Pathways Healthcare Scheduling Key Benefits Compilation

Pathways Healthcare Scheduling Key Benefits Compilation McKesson s Pathways Healthcare Scheduling system allows healthcare provider enterprises to efficiently and effectively manage patient access and healthcare resources while providing a positive experience for their patients, staff and physicians. This document presents the key features and benefits of the past several releases of Pathways Healthcare Scheduling. Customers who have skipped one or more releases are often not well-acquainted with the benefits of the software they already own. Customers can quickly review highlights of versions 16.0, released in the summer of 2011, through past versions to 9.0. Pathways Healthcare Scheduling 16.0 Procedure-level Security: Pathways Healthcare Scheduling 16.0 provides tools that allow users scheduling rights to be fine-tuned. Previously, in order for a scheduler to have the ability to schedule an appointment onto a unit s calendar, the scheduler was required to have the rights to schedule any procedure available on that unit. With Release 16.0, however, it is possible to control how any one scheduler books individual procedures to a unit s appointment book. For example, it is now possible to limit a practitioner s ability to self-schedule only those procedures she is authorized to perform, while simultaneously prohibiting her from selfscheduling other procedures. It is also possible to allow a scheduler in Central Scheduling to book routine procedures, while reserving the booking of more complex procedures or those requiring a clinical resume to a departmental scheduler with specific expertise. The scheduling limits that can be placed on each user, per the scheduling of specific, individual procedures, are: None Conflict-free only Request only Unit-specific Cancel/Reschedule Codes: With Pathways Healthcare Scheduling 16.0, it is possible to assign unit-specific codes to cancellations and rescheduled events. The reasons appointments are cancelled or rescheduled are often of unique interest to the type of specialty or service provided on a given unit. In past releases, however, the proper code had to be found from among all that applied to any unit of the enterprise. This enhancement will make it much easier for schedulers to code cancellations and reschedules more quickly and accurately for the reporting and analysis needs of a particular unit. Security for Appointments Linked to Surgical Cases: When an appointment warrants special considerations, due to impact on a case in Horizon Surgical Manager (HSM), the scheduler now receives a warning during cancellation or rescheduling. New security settings are also available to control whether or not the scheduler can proceed with their intended action in PHS. Page 1

Many customers of PHS also have HSM, and use PHS to schedule appointments for surgical cases. Prior to this release, the scheduler working in PHS did not always have clear visibility into the impact of cancelling or rescheduling these appointments on the case-schedule and related functionality of HSM. With this release, the scheduling and case management processes of a surgical unit can be managed together much more efficiently. Inpatient-specific Patient Search: Schedulers responsible for scheduling inpatient procedures will now have a much more streamlined workflow in Release 16.0. Most hospital-based ancillary departments provide services to both inpatients and outpatients. Many PHS customers, however, do not schedule inpatients. The need to collect pre-registration data for each appointment being scheduled is often the primary reason behind a facility s decision not to schedule inpatients. While such data collection is appropriate for outpatients, this process is time-consuming and unnecessary when scheduling inpatients. New settings will automatically filter the patient-selection process to show only those with open, active accounts. This will make the collection of registration information unnecessary, and allow the scheduler to avoid the most time-consuming steps of scheduling an appointment. Scheduling Request (Inbox) Prioritization: The PHS Inbox can be now be sorted according to appointment priority (STAT, Urgent, Routine, etc.). In the past, appointments in the unit Inbox were sortable solely by the date and time at which the appointment was first placed. Not all procedures and appointment requests are created equal, however, and those requiring more immediate attention were difficult to find. When placing an appointment in the Inbox in Pathways Healthcare Scheduling 16.0, the appropriate priority level can now be indicated. Schedulers can easily find and schedule the appointment according to the urgency indicated, ensuring more timely responses to scheduling requests. Escalation of Aging Scheduling Requests (Inbox): Customers can now configure PHS to provide a visual cue to a scheduler that an appointment has lingered too long in the Inbox. Past releases have provided an indicator of how many appointments were waiting to be scheduled, but required the scheduler to access and view the Inbox in order to manage them appropriately. PHS can now be configured so that a scheduler will see an indication of whether or not an appointment has been in the Inbox longer than a customer-defined period of time, based upon an appointment s priority level. This does not require a scheduler to actually open the Inbox. This will help avoid delays in scheduling appointments, which is particularly critical when an immediate response is necessary. Verification of PECOS Enrollment of Practitioners: Customers can now configure PHS to provide visual cues and warnings to a scheduler that a practitioner for whom an appointment is being scheduled is not enrolled in PECOS. CMS requires this enrollment in order to make a claim for Medicare-covered professional services. This enhancement allows a customer to identify conditions under which such claims might be denied which will, in turn, allow them to be proactive in addressing that risk. Page 2

