ProPath selects LKConnect

Transcription

1 ProPath selects LKConnect Case Study LKConnect for Dermatology helps a pathology group retain clients and acquire new business by facilitating physician practice workflows. Overview For more than forty years, the pathologists at ProPath have prided themselves on building a patient-centered organization. Their focus is diagnostic and scientific excellence and superior service, and they compete with other diagnostic pathology laboratories to partner with physicians, diagnose diseases, and lead patients toward treatment and recovery. When ProPath looked to expand their business, they found that it was a challenge to grow their base of physician practice clients. They sought solutions that would add value to their quality services. ProPath found that ELLKAY s suite of products would save practices time and resources, enhancing the services they are proud to provide. By using LKConnect for their dermatopathology services, ProPath attracts and retains clients with a body-mapping and imaging tool that makes filling out requisitions easy and consistent, and saves laboratory resources by collecting clean orders with every requisition. Customer Profile Industry Pathology Laboratory Services Challenges The Director of Client Operations for a group of pathologists was challenged to grow business. He needed to find a solution that would attract new physician practice clients and win the loyalty of physician office staff. Results With LKConnect, ProPath s sales reps were able to attract and retain clients by adding more value to their dermatopathology services. ProPath is an accredited, wholly physician-owned pathology group that provides out-patient anatomic and full-service hospital-based services in dermatopathology, renal pathology, hematopathology, gastrointestinal pathology, urologic pathology, immunohistochemistry, cytopathology, surgical pathology, breast pathology, and molecular diagnostics. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, ProPath has been servicing physicians, surgery centers, hospitals, and reference laboratories nationwide since Since ProPath is physician-owned and operated, they are able to differentiate from other laboratories with their patient-centered focus; Key Features Body mapping & imaging with integrated dictionary Logbook with Results Portal Custom Requisitions Integrated LKBridge pulls real-time patient demographic & insurance information directly from the EMR

2 their team of nearly 40 board-certified pathologists is devoted to comprehensive, quality diagnostic services for unsurpassed patient care. ProPath s Challenge When ProPath decided to expand their business, their executives knew that they would not have trouble selling their services to doctors. The doctor is worried about the accuracy of the diagnosis and in that regard, we ve got some of the best, says Scott Rupnow, ProPath Director of Client Operations. He explains that in Pathology, the diagnosis truly depends on the doctor reading the case just like you spend some time picking your OB/GYN or primary care doctor, hopefully those doctors are spending time and putting thought into whom they are going to refer their pathology cases. ProPath becomes an extension of their services. However, every practice is different, and it is not always simply the doctor who chooses the laboratory. In many cases, the office manager or part of the staff makes these decisions, and these are the people who are affected most when an office switches to a new lab. The challenge is when you ask somebody to make a change. Even if it s going to benefit them in the future, nobody wants more work right now, they want less work right now. In one case, a doctor even agreed to switch to ProPath for his laboratory services, and when the doctor left the room, the nurse told the sales rep there was no chance the office would be switching. ProPath needed a solution that would add value to their pathology services something that would make life easier for physicians and their staff. There were plenty of systems to choose from to send orders and results electronically. However, just like not all pathologists are the same, not all laboratory solutions are the same. The ELLKAY Solution When selecting a solution, ProPath s team strives to identify one that is going to work for the client. To offer physicians and their staff a tool that will streamline their workflow and save them time and resources, they partnered with ELLKAY. In my mind, LKConnect is designed to make their life easier. And sometimes that becomes more important than anything else, says an executive. T: (201) F: (201) LabSales@ELLKAY 2

3 Practices often prefer LKConnect s dermatology-focused body-mapping and ordering functionalities to EMRs with built-in ordering modules. EMR ordering modules are usually designed for clincal laboratory orders, which are very different than ProPath s dermatopathology laboratory services. These EMRs lack the functionality needed to enter all the requirements for ProPath s tests and biopsies, and practices must then remember to add extra information or create a work-around when placing orders. ELLKAY S LKConnect is a laboratory ordering solution designed exclusively for anatomic pathology laboratories like ProPath, enabling phyisican office staff to fill out entire requisitions in less than sixty seconds: LKConnect pulls real-time patient demographic and insurance information directly from the practice s EMR or PMS, autofilling requisition fields with the same accurate information that the doctor uses for billing. LKConnect s body imaging and mapping functionality enables users to simply point and click on the biopsy site. An integrated dictionary identifies the site location consistently every time, and that site appears on a requisition customized to look exactly like ProPath s requisitions. Depending on the practice s needs, requistions are then either sent electronically to ProPath s Laboratory Information System or sent to a printer in the office with just a click of a mouse. An integrated, web-based Logbook tracks orders sent to ProPath and supports a Results Portal, making orders and results management easy and efficient. Users can update treatments and follow-ups; print; and view order history, specimen location images, and previous biopsies. T: (201) F: (201) LabSales@ELLKAY 3

