BASE Aims to Boost Practice Efficiency- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
BASE Aims to Boost Practice Efficiency- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
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June 8, 2001
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In This Issue:
A Snapshot of Partners Progress
Press Ganey Results Are In
BASE Aims to Boost Practice Efficiency
BWH 2001 Service Awards
BWH Welcomes State Representatives
Pike Notes
Who’s News
In a move to tailor the administrative process throughout the hospital’s ambulatory settings to meet the needs of patients and families, the BWH Ambulatory Business Office has developed and will soon launch a comprehensive training program called BASE—Brigham Ambulatory Support Essentials. BASE is designed to train practice secretaries, managed care coordinators, registrars and other appropriate support staff members on consistent and more efficient practice standards. “BASE is a worthwhile effort as it provides better support to our front-end administrative staff so they can better serve our patients,” said Maureen McIntyre, project manager in the Ambulatory Business Office, which joined forces with the Registration, Information Systems, Patient/Family Relations and Human Resources/Training Departments at BWH to develop BASE. The program includes classroom-style courses on information systems, customer service/telephone skills, registration of patients and eligibility checking, managed care and basic administrative processes. For new employees, an on the job training component is added. According to McIntyre, expected outcomes include:
improved staff satisfaction and decreased turnover;
improved customer service (internal and external);
increased front-end accuracy resulting in improved reimbursement; and
practice standards and uniformity of processes.
According to Kevin Coughlin, director, Ambulatory Business Office, “An added benefit to implementing BASE is its potential in helping BWH realize increased reimbursement.” Currently, over $20 million in gross patient service revenue is denied by insurance carriers or is non-billable due to administrative errors. “BASE will provide staff with the tools that will aid in decreasing such errors,” added Coughlin. The BASE pilot program took place on May 31 and June 1. The pilot program will be followed by daylong training sessions for existing staff throughout the summer and the weeklong BASE training for new employees starting in October. BASE was designed by the Ambulatory Business Office in consultation with managers of 40 ambulatory practices at BWH, multiple focus groups of ambulatory administrative staff members and on-site observation in 17 practices within BWH.