Articles

We have already mentioned problems arising from double data entry. The main issues are time expenditures and high risk of human error, as well as the need for duplicating and synchronizing databases, which may be a costly affair. In one of our previous articles, we discussed how DICOM Modality Worklist can help to transfer patient information from a scheduling or dispatching system to a diagnostic machine. However, the connection between your scheduling service and diagnostic equipment is just a single link in your IT infrastructure. This time we will look at the situation through a broader lens and talk about how integrated healthcare solutions can help to eliminate the problem completely.

Let’s suppose you run a diagnostic imaging business, and you do it in a rather conservative way. Then your workflow is probably similar to the following.

First, you obtain patients’ information: demographics (age, sex, etc.), required studies, date and time of service, the referring doctor’s name, and then you pass this information to scheduling or dispatching software, where study orders are created. At this stage, you are likely to enter data manually, which is quite common.

Then you need to pass these orders to the diagnostic equipment of various modalities (X-ray, ultrasound, etc.). If you are using Modality Worklist, which is correctly configured, the data will be transmitted flawlessly. Otherwise, imaging technologists will have to re-enter all the patient information manually, which may lead to additional errors and affect the quality of their work (we should bear in mind that medical imaging is a very technologist-dependent industry).

When the studies are completed, images are sent to a PACS. There are several reasons for using cloud PACS, you might have read about them on our blog. The images include patient information for identification in the cloud PACS.

The next stage is reading, or image interpretation. The images are passed to a RIS (Radiology Information System), where the reading doctor analyzes them and creates a report on each study.

Having finalized the reports, the reading doctor sends them to a Health Information System (HIS). Depending on the degree of HIS integration into your IT infrastructure, the patient data may be sent automatically or entered manually once again (it has been already entered twice, so this is the third time).

After that, the reports can be received by the referring physician.

That’s what it looks like. You may have gotten used to this workflow, but even if all of your sonographers and technologists are flawless in data entry and never make mistakes, you would probably agree that this workflow lacks efficiency. You may hire the most skilled medical specialists, and still steadily lose revenue just because their skills are underused.

Your business may employ multiple standalone services and still suffer from mistakes arising from the data re-entry. The primary cause is the lack of integration of all these tools.

If you are thinking about streamlining your workflow, then full-featured software might be of interest to you. It may be designed as a module-based application. Such software applications put together all the stages of your workflow and offer multiple advantages – and minimizing data re-entries is just one of them. Once you have entered the patient’s information, it will be transmitted to the following stages or just stored in the system, so that you could quickly retrieve it at any time.

If your PACS server (or cloud PACS storage) is integrated with a HIS/RIS system, scheduling service, and appropriately configured diagnostic equipment, it is possible to transfer patient demographics directly from patient records. Then your sonographers and X-ray technologists will not have to re-enter any patient data on their machines.

INDUSTRY NEWS

According to the Journal of the American College of Radiology, the current trend is the consolidation of independent radiology groups into larger businesses. In this environment, it’s getting harder for smaller practices to survive. The alternative way is scaling up. This can be achieved by automation and reaching a vast marketplace. EMSOW offers both, and much more.

For example, this week we have improved our time tracking system to help you manage imaging technologists.

 [#18822] Technologists can clock in and out via web browser

To enable this functionality, an enterprise administrator should click “Admin” → “Terminals” and create a new terminal record with the “Kiosk technologist time tracking module” option. Then your technologists (i.e. users with a technologist link) will be able to go to <yourdomain>.emsow.com/kiosk and check in at referring facilities that they are visiting to work with patients. After they are done working, the technologists should go to the same address and check out.

To track working hours of your technologists, go to “Accounting” → “Technologists Time Tracking.”

Medical imaging news

CDs remain the predominant way of sharing radiological images with patients, says the Radiology journal. Today, with PACS storage and secure patient portals available, using CDs seems not entirely efficient, though.

EMSOW offers PACS with encrypted patient access and much more to streamline your imaging business.

EMSOW Release

[#18791] Copy address from “Nursing home” type referring facilities
We have increased the automation of data entry. Now you can copy the address of a referring facility to service records if the referring facility is a nursing home (i.e., its PoS code is 32). To use this feature, go to the Processing module, click Add or Edit, and click on the “Copy address from ref. facility” link.

Healthcare IT News

AI in healthcare is one of the most discussed and controversial topics in the professional community. Artificial intelligence has attracted the attention of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is currently working on the regulation of its use in medicine.

No matter whether you use artificial intelligence in your practice or natural intelligence of your team is enough, there’s good news from EMSOW.

EMSOW PACS Bridge update
EMSOW PACS Bridge has been updated to version 1.2.319.0ed142. The new version allows you to view DICOM images right after you transfer them from your diagnostic unit, and includes stability improvements.

