Technology Reshapes ASC Preoperative Process

NORWELL, Mass. — Medical Web Technologies (MWT), a leading provider of innovative, Web-based medical information solutions reveals testimonial confirmation that its solutions ease the pain of preoperative data collection and management for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). According to Gina Espenschied, the administrator at The Surgery Center at Brinton Lake in Glen Mills, Pa., within just six weeks following the implementation of SourcePlus Passport, Brinton Lake has significantly streamlined its preoperative data collection and management process, which has reduced day-of surgery cancellations by more than 70 percent. The Surgery Center has also benefited financially as it is no longer necessary to have a full-time person solely tasked with creating and manually transforming pre-assessment data onto OR forms for each patient.

Part of the Crozer-Keystone Health System, The Surgery Center at Brinton Lake struggled with an issue that is common to ASCs everywhere: how to run an effective preoperative screening program when patients aren’t seen at the ASC until the day of surgery.

During a meeting with MWT partner SourceMedical, Espenschied was introduced to SourcePlus Passport. Developed by MWT, SourcePlus Passport enables patients to complete their own registration and preoperative medical history online from the privacy of their own home, needing only a computer with internet access. “Upon initial review of SourcePlus Passport I knew immediately the possibilities were endless for our offices, the hospital, the staff and our patients,” said Espenschied. “In addition to securely gathering medical history from patients online, there are many other impressive features that have enabled us to greatly streamline our internal processes.”

More than Just Online Medical History
The Patient Assessment Checklist allows staff at the Surgery Center to immediately determine which tasks are completed and which are outstanding for each patient with just the click of a mouse. Furthermore, the online documentation provides facility-wide access to the same information and provides an audit trail to determine which staff member has completed each task and when.

“The advantages of SourcePlus Passport range from basic task simplification to life-saving data intelligence,” said Stephen Punzak, MD, CEO of MWT. “SourcePlus substantially reduces the amount of time staff and nurses spend on routine data entry, allowing medical staff to devote more time to their top priority – patient care. And patients appreciate the ease of being able to complete required preoperative screening at the time and place that is most convenient for them. In addition, once patients create a SourcePlus Passport, they enjoy being able to use it to maintain their own online personal health records.”

Source: Medical Web Technologies