Dear friends!
We hope this Independence Day brings you happiness and hope!
Please note that in observance of the holiday our Sales and Support offices will be closed Friday, July 3rd, 2020.
EMSOW software and services continue to be available 24/7. If you need assistance during this time, please send an email to support@emsow.com, and support will respond when we return on Monday 07/06.
This week has been very busy for our customers, who are gradually recovering from the crisis caused by the pandemic, as well as for our support and development teams. This time we have focused on improving the dispatching functionality.
If you would like to know how to optimize your imaging processes, integrate through HL7, and considerably cut your costs on exam processing and image reading, just let us know!
[#20259] Notes from Contacts in the “send report” window
If you deal with multiple referring facilities or doctors, this improvement is just for you. We have added notes from the Contacts section of the Referring module to the Send report window. Now you will be able to view a contact note before sending your report to avoid any confusion.
[#20247] Check mandatory fields when dispatching exam orders
Double-checking is an essential part of patient data entry, and in some cases, EMSOW can do it for you. Now the system will double-check mandatory fields rules before you dispatch an exam order to a technologist. This can be crucial if orders come to your EMSOW account through HL7, since such orders may lack important patient information. If you try to dispatch a service with blank mandatory fields, the system will return an error.
[#20222] Display service notes in the Dispatch module
If there is any additional important patient information your dispatcher needs to know, they will have it right at their fingertips. We have added the Notes column to the Dispatch module. Hover your mouse over the “note” icon, and the notes that are entered in the “Edit service” window will be displayed as a tooltip.
[#20206] “Disable selected” button in Mandatory Fields Rules
A diagnostic platform is not always a “plug-and-play” thing; it needs to be flexible and easily adjustable, since your conditions may rapidly change. Besides, sometimes you want to test these conditions. For these purposes, we have added the Disable selected button to the Mandatory Fields Rules. Select the rules you need to disable, click on this button, then click Yes in the Confirmation window.
Time to get back to business!
Finally, there’s good news! About 40% of our customers who were forced to put their business on hold due to the pandemic are back, and the others are on their way. Just during the past week, they uploaded to EMSOW 30% more studies compared to the week before. By the way, about a quarter of those were read by radiologists from the MDW marketplace, our trusted partners. Thank you for staying with us!
We keep our fingers crossed for you, but that’s obviously not enough to overcome the crisis. We are working as hard as never before to ensure your success. If you would like to learn about our services, discounts, and anti-pandemic packages, please book a demo.
But before scheduling the demo, you might be interested in what we have done this week to become more efficient and improve your diagnostic workflow. Wise choice!
[#20209] Automatic processing of HL7 orders
We have taken EMSOW’s interoperability and automation to the next level! As you may already know, EMSOW is integrated with numerous EMR solutions and we keep adding new integrations. Now our system automatically processes orders that are received via HL7 and creates service records that are ready to be dispatched to a technologist. Patient demographics, CPT and ICD-10 codes, as well as physician comments are imported automatically — and all you need to do to send your technologist to a facility is click “Dispatch”! Or maybe you wish to automate that too? Let us know!
If you would like to learn more about our HL7 capabilities to receive orders, please check our updated user manual.
[#20224] Updated formatting of amended reports
We have slightly changed the formatting of amended reports so that your referring physicians could easily identify them. Now, if a report was amended, you will see the date and time of new report creation under its heading.
[#20223] Overlay text on X-ray images
We have added the date of service, patient name, and image number overlays to X-ray images in the DICOM viewer.
You can turn the overlays off by unchecking the Display OSD box in the Options menu.
[#15556] Auto-fill billing information for studies with reports only
We have added a new feature to ensure that imaging studies will not go to billing without an attached report from a reading doctor. Click Setup > Rules > Billing Rules, create new or start editing an existing rule, and select Received report in the Triggers dropdown menu.
If this trigger is enabled, the system will display an error message in the Billing result column of the Auto fill studies window.
