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Clinical decision support or CDS is an integral functionality in health information technologies which aims to increase the quality of care, health outcomes, efficiency, and provider and patient satisfaction as well as reduce costs and errors. CDS systems and tools help clinicians in tackling complex decision-making processes every day — a benefit which has paved the way for CDS to be made a primary element in CMS’ Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Programs.
CDS comprises a range of tools and functionalities that can be deployed in different platforms including cloud-based and mobile. CDS does not replace clinicians’ judgment but rather provides assistance to various disciplines in making timely and informed decisions. When considering CDS tools for your agency, you must first ensure they provide the right information to the right people through the right channels in the right intervention formats and at the right workflow points — a concept called the “Five Rights”. Currently, there are a variety of CDS tools in the market to help healthcare providers. Some of which are must-have features and functionalities that you are already using in your home health or hospice EMR, such as the following:
Guided workflows and pathways aid clinicians in decision-making through providing evidence-based recommendations and pathways. They provide guidelines on the next steps in the workflow based on previous results and established data. They also allow patient data analyses, additional diagnoses suggestions, and identification of diagnostic errors. Examples of this CDS tool are the Clinical Pathways in Home Health Centre and Symptoms Management Pathways in Hospice Centre which act as springboards for your clinician documentation with their customizable libraries of symptoms, goals, interventions, etc.
Through forms and document templates, you can ensure that comprehensive and accurate data are collected and stored in your EMR. You can conveniently enter required patient data in the system to obtain a complete picture of the patient’s condition. You can also avoid missing relevant details which you might have otherwise forgotten had you not followed a template. Moreover, by using forms and templates, your EMR’s algorithm-based programs can easily analyze and adopt data patterns for future use. An additional benefit of this tool is that you can easily meet legal and regulatory requirements especially for claims and billing submissions.
Reminders and alerts are often used to mitigate errors and increase the quality of patient care. The former is for time-triggered events while the latter are for data-triggered ones. Both can be used to notify clinicians of potential errors in orders, OASIS documents, assessments, and prescriptions. For instance, alerts can warn you of possible drug interactions or allergic reactions to a prescription. Reminders in turn, can flag compliance documents which should be approved within a set timeframe for claims submissions. However, it should be noted that excessive use of this CDS tool can lead to “alert fatigue” in your staff. With the appropriate use though, reminders and alerts can improve the quality of your care delivery, increase your agency’s efficiency, and ensure you maximize revenues through higher reimbursements.
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These CDS tools can make your work life easier by simplifying decision-making processes without compromising your care delivery. Data Soft Logic brings you these functionalities — guided workflows and pathways, smart documentation forms and templates, and reminders and alerts — in our innovative and customer-centric software solutions, Home Health Centre and Hospice Centre. The new tool for reminders and alerts, the Notification Feature which is available in both software, notifies you of any note for corrections, OASIS and HIS documents for completion, compliance or policy documents for signatures, and claims for processing. The feature ensures timely submission of your regulatory documents and gives you compliance peace of mind. Get to know more about the Notification Feature and other CDS tools in DSL’s software solutions — request a demo with us.
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