[#18623] Enter a note on removing a settings record
When a user removes a settings record such as a reading or billing rule, EMSOW will prompt the user to enter a note to describe a reason for removing it. We hope this will prevent accidental removals and make it easier for our support team to restore mistakenly removed records.

[#18669] Automatically reassign reading providers in case of reading delay
If a reading doctor or facility fails to upload a report for a study in due time (as specified in the Reading Times module), the study can be automatically reassigned to another reading provider. To use this feature, you need to configure reading rules. Simply create a new reading rule and add the option “Use to reassign a reading provider in case of reading delay” to conditions of the rule. Then, this rule will be applied in case a reading delay occurs, and the study will be sent to a new reading doctor or facility specified in the rule. Accordingly, the study will be removed from the physician portal of the previous reading provider who will also receive an email notification informing them that the interpretation order has been canceled (provided that an email address is configured in EMSOW for the doctor or facility).

[#18717] Study priority in DICOM tags
When sending studies to an external reading facility, you can now also transfer a study priority value (routine, ASAP, STAT). To that end, we have added an option to patch DICOM metadata with the study priority value. In order to use this feature, select the Study priority checkbox in the Send options tab of the Edit reading facility window. Now your external reading providers will be reliably informed of urgent cases!

[#18741] Services become “performed” on completing a preliminary report in Rendering Provider Portal
With this update, scheduled services will automatically change their status to performed when a user completes a preliminary report in the Rendering Provider Portal. This will let practitioners upload their notes to EMSOW without asking their administrator to change the status first.

[#18749] Rendering Provider filter and column in Rendering Provider Portal
We have added a “Rendering Provider” column to the grid in the Rendering Provider Portal. The search filter in the portal now also features a new field to search for services assigned to specific providers. This will make it easier for administrators to track work progress (just a reminder: the providers themselves only see their own services when they log in).

Owners of diagnostic businesses, including those who have many years of experience, often find themselves in doubt about implementing modern technology and going digital. Many of these businesses are long accustomed to their daily workflow and tend to overlook the benefits of innovation. However, they can simplify a lot of routine processes, eliminate numerous errors and considerably boost the bottom line by raising productivity. At first glance, all these modern digital solutions may seem sophisticated, but actually, you just need to take a closer look. Previously we spoke about setting up Modality Worklist (MWL) on Mindray M7. This time we will try to send study queries from this machine to the DICOM server.

First, the queries can be sent manually.

Choosing a patient. Enter the Patient screen by pressing the Patient button. After that, press the Worklist button and the Worklist screen will open. In the upper section, you may see the search criteria: Patient ID, Search Key, Exam Date, Patient Name, Accession Number and Worklist Server.

Here you need to enter the required information in the corresponding fields and click the Query button. The patients who fall under your criteria will appear in the lower section of the screen. Now your machine is connected to the DICOM server, and you can easily update the worklist in real time.

Performing studies. Now let’s try to do a scan. Select a patient in the patient list, then choose his or her record, and click “Start exam.” The machine will import the patient data and begin the study.

Then click the Transfer button, and the patient information will be displayed on the screen.

Edit the patient information, and click OK. Well done! Now proceed to the next study. If you need to view detailed patient data, click “Show Detail” in the lower toolbar.

Not too difficult, is it? But can we make sending the patient queries even more straightforward? Definitely! Let’s see how.

Automatic query function. Orders can be sent automatically via the DICOM server. This is a very useful feature, especially if you contact your referring doctor day-to-day. You will have to set it up first, but once it is done, your equipment will get along and cooperate with the Worklist server on its own. Open the DICOM Service Preset page, then follow the path: Setup – Network Preset – DICOM Service – Worklist. The Worklist page will open.

Select the desired item from the service list, and press the Default button. The Worklist server will be set up as the default service. Enter the Setup menu by clicking “Exit,” then click the “Return” button.

Now open the Patient info page by pressing the “Patient” button. Go to the Worklist screen by clicking “Worklist.”

All set. Now the diagnostic unit automatically queries the studies scheduled for every day. All the scheduled patient records will appear on your worklist.

Our machine is set up and ready to perform its duties. As you see, the system interface is quite user-friendly. However, the key part of your job is being a medical professional. Just hand over routine tasks to the machine to better focus on your patients.

Healthcare IT News

A group of Japanese researchers has made a significant contribution to the use of Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) software. They have revealed and described a way how the CAD software can help quantify pulmonary fibrosis in lung cancer patients. The findings are published in the Radiology journal.

Meanwhile, we have released a useful feature to save your time and improve the efficiency of your team.

