In response to the COVID pandemic, we are hard at work providing the right tools to help you streamline and adapt to the changes in patient care.
In April, we introduced telemedicine in Universal Office – remote healthcare provided over video conference, enabling providers and patients to have continuity of care during this difficult time. To learn more about this feature, check out our Guide for Universal Office Telemedicine.
Now, as clinics slowly begin to open, the challenge is adopting new policies that will enforce social distancing and prevent the spread of the virus. Just to name a few:
- Limiting the number of patients in the clinic at any time
- Reinforcing patient punctuality
- Thorough sanitation of equipment and door handles
- Setup of mandatory sanitation stations
- Enforcing masks and designated clothing when seeing patients
- Eliminating assistive devices that cannot be easily disinfected (such as pillows)
- Placing shields and distance markers on the floors
- Putting up informative signs for patients and staff
- Pre-screening patients
6 Ways Universal Office Can Help
To help navigate through these challenging times, here are several new features (and a reminder of the existing features) to help keep you safe.
1. Add a buffer between appointments
For online bookings, you can now add a buffer after appointments for every provider schedule. This can be done in the Resource Manager by choosing the buffer interval for providers. The buffers placed after each appointment spread out appointment bookings, thus limiting the number of people in the facility at one time and allowing providers to prepare for their next patient.
2. Attach pre-screening form to Appointment Reminders
For patient pre-screenings, attach your pre-screening form to the Appointment Reminder notification (or insert a link to the form on your website, into the body of the notification) in eBroadcasts. Thus, before every appointment, the patient will receive a form that they’ll have to complete before coming to the clinic.
3. Send invoices by email
To keep up with new social distancing standards and limit physical interaction, did you know you can quickly and easily send an invoice by email? When you create an invoice and are ready to send, just click the email button and a prepopulated personalized email message (with the invoice attached in PDF format) is created in seconds! For more information, check out our How to Email Invoices article – well worth the short read!
4. Send completed TELUS Health eClaims by Email
Avoid spending time and money on costly expenses like printer maintenance, toner and paper by taking full advantage of all of our emailing capabilities. You can, within seconds, send a copy of submitted TELUS Health eClaims. Here is how:
Once the claim is successfully submitted, the response is automatically received and displayed for your review.
Then, all you have to do is click [Preview Results] and hit the [Email] button and your EOB is sent.
P.S. You can modify the eBroadcast invoice and eClaims Insurer Response templates – checkout Create and Manage Email Templates for more information.
5. Offer virtual treatments
As the healthcare provider, you can continue to improve the patient experience by offering the convenience of remote/video consultations. Many patients will appreciate it, because they can save time on travel – and many have already accepted this type of service delivery. With Doxy.me integration, Universal Office will automate the way you connect to your patients for virtual treatments.
6. Patient web access to Home Exercise Programs (HEPs)
Help keep your patients engaged and motivated while they navigate through new challenges including adapting to work from home and a decrease in physical activity due to lack of access. The customized HEPs add a personal touch (pardon the pun) and are a great value add to virtual and in-person treatments in helping patients achieve their healthcare goals.
The Exercises in Universal Office are integrated with PhysioTec, the industry’s gold standard for HEPs. Practitioners can easily create exercise programs to be shared with their patients – who receive easy-to-follow video demonstrations and instructions to follow along on their phone or laptop. It can’t get any easier!
Let us know in the comments below if your clinic has any unique strategies for maintaining social distance while continuing patient care! For ongoing industry news and updates on new Universal Office features, continue to check our blog.