COVID-19 outbreak led to a nation-wide business slowdown, especially in the diagnostic imaging industry. We have received hundreds of emails from our existing and prospective customers, who would like to make their companies mobile and paperless.
EMSOW has been around for 10 years, delivering full-cycle exam processing services to portable imaging companies, nursing home providers and teleradiologists, helping them decrease their turnaround time by up to 60% and finding trusted radiologists to read their exams as cheap as they never paid before (down to 70% of their normal rates).
As always, we’re committed to your success, so if you would like to save your money on image reading and exam processing, please get in touch with us and let us know how we can help you to keep your imaging business moving forward. We’re ready for customers who are looking to go mobile or want to optimize their workflow and cut expenditures, and if you feel that you need to handle the demands of this new reality sooner – just let us know.
Now, to our latest updates for your diagnostic business.
[#20217] A new condition for mandatory fields: “Reason for Exam or Diagnosis”
We have added a new condition to make data entry more flexible. Now you can make it mandatory to fill in at least one of the fields that store patient history, Reason or Diagnoses. Customers who do not always use ICD-10 coding may find this feature helpful because it will allow them to save the history information in a free-text form when diagnosis codes are not available.
To use this condition in your setup, follow the path: Setup > Rules > Mandatory Fields Rules. Open the Edit mandatory fields rule window and add Reason for Exam or Diagnosis to the Fields section.
[#20150] Display study documents as an image series in the DICOM viewer
Sometimes reading doctors need to refer to study documents while preparing their reports. With EMSOW, the doctors can easily retrieve any patient documents as PDF files from the Physician Portal, but this time we decided to make their work even more convenient and save their time.
Now you can convert study documents of particular types (e.g. tech sheets) to DICOM files so that your doctors could see them in the DICOM Viewer along with patient images. To enable this functionality, start editing a reading facility record in the Setup menu, open the Send options tab, and enter the needed document types in the File types field under Portal. The documents will be displayed as a separate image series.
[#20194] Insurance type filter for electronic claim submission
We have upgraded the electronic claim submission functionality. Now you can select a particular insurance type for submission: primary, secondary, or other. Open the Submit electronic claims window and select the needed type in the Insurance type field.
[#18924] Receive critical findings from MDW and get a reminder
We have improved EMSOW’s interoperability with Medical Diagnostic Web (MDW) – a radiology marketplace, where you can find a board-certified radiologist licensed in your state who can read your images at an affordable price.
Now you can choose a department or specific users who will get reminders if critical findings have been discovered in the studies you send to MDW for interpretation.
This new option can be essential for your referring physicians, as it can help them get information about any critical findings as soon as possible, prioritize their work, and even save lives.
To set up this option, please contact our support.
Of all of the business types affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, portable imaging companies, nursing home providers, and radiology services are among the hardest hit. In addition to companies reducing their volumes, there’s still a high level of general anxiety around the risk of visiting healthcare facilities.
While we at EMSOW® are committed to providing you with all the services you need to optimize your imaging workflow, save your turnaround time and money on reads and PACS, we also understand the need for flexibility based on your individual circumstances. To make sure you can work with confidence, we’re offering flexible setup waivers to startups and small businesses.
This week’s release is focused on Modality Worklist integration, study quality control, invoicing functionality and overall stability of the system to help your business optimize processes, which is essential during this pandemic.
If you don’t feel like going through a list of techy information, we welcome you to see our system in action and learn how you can streamline your workflow, improve your study processing, or find a trusted reading physician.
[#20173] “Any document” condition in the Study Quality Rules
Study quality matters, that’s why we improved the functionality of its control and made it more adjustable to your needs. Previous versions of EMSOW allowed you to set a list of necessary patient documents with the “and” condition only so that all the specified documents would be mandatory to send an exam for reading. If any of these documents were missing, the system would not allow a user to send the exam.
Now, you can set a document list with the “or” condition as well, so that any document on the list suffices to transfer the exam for reading.
Follow the path: Setup > Rules > Study Quality Rules and open the required rule. Enter an or-conditioned list in the Documents (any) field of the Restrictions section.