[#18760] Copy diagnoses in Service Edit window

If you deal with services consisting of multiple studies, there’s good news. Now you can save the time you spend on entering the same diagnoses for several studies. Click the Copy button to the right of the Diagnosis field, and the system will automatically copy all the diagnoses to the rest of the studies if their Diagnosis fields are empty.

Healthcare IT News

If you’ve been following industry news, you have probably noticed that AI is becoming extremely popular in medical imaging. Last week Chinese researchers published their findings on improving an AI algorithm, which detects pulmonary nodules.

Another rapidly developing field is healthcare business automation. This week EMSOW developers have created a dedicated portal for nurse practicioners and physician assistants.

[#18663] Rendering Provider portal

To improve EMSOW’s usability for clinical practitioners, we have created the Rendering Provider portal. Here, you can create studies in order to save the results of your work with patients. By clicking the “Edit worksheet” button, you can add notes to the studies based on customizable templates. User-friendly search filters allow you to filter the studies by any criteria, from the date of service to the patient’s or doctor’s name. To get yourself set up with the new module, please contact EMSOW support at support@emsow.com.

[#18017] Referring accounts and insurance groups in reading and billing Rules

Previously, there was no functionality for adding referring accounts and insurance groups to Reading and Billing rules. We have added the corresponding conditions to the Reading Rules and Billing Rules modules, and also added search filters for these conditions.

Moreover, now you can select, add and remove the conditions as easily as never before. Just click the icon to the right of the Conditions section and use the dropdown menu.

Medical imaging news

IT and Artificial intelligence are strengthening their presence in the imaging industry. Last week researchers at the American College of Radiology reported their findings on improving the AI algorithm of thyroid nodules risk stratification.

This week EMSOW team has been working on optimizing automation and user-friendliness of our system.

[#18639] Automatically send images for reading upon preliminary report completion in Processing

Previously, reading rules were not automatically triggered when you used the Processing module to complete a preliminary report, unlike the PACS Storage and Technologist Portal modules. Now the system automatically sends images for reading upon clicking the “Complete preliminary report” button in any module, given that an applicable reading rule exists.

The DICOM standard has become a substantial component of today’s imaging technology. It offers such features as Image Storage, Structured Reporting, Modality Performed Procedure Step (MMPS), and Modality Worklist. The vast majority of modern imaging equipment as well as software is DICOM compliant. However, to use advanced DICOM capabilities, an imaging technologist may need specific training, skill and practice, and it does not always come easy. Therefore, a lot of useful tools may remain unused or simply ignored. We would like to share an insight into DICOM benefits.

Previously, we spoke about essential features of DICOM Modality Worklist. Now let us move from theory to practice. We are going to set up MWL on the Mindray M7. This portable ultrasound machine is a popular choice for many sonographers. If you use another model, our quick guide might still be useful, because different systems often follow a similar structure in their settings.

If you have been following our blog, you know that diagnostic equipment sends patient queries to a DICOM Worklist server and thus needs to be connected to it. So, first, we need to add the DICOM server to our machine, if you have not done it yet.

Enter the Setup menu by pressing the Setup button, then go to Network Preset and select the DICOM server you need to add. The Server screen will open.

There are only two parameters you need to enter here: Device, which refers to the name of your equipment unit, and IP address of the Worklist server.

Use the Add and Delete buttons for adding and deleting servers.

You can also check the network connection between your machine and the selected server by clicking the Ping button in the Device area.

The next step is configuring the Modality Worklist. All the preferences are set on the Worklist Page. To enter it, follow the path: Setup → Network Preset → DICOM Service → Worklist.

Select the needed service in the Service list and enter its info, then click Add. At this stage, there are a few more parameters you need to enter: Device, Service name (which refers to the Worklist server), AE Title (AE stands for Application Entity; its title is locally unique), Port (DICOM communication port number) and Scheduled Station AE Title.

If you need to change some settings, select a device, enter the new parameters in the Configuration area (right above the Service list), then click Update.

Similarly, you can delete the unnecessary items or set the server as the default one by clicking the corresponding buttons on the Worklist tab.

After that, you need to verify the connection by selecting an item in the service list and clicking the Verify button.

When done, click Exit.

All set. Now you can proceed to sending queries from your machine to the Worklist server.

MWL configuration is not as sophisticated as some technologists might find it. Anyway, if you have any issues concerning the Modality Worklist settings, please refer to the official operator’s manual or contact your vendor.

Medical imaging news

News from the Society of Magnetic Resonance Radiographers & Technologists (SMRT). MRI has shown that even a small amount of cannabis causes changes in the adolescent brain.

As for EMSOW, our recent update is aimed at improving your reports so that you could present your findings in the best possible way.