Pathways Healthcare Scheduling 15.0 Financial Clearance During Scheduling (via RevRunner): Pathways Healthcare Scheduling 15.0 increases provider ability to identify and mitigate financial risks, by knowing at the time of scheduling not only patients insurance coverage status, but also their personal financial obligation for treatment, their credit rating related to healthcare expenses, etc. Managing Imaged Documents (Orders, Consent Forms, etc.): Digital images of such items as physician orders, signed consent forms or ABN, insurance card and driver s license can be viewed within PHS and linked to the visit for subsequent appointments, as well as forwarded to Horizon Patient Folder or another image-linking application. Incorporating ICD-10 Codes in Interface Functions: Pathways Healthcare Scheduling 15.0 allows for the capture and communication of ICD-10 codes to external systems required to use them, such as ADT systems (STAR, Series, and HealthQuest), Pathways Compliance Advisor, and others. Masking Options for Social Security Numbers (SSN): New configuration options allow system administrators to control when and to whom PHS displays a patient s Social Security Number. Managing Delays in Treatment: The 15.0 release provides a number of enhancements designed to improve the process of managing delays in treatment, including the ability to capture more detailed waitlist information within PHS and to more easily communicate such information to external data repositories for reporting and analysis. Integration of Security with External LDAP Authentication: With the 15.0 release, Pathways Healthcare Scheduling (PHS) can recognize and allow access to a user who has already been authenticated to a provider s LDAP-server, enabling more efficient management of which users are able to access PHS. Pathways Healthcare Scheduling 14.0 Eligibility-checking (Real-time Insurance Verification): Pathways Healthcare Scheduling 14.0 enables customers to know at the time of scheduling whether or not a patient actually has insurance coverage. Scheduling Requests without EMPI Exposure: The improved Browser Scheduling module allows customers to configure the remote user s security rights to deny access to the provider s EMPI, thus allowing providers to extend scheduling functionality to remote offices with fewer risks to their internal records. Enhanced Visit Management, Recurring Appointments: In version 14.0, Pathways Healthcare Scheduling can be configured to automatically replicate visit records so that each of the recurring appointments has its own visit-record without additional intervention by the scheduler. Page 3

Enhanced Integration with Pathways Compliance Advisor : This integration offers benefits to customers who wish to reduce claim denials resulting from a payer who may deem a procedure to be medically unnecessary. A customer will now have the ability to check a procedure against rules for multiple plans of a single payer. Enhanced Management of Clinical Orders: In version 14.0, Pathways Healthcare Scheduling provides customers with new tools to record and communicate the location and status of the clinical order. Updated Browser Scheduling Module: The Browser Scheduling module continues to be streamlined to reduce scrolling and mouse-clicks and to align the application with other McKesson browser-based applications, such as Horizon Surgical Manager. Early Preparation for Conversion to ICD-10 Code-set: The most recent Medicare/Medicaid communication indicates that facilities are to replace the current ICD-9/CPT4 codes and adopt the new ICD-10 codes by October, 2013. Pathways Healthcare Scheduling will be ready to support the new codes by this date. Pathways Healthcare Scheduling Release 12.0.1 View Patient vs. Room Scheduled Time: Users can select either Patient scheduled time (allowing adding appointment to grid without allowing for room offset) or Room or Resource scheduled time (as in previous versions). ICD-9 Alpha Search: Alphabetic search added to search for ICD-9 admitting diagnosis. Pathways Healthcare Scheduling Release 12.0 Improved Visit Management: Pathways Healthcare Scheduling 12.0 helps patients avoid claim denials from unauthorized visits by automatically tracking the ratio of patients completed visits to pre-authorized visits. If an authorized appointment is cancelled, the system credits the visit back to the patient s total. Enhanced Communication with Physician Offices: Users requesting an appointment can now benefit from two-way communication with the scheduler, eliminating the back-and-forth of multiple phone calls. Improved Security Rights and Requirements for Browser Scheduling Users: The ability to define security requirements for Windows client users and Browser Scheduling users extends to additional fields. Administrators can control the circumstances in which users can create new visit/account records, attach an existing visit-record to an appointment, or change the default duration time of an appointment. Improved Control of Block Usage: Remote users at physician offices can now schedule appointments only within the limits of authorized blocks. By setting Page 4