For example, the rule below will allow sending exams that have at least a referral form or an insurance copy attached (but not necessarily both of those together) and will always require a consent form, a HIPAA form, and a tech sheet.
[#20180] Attach images based on the DICOM accession number
EMSOW has a capability to attach images automatically to pre-scheduled exam records. By default, it matches image uploads to the records you create in Dispatch based on a combination of conditions, including the patient name, date of service, and study description. From now on, technologists who use DICOM Modality Worklist (MWL) can opt to attach images based solely on the accession number generated by EMSOW. After a dispatch user has created an exam, its accession number is transferred to MWL, and when the images are uploaded, the system will simply compare DICOM tag 0008,0050 with the dispatch record and attach the images if the number matches. Note that EMSOW will not check the date of service if this option is enabled.
To try out this new feature, please contact our support.
[#20066] Add user signatures and c.c. users when sending an invoice
We have personalized facility invoice emails so that the receiving facilities could see who sent an invoice, including their contact information (first name, last name, and email). The person who sent the invoice will also receive a copy of the invoice email.
No one could have predicted how difficult this year has been. The imaging industry faces a pandemic and is still adjusting to its implications. Many businesses did not survive it, and we face an unprecedented decline.
All this makes us work even harder, and our developers are doing their best to improve the functionality of our platform so that your diagnostic business could overcome any new challenges. This week we have improved our PACS, DICOM, billing functionality, as well as compatibility with other medical software to help you focus on your patients and streamline your daily tasks. In this release, you’ll find just some of this week’s updates.
If you don’t feel like going through a techy long read, we welcome you to see our system in action and learn more about how you can save on reading and image storage expenses.
[#20153] Improved “Add Eligibility” option
We have improved the Add electronic eligibility option by adding the Authorization field. To check it out, select a service in Processing or Billing, and click Eligibility > Add.
Here you can select the authorization status: pending, not required, or complete. If the service contains more than one study, you can indicate which of them require authorization in the Note field. Please note that since we added a new field, we have renamed the Status field to Eligibility.
We have also added Eligibility and Authorization filters to the Billing module so that you could search services by these parameters. This feature can help you track services with inactive insurance and exams that require authorization and thus control denials from insurance companies.
[#20152] Default impression text for the “Sign and send” option
Previously, reading doctors had to enter an impression manually when signing PDF files, such as neuro and allergy tests. Now you can set the default impression text and add only case-specific information to each report.
This new option helps you improve the standards of your services and decrease reading turnaround time since the doctor doesn’t need to type the whole impression from scratch every time. Instead, they make some minor changes, sign the report, and send it. To learn more about this option, please contact us at support@emsow.com.
[#20151] Pre-cache the latest prior study
We have made updates to EMSOW’s DICOM Viewer so that you could more conveniently compare current images with prior ones (if they are available in the system).
In the new version of EMSOW, the previous study images will be automatically preloaded to speed up their opening. This update can substantially reduce the time of creating a report, especially if you deal with two studies consisting of multiple images.
Also, in the new version of EMSOW, the images of the latest prior study are shown by default, if you use the window mode. If you need to disable this option, go to the Physician Portal, open the Preferences menu to the right, and uncheck the “Show images of previous study” box.
[#20149] Show prior studies in Physician Portal’s grid view
In the new version of EMSOW, prior studies can be displayed in the grid view. This view is essential if you read a lot of exams daily. Hover your mouse over the History icon to display the count of related studies:
Click on it to open the patient history window:
By clicking the Images link, you can open any of the available prior studies.
[#20148] “Date of service” column in the grid view of the Physician Portal
Another improvement to the grid view of the Physician Portal is the Date of Service column. Now you can sort studies by this parameter.
[#20138] Jump to Dispatch from HL7 Requests
Now you can open ordered services received via the HL7 Requests module right in EMSOW’s Dispatch without surfing through the navigation panel. Just select a processed request and click Open in Dispatch.
You will be taken to the Dispatch module where you can dispatch a technologist momentarily.