[#18635] Additional signature in report addendums

From now on, amended reports from reading doctors will include an “Amended by” line specifying the name of the doctor who amended the report.

Thanks to all the organizers, participants, and guests of APDA 2019 Billing Midyear Conference. Great event for sharing your valuable experience and plenty of opportunities to present our latest products for x-ray and ultrasound billing. See you next time!

If you want to follow up or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at connect@emsow.com.

News of the World

Hello World!

One of the most important industry news of the last two weeks is FDA’s new instruction regarding reports about the problems associated with the use of Rubidium-82 generators (for details, please refer to the official FDA release).

As for EMSOW, we have released a line of essential upgrades to improve the transparency and efficiency of your business.

EMSOW Release

[#18550] PACS Package Manager
We have created the PACS Package Manager module for packing DICOM files and burning CD/DVD discs, which increases EMSOW’s user-friendliness and improves your efficiency. Now you can manage all your PACS archives and ISO files in one module.
We have replaced the DICOM package queue panel with a convenient notification system. Now, you can save plenty of time, since you don’t have to monitor the queue and wait until your archive is ready. Instead, you will receive a pop-up notification with a download link, no matter which module you are currently viewing. To learn more about this feature, please refer to our updated manual.

[#18344] Audit log in the Processing Module
We have increased the transparency of services processing by adding an audit log feature to the Processing module. From now on you can track who and when sent the services for reading and billing. This information is available in the History section of the Processing module.

[#18587] Delivery log in the PACS Storage
We have improved the delivery log feature in the PACS Storage. By clicking the “Delivery log” button, you can see who and when sent images from your PACS Storage to an external PACS system.

[#18505] Edit notes in Billing Rules
If you are dealing with many users and multiple billing rules, there’s good news. After changing a billing rule, the user is now prompted to add a note and explain why the rule had to be changed. Go to the Setup menu and select Billing Rules in the Rules dropdown menu to take a look at the improvement (you need permission to access this section). This new feature increases usage transparency and helps you avoid confusion, no matter how many rules and users you’re dealing with.

[#18608 ] Improved header in the Billing module
The header pane in the Billing module contains a lot of useful information. Now you can hover the mouse over any displayed value to see its description. From now on, your employees will not get confused when they want to calculate totals at the end of the month. Moreover, you can now turn on and off the display of particular values.

[#18265] Improved interface for entering CARC & RARC codes
Now some good news for your payment posting team. We have increased the usability of the posting interface by replacing the CARC and RARC dropdown box in the “Post transaction” window with a dialog where you can enter these codes faster. This option is essential since sometimes you have to enter over ten explanation codes for one transaction. With this option, your posting team will get more efficient.

[#17882] Increased stability of the PACS storage
We have increased the stability of EMSOW’s PACS Storage module. Previously, the system might return an error when you used the “Received from” search filter. Now we have eliminated this bug.

EMSOW is proud to take part in APDA 2019 Midyear Billing Conference, organized by the American Portable Diagnostics Association.

Meet EMSOW team on May 8–9 at Booth 2 to learn about how our software can help you bill for mobile X-ray services (including transportation and setup), dispatch technicians, store and interpret DICOM images in one easy-to-use app.

If you are looking for a radiologist to read X-rays, EMSOW can help you find the right doctor in your state via MDW radiology marketplace we partner with.

You can contact us online or on the phone. Schedule a meeting, and we will get in touch with you at your convenience.

Hello, world!

A week ago, radiologists in China found a 13 cm spoon in a woman’s duodenum. She accidentally swallowed it when she tried to remove a fishbone out of her throat. Luckily, the spoon was timely extracted.

And if you need to improve your turnaround time, we’ve got something new for you.

[#18551] Automatically change service status and auto-assign a technologist

When a technologist attaches images by dragging and dropping study tiles in the Technologist Portal, the system automatically changes the service status from “Scheduled” to “Performed”. Now your scheduling managers can save their time since they don’t need to manually change the service status prior to image upload—the system recognizes the status change on its own!

In addition, if the service was not assigned to the technologist, the system assigns him or her to the service (given that their user account is linked to the particular technologist account), so that their name appears on the final report.

Go 100% paperless and mobile with smartphone apps and modern PACS-integrated software!

Document management is a daily routine for any healthcare enterprise. If you run a mobile diagnostic business, you surely have faced many paperwork-related issues. The most obvious of them are workflow complexity and low usability, but that’s not even half of the story. Let’s talk about some hidden pitfalls of paper record-keeping and see how modern technologies, such as PACS and smartphone applications, spare your time and effort and, at the end of the day, cut your expenses.

