to Hardin, the Patient Portal features a wide range of capabilities for patients of NRMC. Patients who use the Patient Portal can schedule follow-up appointments, send a message to their doctor, view test and imaging results, review past procedures, and discharge instructions. The program also includes links to Healthy Nevada, other service providers, and the NRMC website.
Hardin explained that some test results would not be available through the Patient Portal. It would obviously not be a good idea for a patient to learn they had cancer through a text message.
Patients can also download health records to share with other providers such as a specialist or another doctor while away from home. Health bills can also be paid online through the portal.
The Patient Portal is available over the Internet as well as iOS and Android. The NRMC Information Technology department and patient registration are actively promoting the use of the Patient Portal to all patients coming through the hospital for service. Patients who have not signed up but want to can contact NRMC IT or registration to sign up. All communications sent through the patient portal are secure and compliant with HIPAA for patient privacy.
Hardin said the process is simple. A patient provides an email address to NRMC, then receives an email with a link to the website to sign up. The mobile app is called HealtheLife and can be downloaded from both Google Play and the Apple Apps Store. Patients must have signed up through the website before accessing the mobile app.
NRMC is actively working with Healthy Nevada, which has its own software and user portal to integrate the two programs. Currently, Healthy Nevada's portal is located at primaryhealthnetwork.com.
FitBit users will be pleased to note that their device is compatible with the Healthy Nevada program.
So far, more than 1,500 patients use the NRMC Patient Portal.
In other business, long term care director Steve Branstetter said the census, or patient count, is lower than expected, Barone Center will be getting new windows this spring, and a new nurse will begin work in March.
Hardin explained that NRMC has completed the second stage attestation for meaningful use and the hospital will be receiving approximately $560,000 this spring. This relates to the hospital electronic medical records programs.
NRMC chief executive officer Kevin Leeper said that nuclear medicine would be available again shortly. The former contractor left the business and NRMC bought the equipment from the contractor. The gap in availability was due to NRMC having to get it's own licensing into place.
Chief Financial Officer Mike Harbor said, "Nuclear medicine is an X-ray from the inside out. The patient is injected with a radioactive isotope. The patient will lie on a table and the camera takes pictures of the isotope activity to display pictures of the body part being evaluated. The isotopes have specific tags to target specific organs or specific body parts."
Clint Leemasters of Cerner answered questions from the board in regards to the hospitals software package. NRMC is part of a group of hospitals, which use Cerner's software, and while the "look and feel" may be be slightly different from hospital to hospital, Leemasters said the functionality and core of the program is the same. Leemasters said "Global changes" are based off of doctor and nurse workflow and the recommendations from the American Medical Association.
Board member Larry Bledsoe wanted to ensure that NRMC's people were getting the technical support they needed. Leemasters explained that most service requests are resolved in less than a week, many within 24 hours and that depending on how Cerner categorized the request determined priority and response time.
Board member Brad Copeland was concerned that Cerner's other commitments were taking resources away from fixing any problems encountered with the software suite. Leemasters said "my ability to buy Cheerios is to make you happy" and that NRMC should be seeing fewer problems with the software in the future.
In clarifying some of the statistics from the finance committee meeting, CFO Mike Harbor said after the board meeting that patient volume is down in all areas: in patient, out patient, and clinic visits. Year to date admissions was down 19.5 percent on all inpatient services compared to fiscal year 2015. Total patient days are down 12 percent. Medical/surgery days are down by 43.8 percent.
Compared to FY 2015, NRMC has brought in $1,658,498 less in gross patient revenue due to decreased patient volumes. While revenue is down, expenses have also been lowered saving the hospital $630,032. And while January was a bad month for the hospital fiscally, improved operations mean the bottom line is $58,866 better than last year at this point, not counting approximately $2 million in revenue expected this spring.
The hospital has petitioned the state of Missouri for disproportionate share funds totaling $1.5 million due to the high number of Medicaid patients, and patients who fail to pay their bills. Board member Delton Fast said that the collection rate was only about 30 percent for all services done by the emergency department. Harbor said this was typical as many patients who cannot afford a PCP, or primary care physician, come to the ED for service.