parameters which limit the remote users ability to book appointments, providers no longer have to fear opening scheduling rights to remote users. By allowing offices to directly book their own appointments, Pathways Healthcare Scheduling eliminates the need for provider intervention and reduces the scheduler's workload. Reduce Scheduling Inaccuracies: Customer-driven enhancements to the Browser Scheduling module provide a more intuitive user experience, enhancing productivity and promoting scheduling accuracy. Enhanced Ease-of-Use for Browser Scheduling Module: Improvements in data-defaulting logic, validation against required fields, control over access to appointment and schedule information by remote users, and reduced scrolling provide a more intuitive user experience and promote scheduling accuracy. Pathways Healthcare Scheduling Release 11.1 Additional CPT4 Codes for Compliance Checking: Pathways Healthcare Scheduling 11.1 increases the number of CPT4 codes that can be attached to a single procedure for medical necessity checking. Global Updates Enhancement: The global update enhancement allows data common across the enterprise such as procedure type, service type, duration and CPT4 codes to be updated at the procedure level to filter down to all units that provide this service. Data from the resource unit level such as requirements, patient details and preps can also filter down to the individual practitioner if desired. Restructured Authentication Service User Names: The 'Name' field on the User screen has been split into First Name and Last Name, to make it easier to sort users in the Authentication service. Admit Reason Column Added: Admit Reason was added to the screens displaying Visit lists for the patient, to make it easier for schedulers to select the appropriate visit. Additional Script to Split User Names: A script is used to populate the First and Last name fields with the appropriate values. This is a technical task that is performed as part of the upgrade. Pathways Healthcare Scheduling Release 11.0 Schedule by Procedure Abbr/CPT4 Code: The Procedure Abbr field on the Patient Scheduling screen now allows a search by either Abbr or CPT4 code. CPT codes will appear in the view-only field next to the procedure name. Physician and ICD-9 Fields Default in Scheduling Sets: When 'New Appt' is used during scheduling, entries made in Ordering, Referring, Attending, or Appt ICD9 fields will copy to subsequent procedures. Page 5

Viewing Booked Resources (Scheduling Package): A new option was added to the Scheduling Package right-click menu, for easy viewing of resources and offsets. Viewing Booked Resources (Resource level): A new option was added to the Resource (column header) right-click menu, for easy viewing of resources and offsets. A list of all appointments scheduled to that resource will be displayed. ICD9 Codes: Added the ability to modify the ICD9 codes attached to the appointment. Viewing Booked Resources: A new option was added to the RF Rightclick/View menu, for easy viewing of resources and offsets. Block Assignment: Users can now assign block from any blocks build that are available for the current date/resource unit. Associated Login ID (Horizon Surgical Manager): This release adds a field that links a user to the matching Staff person, in order to facilitate Staff defaults in the Horizon Surgical Manager Perioperative Chart. External Staff (Horizon Surgical Manager): This release includes an additional table to store Staff entries from another system, if such information is needed to integrate with another system. Addition of Patient Types-ADT Tab: A new tab was added to associate each patient type with the appropriate ADT system. Update ICD9 from Rt Click: This update provides users with access to edit ICD9 codes from the right-click menu. Update ICD9 from Appt Search: This update provides users with access to edit ICD9 codes from the Appointment Search function. Pathways Healthcare Scheduling Release 10.0 Allergy Entry: This release introduced First DataBank format for gathering Allergy information, to facilitate interfacing/integrating Allergy information among multiple systems. Cancel Button Added to Visit Window: In previous versions, when a user 'Saved' an appointment, and the 'Choose a Visit for Patient' screen appeared, there was no Cancel button, so the user could not return to the Patient Scheduling screen. Block Comments in Edit Block: This release adds a field to record additional block information (for instance, who requested the block, who created the block, and additional notes regarding the reason). Page 6