Workflow complexity. Typically, your staff has to create multiple documents for each patient: referral and consent forms, progress notes, eligibility approvals, reports etc. Such documents are often handwritten and manually handled, which, first of all, means time expenditures on copying, sorting, and handwriting deciphering. Besides, all these loads of paperwork have to be stored somewhere and kept in order.

Data security issues. If every document exists in a unique copy, the probability of loss increases significantly, mostly due to the human factor. On the other hand, creating multiple copies of the same document increases data security concerns.

Excessive expenditures. Another essential point is expenditures on consumables for outdated office equipment. It is probably not the highest part of your overheads, but why not cut it down?

How can a smartphone app help? We recommend looking for a solution that doesn’t just take pictures but adjusts to your workflow. Below are a few app features that we believe are the most important:

1. Capture different types of documents (consent forms, insurance cards, log sheets, patient sheets, tech sheets, referral forms—whatever is needed for your practice)
2. Integrate with your EMR. If the captured documents are automatically attached to patient records, you can save data entry time and increase data integrity
3. Integrate with your PACS. If the documents are included in DICOM image packages, your paperwork can be reliably delivered to your reading provider, together with diagnostic images

Among the main advantages of using these apps, you can expect the following:

• Automated document handling. All the paperwork is handled automatically, thus you can forget about sorting your documents manually and collecting loads of papers in your office. This feature considerably decreases the factor of human error and helps you keep things in order.
• Ease of access. With mobile apps, you can retrieve any document at any time with a single tap on the screen.
• Security. HIPAA-aware apps store patient information securely and transmit it via an encrypted connection, which minimizes the probability of loss or leak.
• Mobility. A truly mobile app can be used remotely from anywhere. Some mobile applications also allow doctors to sign their reports electronically so that you could avoid verification issues – you don’t need to decipher your physician’s signature anymore. If the app is integrated with your PACS, diagnostic images can be sent and viewed instantly without using film of burning CDs.
• Cutting down your expenses. Mobile solutions are quite affordable, so you can save your costs on office equipment.
• And finally…printing options. You can go completely paperless, but it doesn’t mean you can completely give up paper documents. No need to worry—mobile documents are still printer-friendly, and you can have them on paper too.

With paperless solutions and mobile applications, upgrading your medical business becomes much easier than you might expect. Isn’t it time to realize the new benefits and get focused on your business and patients instead of paperwork and office equipment?

Hello, world! First, some insurance facts. Did you know that alien abduction insurance in the USA exists since 1987, Gene Simmons from the Kiss band has insured his tongue for $1,000,000 (quite reasonable!), and Starbucks pays for their employees’ insurance more than for their coffee? As for EMSOW’s insurance and billing sections, this week we have completed a new feature to improve your claims management, as well as another useful option. Both upgrades were suggested by our customers!

EMSOW Release

[#18071] Void claims resubmission

Claims management is gradually becoming more complex, and EMSOW team is keeping up with the ever-changing business environment. Now, you can resubmit claims not only as original or replacement claims, but also as void claims. To use this option, double-click on the needed service, hover the mouse pointer over the electronic claim that you need to resubmit, click on the Resubmit icon, and select the claim type in the Resubmission code field. The void claims contain 8 in Box 22 of the 1500 form.

[#18495] Disable auto-assign and auto-send upon the completion of a preliminary report

We have increased the versatility of EMSOW’s workflow for imaging technologists. Previously, the system would always assign a reading provider and send studies for reading automatically, immediately upon the technologist’s completion of a preliminary report. We have added an option to disable the automatic reading assignment, which allows you to have more control over your workflow. If you want to modify your setup, please contact EMSOW support: support@emsow.com.

Tech News Digest

What’s up, Doc?

A week ago a Charity group called University of the Underground launched a series of audio releases recorded on X-ray film. The project attracted the iconic artists and lecturers: Massive Attack, Sigur Rós, Noam Chomsky and many more.

Great way of X-ray film utilization (although not quite new).

However, if you are going to send your x-rays for reading and billing, instead of engraving your new album on them, the latest EMSOW upgrade is just what you need.

EMSOW Release

[#18400] Auto-assign reading doctors to externally read exams

We have increased the versatility and automation of EMSOW billing features. If you send exams to an external reading facility, you may not always know which doctor will interpret them. This poses a problem for billers if they need to use a specific doctor’s NPI to bill for the externally read exams. Now EMSOW can assign certain doctors to such exams based on the reports received from external systems. EMSOW analyzes the report, automatically retrieves the reading doctor’s name and assigns the doctor to the corresponding study. With this upgrade, your billers will not have to open each received report and check which doctor provided it—they can proceed straight to claim generation!

For this functionality to work, the external reading doctors have to be added to the Reading Doctors module beforehand. Please contact EMSOW Support if you wish to set it up.

