How to overcome delays in surgical services with eSign & eForms

Introduction:  

Most procedures in hospitals, clinics, private consultations, telemedicine, teleconsultations, remote assistance, etc., involve the exchange of documents between various parties. All of these agreements call for flexible communication that ensures patient data security.   

It’s well-known that the more moving parts you have, the greater the likelihood that something will break. The procedure for surgical services is the same. All subsequent surgeries using the same OR may have delays due to any delays in the “first case of the day” operations. According to a study, late surgeries happen 84% of the time. That is a staggeringly high proportion. Here are the five core explanations for why this occurs:  

1. Surgeons arriving late: As obvious as it may sound, delays are most frequently caused by the late arrival of surgeons or anesthesiologists. This was confirmed by the New York University Langone Medical Center’s participation in the same study mentioned earlier. To change the culture, NYU implemented a plan that included the Chiefs of Surgery engaging with surgeons who were late. As a result, surgeons received emails reminding them to arrive 20 minutes early for their scheduled surgeries. The culmination of these actions led to a significant increase in on-time surgery commencement (from 24% to 80%).  
2. Patients arriving late for the surgery: One study found that 65% of patients are tardy. The likelihood of a delayed operation start increases by 35% when this happens. The data also reveals that every 10 years, a patient’s age increases, and the likelihood of a delay rises by 9%. 
3. Availability of recovery room: Another study found that of all postponed procedures, 31.8% were delayed because there were no available post-operative beds. A lapse could explain this in coordination or procedure during the pre-hospital/scheduling stage of the patient journey. 
4. Missing or incomplete paper consent forms: Many studies with sample sizes of more than 1,000 operations report that 85% or more of patients either lacked paperwork or had it undone. Although improvements in EMR technology have greatly aided in resolving this issue, there still needs to be a gap in EMRs’ ability to capture patient forms and signatures. For example, one study found that 66% of patients lacked informed consent forms, which delayed 14% of surgical operations. 
5. Busy Staff: It seems inconceivable that a healthcare professional would tell a patient waiting for a planned surgery that they are “too busy.” Nevertheless, according to one study, personnel “being too busy” to accept patients was the cause of 9% of surgical delays. The reasons could be many, but they are indeed connected to inefficiency or a lack of staff in the Surgical Services department.  

Fastrack surgical processes using eSign & eForms  

With eSignatures, you may completely cut down on process steps, speeding up essential healthcare procedures.   

Using esignatures eliminates the need for printing, signing, scanning, and storing documents because they are saved securely in the cloud as soon as you sign them. It offers the sick patient and the overworked medical staff various advantages, including:   

• Patients are only required to sometimes have their medical records with them.   
• Doctors are capable of making prompt decisions regarding patients.   
• Save money on printing, copying, scanning, and document storage costs.   
• Easily confirm the validity of medical bills   
• Online medical records cannot be altered.  

Why Certinal?  

Certinal’s eSign & eForms solution helps your medical personnel complete less paperwork to give patients better treatment and concentrate more on saving their lives. Going paperless, digital signatures assist in capturing and securely storing all end-to-end patient facts in a single application. Admission of patients, doctor’s prescriptions, progress reports, patient discharge, medical insurance claims, and hospital bills – Certinal esignature complies with all legal criteria and helps firms satisfy compliance standards within the health sector. In addition, it protects health plans, medical equipment producers, pharmaceutical firms, and providers by controlling the signing process and guaranteeing that all information is authenticated and kept secure.  

We would be pleased to describe how Certinal’s digital signature technology helps hospitals increase the efficiency of their surgical services every day. Book a demo with us or get in touch with us at switchto@certinal.com.