Category Archives: General

General

Save time with Med Wait Time

ER Wait Times

The holy grail of efficiency in doctors offices, emergency rooms and urgent cares is reducing wait times for patients. Lower time improves patient satisfaction the overall patient experience immensely.
Today you can order a book on Amazon and know how long before you get it, you can can check if your flight is delayed online and get alerts on your phone. But same was not true about health care until now. Yes, now you can get wait time at your nearest ER or urgent care or even information on your doctors office appointments.

There’s an app for that!

Med wait time splash

Earlier on this blog we had talked about how the ipad and mobile devices can actually revolutionize health care. We call it health 3.0.

Med wait time started by Vishal Mehta an orthopedic and sports medicine physician has turned our health 3.0 vision into reality. In May last year he teamed up with a couple of partners to launch the application online and even created an iphone app for that. Vishal spoke to us and said his team is now working on a Android app and now has the ability to send wait times and appointment information as text messages to phones where people do not have a smart phone device or prefer receiving text messages.

Patients can also make appointments through the site. And it’s absolutely free for patients. Doctors offices and ER, Urgent Care can sign up for a small fee and offer all the cool features to their patients. Vishal shared that about 300 clients had already signed up with Med wait time in the chicago area.

For any of our technically inclined readers,if providers currently have an EMR system med wait time plugs into the system and automatically updates information. The manual option is also available for offices where no automated systems are currently available.

We at Healthcare Management Blog will be keenly watching Med Wait Time and bring you updates on any future enhancements or growth. So stay tuned. In the meanwhile do check their app in the app store, if you are in the chicago area or just would like to try it out.

Clinical Quality, EHR, General

Cleveland Clinic’s Low Cost Health Care Model

With the health care debate looming on the horizon on Capitol Hill, there are some compelling arguments on what should and should not be included in the health care bill. One thing that everyone agrees on however is the cost of care. The current rate of increase in cost of care in America is unsustainable. And, a low cost health care model is the need of the hour.

Some of the key features of their model are that they are highly integrated according to their CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove. The doctors and hospitals are all part of one organization. Here are some highlights of their model.

1. The Clinic’s doctors are all on salary

2. There is no concept of fee for service -whether a cardiac surgeon performs one surgery or ten they get paid the same.

3. EMR (Electronic medical records) have been available since May 2008

4. An emphasis on preventive care that goes beyond health and wellness bulletins – A heart healthy cafeteria and a fully functional gym.

Now, we should also point out that they are yet to realize a return on investment on the electronic medical records. Also it is now well known that they were also the test site for Google’s health records application roll-out.

While it is clear that the Cleveland Clinic is always ahead on the technology curve it is their unique approach to practice of medicine that has helped them become a leader in low cost health care.