[#18425] PDF images and report template on the same screen

The reporting module in EMSOW has become more user-friendly! Previously, medical images in PDF format (such as EKG sheets) could be viewed in a separate browser tab only, so reading doctors had to switch between the tabs over and over again while working on their reports. With this upgrade, you can work with the PDF images and report template on the same screen, which saves your time and streamlines image interpretation:

Here’s a quick tip on how to enable this functionality: click Preferences in Physician Portal and select Show study documents. By the way, this EMSOW improvement was suggested by one of our customers!

With the availability of tablets and smartphones, your employees can transmit various types of data to your company’s information system instantly and wirelessly from any distance. The most common example is emailing healthcare-related images, documents, and notes to the office, which you most likely have had to do.

However, there are privacy and usability concerns associated with commonly available email and instant messaging apps. At first sight, it may seem suitable to use off-the-shelf apps, but the app of your choice may lack the necessary tools for your medical business’s specific needs. This software may have a wide range of settings, but as an end user, you are likely to adjust your business needs to the available software features rather than to configure the application according to your demands. Moreover, off-the-shelf programs do not offer any tools to help you with medical-related routine tasks, such as receiving information directly from diagnostic equipment or checking insurance eligibility.

Therefore, it makes sense to look for specialized mobile software, but if you are running a medical business, you are also aware of possible privacy-related issues. Before purchasing an application which seems to meet your requirements, it is necessary to check it for compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA includes a set of federal standards that ensure the security of your patients’ electronic protected health information (ePHI). Keep in mind that the matter of HIPAA compliance may be disregarded by mobile app developers, even if the intended purpose of the app is healthcare automation. Always make sure the developer guarantees the HIPAA compliance in the end-user agreement.

Another critical issue is the compatibility of the mobile app with the desktop software you use at the office. You could purchase mobile and desktop applications from different vendors and use them separately, but the most efficient strategy would be to get a bundled software package that is available on both desktop and mobile devices and provides a consistent user interface. It is also worth noting that trying to integrate different software systems may cause reliability and security problems as well as data conflicts and errors, which often results in costly troubleshooting or even data loss.

The most advanced solutions on the market have their own mobile apps that seamlessly integrate into your IT infrastructure. Unlike many off-the-shelf apps, such mobile applications can offer exactly what you need at a reasonable price:

• Ultrasound technologists can fill out exam worksheets on the go and save them as electronic documents. This feature is especially convenient for mobile diagnostic companies that have their technologists travel from one facility to another throughout the day.
• Doctors can manage diagnostic studies and report clinical findings straight from their handheld devices, which is vitally important for STAT cases. When timing is critical, you can combine the versatility and speed of a mobile device with the app’s specialized features for the fastest communication possible. For example, you can capture an image using the built-in camera and send it along with the general report via an encrypted connection.
• Managers can supervise the workflow even when they are traveling. For example, they can track their technologists’ location in real time.
• Accounting staff can check eligibility instantly and remotely, without time-consuming phone calls to providers or visiting their websites.

These are only a few examples of mobile app functionality that a healthcare business may benefit from. In practice, your software vendor should work with you before developing the app in order to perform requirements analysis and ensure the final product can help you with every facet of your business.

With an application tailored to your specific needs, you can turn your mobile device into a powerful and reliable tool which enables you to complete multiple routine tasks from anywhere easily and thus streamline your medical business.

Hi folks!

This week Apple has announced that the new AirPods will look the same as the previous model. Meanwhile, our team has added a couple of updates to EMSOW.

[#18203] Detailed error descriptions in the Reports Delivery Tracking module

Many doctors prefer receiving their reports by fax. Fax delivery may fail for multiple reasons, e.g. the fax machine did not respond, the line is busy, a voice answer was detected.

Previously, EMSOW informed about the failure, but did not inform about the failure reason, which hampered troubleshooting. With this update, you can hover your mouse pointer over the “failure” label in the Reports Delivery Tracking module to see a detailed message about what happened.

[#18260] Purchased service charge excluded from account balance

Due to a bug, EMSOW used to add purchased service charges to the balance of procedures. We have fixed the bug, and now these charges are only added to claims as an informational field (Box 20 of the HCFA form) and do not affect the balance. You can still see the purchased service charges as transactions in the Billing information window.

EMSOW appreciates your feedback. Found a bug? Contact EMSOW Support and help us improve! You are welcome to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

Dear customers!

We are glad to inform you that a new version of EMSOW has been released this week.

[#18351] Print the assigned billing company information on account statements

Previously, the system always printed the default billing company information in the upper-left corner of an account statement. With this update, we made it possible to print the information of the company that is assigned to the study. If you wish to enable this functionality, please contact EMSOW Support, and we will check your settings.