Additional Search Fields: Ordering, Referring, Attending Physician were added as search fields. New Search Functionality: This release provides the ability to search for appointments based on Ordering, Referring, or Attending Physician from within the 'Find' appointment function. Appointments with Closed Visits Checkbox: This release allows users to proactively search for future appointments that are attached to Closed visits, so that those appointments can be corrected prior to date of service. Audit Log Access: Release 10.0 provides improved access to the Audit Log, which is now available from within the Appointment Search results page. Audit History: This new report shows audit history on appointments. Patient View Audit: An additional option to the Purge/Archive utility is the patient view audit. Accept Scheduling Messages: A new checkbox on the Resource Unit configuration tab allows for incoming messages from another system, such as a radiology order system. Pre-loaded Allergy Tables: These tables will be pre-loaded with the FDB values. These tables should not be altered if interfacing with other systems is desired. Disable Visits Before/After Scheduling: This new functionality allows control over whether members of a User Group can add/edit visits, both during scheduling and via the right-click menu after scheduling. Disable Find Patient: This new functionality allows control over whether members of a User Group can use the Find Patient function. Disable New/Edit Allergies: This new functionality limits a user group from adding/editing allergies for a patient. Reports Tab on Application Access Group: This new tab allows creation of User Group-specific lists of reports, so that users can only see and run the reports to which they need access. Practitioner Tab on Application Access Group: This new tab is for Pathways Healthcare Scheduling s Browser Enabled Module. The practitioner tab limits which practitioners a user group can access in the BEM. Medical Necessity Check When Rescheduling: This functionality provides the ability to perform additional medical necessity checks when rescheduling an appointment. Allergy data via First DataBank (FDB): Allergies recorded in Pathways Healthcare Scheduling will flow to Horizon Surgical Manager, and vice versa. Page 7

FDB integration is an optional function. If FDB is not enabled, users will enter allergies in a free-text field. Fields removed: Fields not available in Pathways Healthcare Scheduling were removed from the Passport Patient Search page. Pathways Healthcare Scheduling Release 9.0 Alternate Address: Pathways Healthcare Scheduling 9.0 allows entry of an alternate address for the patient, which can then be used for contacting patients. Current Medications Renamed 'Notes': This field is typically used for general visit-related notes, so it was renamed. HIS Code: An HIS Code field was added to capture 'Service' code from the ADT system. Insurance Entry Moved: The Carrier and Plan fields were moved to the bottom of the Edit Visit screen, and the 'Insurance' button was removed. Required COB/Rank: If multiple insurance plans are chosen for a visit, they must be ranked. Required Fields Enforced: Previous versions did not allow for many Insurancerelated fields to be affected by Field Definitions settings. Additional Contact Phone, Effective Date Fields: These fields were added to the Insurance Form for more complete data-gathering. Duration: This release provides the ability to modify the procedure duration without removing the appointment from the grid. Link to Case (HSM): This will show whether the appt is linked to an Active or Cancelled Horizon Surgical Manager case. Case Status (HSM): The last column of the Appt Search Results page will show whether the appointment is linked to an active Horizon Surgical Manager case or not. Enhanced Printer Setup: This release provides the ability to change the printer to which a report will print. Display on Pt Itinerary: A new checkbox on the Resource Unit configuration tab controls whether appointments in a Resource Unit will appear on itineraries generated outside that unit. Schedule Patterns tab: The way Schedule patterns are attached to resources has been altered to allow for multiple patterns to be attached to the same resource. Page 8

Edit Patient and Patient Search fields Moved to User Group level: Field Definitions for fields on the Edit Patient screen and the Patient Search screen are now set at a User Group level, instead of the Procedure level. Page 9