4 Business Benefits When LKConnect is implemented in a practice, the practice benefits, and that is when ProPath benefits. LKConnect is a value-add that we can bring into an office that will make life easier for everyone. Whoever can make their life easier usually wins the loyalty of the staff, explains Rupnow. Every practice is different, and LKConnect supports their unique needs. The more flexibility and options ProPath trains sales reps to present, the more opportunities they have to win business. Each piece of functionality, each enhancement that ELLKAY has created through the years may not be the magic bullet for everybody, but it is important to somebody and if we use it to create value to make life easier in the practice then we win. Sometimes practices are won by the valuable time and resources they save with LKConnect s ability to mimic ProPath s requisitions, obtain real-time patient demographic and billing information, and ensure consistency with bodymapping and imaging. However, in some cases LKConnect has attracted clients with its Logbook functionality alone. When selling to dermatologists who have had a specimen lost by a past lab, offering a system to track specimens has become a dealwinner for ProPath. Implementation and Results ProPath s team knows when it comes to LKConnect, it is a relatively easy install. Since ELLKAY can connect to over 450 EMR/PM systems, the installation usually takes less than a week. And I know it s going to work, says a ProPath sales executive. My reps don t have the nightmare situations where things are not working or not working as advertised. It has got to be a solution that s easier, but it has also got to be a solution that works every day. When the PM/EMR provider is uncooperative or unresponsive, ELLKAY is still able to install LKConnect and for ProPath, that s essential. Once a practice has agreed to use their laboratory services, there is a small window of time to implement the solutions offered before that practice loses faith. To have the ability to implement solutions quickly also becomes something really important to us. LKConnect is a very powerful option that we have and that we use if other organizations were to have that option, they would have more success in converting referrals. Scott Rupnow ProPath Director of Client Operations T: (201) F: (201) LabSales@ELLKAY 4

5 Decreases requisitions with missing billing information 5% of handwritten requisitions are missing billing information Virtually 0% of LKConnect requisitions have incomplete billing info, ensuring that ProPath gets paid Limits delayed results from the laboratory When information is incorrect or missing, cases must often be held until the correct information is obtained Limits the time it takes office staff to fill out requisitions Decreases incomplete requisitions Out of the hundreds of different types of requisitions received from different practices, nearly 15% come in incomplete With LKConnect ensuring necessary information is present and legible, ProPath makes fewer calls to practices for correct information, and busy practices spend less time fielding those calls Limits the time data entry personnel spend looking for information On the hundreds of other requisitions that look different than ProPath s, the location of information is rarely consistent Conclusion When ProPath can save a practice time and resources, they re making the physician s and the staff s jobs easier, and that value paired with the quality services they provide is helping ProPath grow. ProPath believes that once they gain a client, theoretically, as long as they do their job correctly every day, they should continue to have that client forever and ever. One of the ways ProPath ensures they have a client forever is to ingrain themselves in the way the practice handles pathology. If I can create a system in an office that makes it easy for everyone and nobody can come in and create an easier system, then they re much less likely to switch. In a way, ELLKAY and ELLKAY solutions virtually eliminate the possibility that somebody s going to come in and offer something easier. About ELLKAY ELLKAY is a nationwide leader in healthcare connectivity, providing innovative, customizable solutions and unparalleled service for over a decade. With connectivity to over 25,000 physician practices across 450+ PM/EMR systems, ELLKAY is known for empowering diagnostic laboratories with solutions that improve their bottom lines. ELLKAY s comprehensive suite of products and services offer all the solutions laboratories need, including providing software to practices for electronic orders and results, connecting to practice EMRs for electronic results delivery, and cross-reference insurance mapping, as well as connectivity to patient demographic and insurance information. T: (201) F: (201) LabSales@ELLKAY 5