[#18352] Print the rendering provider name on account statements

One more update to the account statement form: it is now possible to include the rendering provider name.

EMSOW appreciates your feedback. Found a bug? Contact EMSOW Support and help us improve! You are welcome to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

Dear customers!

We are glad to inform you that a new version of EMSOW has been released this week.

[#18252] Post recoupments without forwarding balance

We have created a new option for manual recoupment posting. If an insurance company has overpaid for your services and wants to draw some money back (instead of the total payment amount), you can manually post a negative amount, different from the previous payment. Your posting team will love this new feature, that’s for sure!

EMSOW appreciates your feedback. Found a bug? Contact EMSOW Support and help us improve! You are welcome to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

Dear customers!

We are glad to inform you that a new version of EMSOW has been released this week.

[#18328] Ordering facility as a condition in billing rules

Now you can select an ordering facility while configuring a billing rule — the new condition “Ordering facility” has been added.

EMSOW appreciates your feedback. Found a bug? Contact EMSOW Support and help us improve! You are welcome to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

Dear customers!

We are glad to inform you that a new version of EMSOW has been released this week.

[#18309] NPPES integration

EMSOW is now integrated with the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES). This means that whenever you add or edit a doctor or organization, EMSOW can automatically look up the NPI, address, and taxonomy codes in the NPPES and fill out the corresponding fields. This applies to referring facilities, referring doctors, reading facilities, reading doctors, rendering providers, and billing companies. In order to perform a lookup, click the NPPES lookup button in the editing window. If the button is not yet available to you, please contact EMSOW Support to request access.

EMSOW appreciates your feedback. Found a bug? Contact EMSOW Support and help us improve! You are welcome to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

Dear customers!

We are glad to inform you that a new version of EMSOW has been released this week.

[#18297] New data entry statistics feature

If you have a dedicated data entry team and wish to track their work progress, there’s good news. We have added a new menu command to the Processing module: “Mark as” → “Processed study.” By clicking this command, a user indicates that he or she has processed selected services. Managers can see which services have been processed by a specific user by using the “Processing” filter group in the Billing module.

[#18266] Patient lookup dropdown fix

We have applied a small layout fix to the patient lookup dropdown menu in the “Edit service” window to make sure the patient’s date of birth fits in the menu.

[#18307] Export Data From Clearing

We have fixed a bug that prevented users from exporting data from the Clearing module.

EMSOW appreciates your feedback. Found a bug? Contact EMSOW Support and help us improve! You are welcome to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

Dear customers!

We are glad to inform you that a new version of EMSOW has been released this week.

[#18253] Taxonomy Codes Reference

Previously, taxonomy codes for reading facilities and other entities were entered as free text, which might cause human errors. In this update, we added a reference table for taxonomy codes and replaced the free-text fields with drop-downs.

[#18287] Ability to send images from a specific AET

We have added a new option for external reading facilities. Now you can specify which AE the system should use when communicating with an external DICOM server. Go to the “Send options” tab of the reading facility properties and set the “Send from AET” option. The list of available AE titles is configured under Setup → PACS → PACS Clients. If you leave the “Send from AET” selection blank, the default PACS server will be used.

[#18148] Facility Billing Improvements and Fixes

We have improved several EMSOW features for facility billing.

We have added the “Auto fill” button to the Payer Assignment module, which allows you to auto-fill billing information for selected exams, based on billing rules. On the left sidebar of the module, you now have a checkbox that allows you to show only those exams that do not have billing information filled. Another new checkbox allows you to show only those exams that have not yet been invoiced.

Besides, we have added a clickable service ID link to every exam, which opens the Processing module. This link is available both in the Payer Assignment module and the “Edit invoice” window.

Also, the system will not anymore print “$0.00” in the “Savings” column of an invoice if the savings amount to zero – the space will be left blank.

[#18258] Increased Speed of Statistics Module

Before this update EMSOW might take some time to count and display studies in the Statistics module. We have optimized the module so that it displays data quicker.

[#18223] Jump to the Wholesale tab in Processing from other modules

Previously, the “Wholesale” tab of the Processing module did not open when you jumped to Processing from another module, such as Billing or PACS Storage, by clicking a service ID or A/N link (the system would always open the “Retail” tab, regardless of which tab the service was under). We have fixed this annoying bug.

EMSOW appreciates your feedback. Found a bug? Contact EMSOW Support and help us improve! You are welcome to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

Dear customers!

We are glad to inform you that a new version of EMSOW has been released this week.

