01 · The fax pile
Monday began with a stack of paper
Before AbbaDox, Heidi Simpson says, fax sorting was tedious and time consuming, with piles and piles of paper on somebody’s desk. Her estimate is between 25 and 30 hours a week.
Elizabeth Mackert, the front office manager, describes a typical Monday: hundreds of faxes on the machine to sort through, and patients scheduled for that day whose orders you then had to hunt for. Krista Brough, a nuclear medicine and PET technologist, adds that the machine was not very reliable and a lot of hands pulled from it, so doctors’ offices called to ask whether a PET or nuclear scan had been scheduled, and she had never received the paperwork.
- Faxes sorted by hand, 25–30 hours a week by Heidi Simpson’s estimate
- Hundreds of faxes waiting on a typical Monday
- Orders hunted for on the day the patient was scheduled
- Calls from referring offices asking where the paperwork was
02 · The week it went live
“We don’t have any faxes to sort”
In the first week or so there were a few small glitches, and they were fixed. Then Simpson’s staff told her the fax was not working. It was not that fax machine anymore, she told them; it was coming in through AbbaDox. They had nothing to sort because AI was putting the faxes where they needed to go.
Now, Mackert says, you log into the computer and can see right away whether the order is there. For Jessica Ackerman, an administrator assistant, the Monday pile is minutes, not hours, and only a couple of faxes are ever in the queue at a time. Because they land in the patient’s chart, she can click into one between checking in a patient and a phone call.
- Orders visible as soon as you log in
- Faxes filed into the patient’s chart by AI, not sorted by hand
- Only a couple of faxes in the queue at a time
- Authorization status, submitted or waiting, visible in one click
Why it matters
“I think AbbaDox has brought a value to this practice that allows us to take care of the patient, which is where, in my opinion, it all starts and it all should end.”
Heidi Simpson, Operations Manager
Advanced Diagnostic Radiology
03 · Before the patient arrives
Forms are done before the visit, and the tech can act on them
Patients fill out the MRI and CT questionnaires and the HIPAA forms before they even present themselves to the office. Mackert’s example: a patient may not have said at scheduling that they have a pacemaker, then put it on the form. The tech can review it ahead of time, call, and cancel the appointment, and the slot goes to someone else.
Steve Clem, an MRI technologist, says the same screening done ahead of time saves him a lot of time at the appointment. They still review and verify every safety question, but it helps get patients through quickly. At the front desk, the registration staff describe the old routine of printing, signing and scanning in paperwork; now patients complete it on an iPad or laptop and it lands on their chart.
- MRI, CT and HIPAA forms completed before the patient arrives
- Technologists review safety forms ahead of the visit
- A pacemaker disclosed on the form can be caught early and the slot reused
- Paperwork no longer printed, signed and scanned back in
04 · On the day
Everything the technologist needs sits on one screen
Clem can enter warnings for implants, allergies, claustrophobia and sedation, and they show up on his schedule, so at the start of each day he can see who will need sedation. Orders, patient history and all prior exams sit in one place, which he calls an invaluable resource. On the tour he points out the list of previous exams that lets him tell the radiologist when a comparison is relevant, and the workflow screen that shows each patient from check-in to complete.
Before, Clem says, technologists called each patient to verify appointments. Now the software does that, which frees them to scan and take care of patients. For Brough, text confirmations carry extra weight in PET, where she says certain tracers can run between $4,000 and $6,000, so ADR adds the instructions to the text message.
- Special needs, implants, allergies and sedation on the technologist’s schedule
- Orders, patient history and prior exams in one place
- Prior exams listed so the radiologist gets the relevant comparison
- Appointment confirmations by text instead of one call per patient
In the technologist’s words
“I’m a technologist. I got into this to take care of patients. Having a system like AbbaDox makes it so much easier and streamlined and just gives us more time to spend with patients because we’re spending less time on a computer.”
Krista Brough, Nuclear/PET Technologist
Advanced Diagnostic Radiology
05 · After the scan
The report goes out, and the patient can see the result
For mammography, Simpson says AbbaDox prepares the patient letters once the report is dictated, and a biopsy or callback goes on those letters too. ADR can track breast health from the mammogram through the possible callback, the biopsy and the specimen.
CareFlow faxes the finished report to the referring doctors internally, with one button. Physicians get reports finalized quickly because CareFlow is integrated with the practice’s PACS, and patients sign up for the AbbaDox portal, get an email and check their results there. In Simpson’s words, it is a continuous flow of care.
- Patient letters prepared once the report is dictated
- Biopsy and callback tracked from the mammogram through the specimen
- Reports faxed to referring doctors from the system, one button
- Results available to patients in the patient portal