[#17784] Monthly Reconciliation Report Improvements

We have improved our Monthly Reconciliation Report by adding the following new columns:

• The count of studies flagged as “no read”
• The percentage of studies for which payments have been collected
• “Open studies” (the difference between the count of billed studies and the count of written off and collected studies)

With the extended EMSOW report, you have better control of your financial inflows.

[#18235] Replicating Checks with the Same Number

Payment checks that have the same control number can now be replicated between EMSOW domains. This new feature eliminates replication errors associated with checks for our customers who use multidomain configurations.

[#18245] Aliases for Study Groups

It is now possible to add aliases to study groups. Go to the Tests section of the Setup menu and select Study Groups. Here you can edit the needed study groups and add aliases to them. This feature may come useful for customers who use 3rd party integrations with EMSOW and receive data from external systems, such as EHRs.

[#18144] Extended Default Settings in the Standard Domain Configuration

From now on, the standard domain configuration includes the “performed,” “scheduled” and “canceled” service statuses. Thus, we have streamlined the process of creating new domains for our clients who deal with multiple domains.

EMSOW appreciates your feedback. Found a bug? Contact EMSOW Support and help us improve! You are welcome to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

Medical specialists who deal with diagnostic imaging, regularly have to communicate examination queries and patients’ demographics to various diagnostic facilities and equipment. At first glance, it is quite simple, because data transmission is a regular part of our everyday life. But if you are a doctor or a medical business supervisor, you are aware of several industry-specific issues.

Quite often medical businesses work with multiple facilities and various equipment. Imagine that you need to consistently inform each technologist which study needs to be done for each of your patients or regularly receive orders from multiple hospitals. Just to perform this single task promptly, you’ll need to hire a dispatcher.

Without an adequate automated task manager, each patient’s data has to be double-entered manually. Several issues are arising out of double manual data-entry. First of all, this process is usually time-consuming, but that is not all. Probably, one of the most pressing problems is high error rate, which means that some of your patients’ information would likely be confused, incomplete or even missing. In such cases, you would have to cover not only the query costs but also correcting expenditures (not to mention that double-entry increases the error incidence twice).

So, the way out of this tricky situation is getting a dispatching service that would automatically send information on required studies to multiple diagnostic providers and equipment.

Some medical businesses hire consultants and managers, or even software developers to create a specific application for transmitting study queries. Of course, such solution is acceptable, but it cuts both ways. The main advantage is that you’ll get a tool designed to satisfy your needs. However, in this case, you likely have to bear huge expenses, mainly because such software would be built from scratch and so you are expected to cover all the development costs. However, that does not mean that the result would meet all your requirements. Besides, you stay vendor- and support-dependent all the time. Another issue is integration into your IT infrastructure.

The Modality Worklist (or MWL) is a feature of the DICOM protocol that allows you to transfer procedure lists to be performed from a PACS server to your diagnostic equipment. This service is often available in advanced specific-purpose software for healthcare businesses. It works with DICOM-friendly equipment, which means compliance with the vast majority of modern machines. Still, before considering this tool, it makes sense to check if your equipment is DICOM-friendly.

How does it work? Each medical equipment unit sends a query to the application (depending on your network configuration, it can be done either directly or via a DICOM gateway). After that, the server replies with a worklist which usually includes patients’ demographics (name, age, gender, etc.) and types of required examinations. This workflow is rather simple and efficient in solving multiple dispatching problems and thus reduces your expenses. Probably you will not get rid of all the processing mistakes arising out of manual data-entry, but you will at least cut them by half because MWL eliminates double-entry.

Needless to say that MWL meets the DICOM standards https://www.dicomstandard.org/current/, which also eliminates concerns related to using various imaging systems (RIS, PACS, etc.).

Modality worklist is a ready-made solution for both clinics and imaging providers. It simplifies the study dispatching process and makes things go much more smoothly. –

Links:

DICOM standards: https://www.dicomstandard.org/current/

An article on MWL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3452969/pdf/10278_2009_Article_BF03168381.pdf

Dear customers!

We are glad to inform you that a new version of EMSOW has been released this week.

[#18160] Improved performance of the Clearing Module

Previously, queries in the Clearing module did not run fast enough to process large amounts of data. This was especially critical for large medical businesses that deal with huge financial flows daily. In this update, we have increased the speed of the queries and improved the stability of the module.

[#18183] Option to reduce CLM01 length for certain payers

The default length of the CLM01 segment (Patient Control Number) in electronic claims has been recently reduced to 20 symbols [#18023]. We have found that certain payers require this segment’s value to be even shorter and made it possible to change the length of the segment for them. Go to Setup → Insurances → double-click the needed payer → open the Billing tab, and change the “CLM01 length” option as required.

EMSOW appreciates your feedback. Found a bug? Contact EMSOW Support and help us improve! You are welcome to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!