Sonoma Valley Community Health Center Looks to Seamless Medical to Improve Access and Efficiency
For Immediate Release
SONOMA, California (February 4, 2016) – Sonoma Valley conjures up images of lush vineyards, beautiful mountains, and of course, wine. However, there’s a more practical side to one of California’s most famous regions: meeting the healthcare needs of a large underserved population that includes migrant agricultural workers, many of whom speak only one language; and others at-risk. Providing efficient access while collecting complete and accurate information on each patient presents a challenge for safety net providers like the Sonoma Valley Community Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC).
The solution for Sonoma Valley is Seamless Medical Systems®, a digital healthcare company that provides an integrated, paperless patient intake, payment, and communications platform that has achieved increases in workflow efficiency of 20 percent for clinics and medical practices. Sonoma Valley’s implementation is planned for early March.
Sonoma Valley CEO Cheryl Johnson said that the center’s current intake process is time consuming and difficult for patients and staff. “When our patient population presents at our clinic, they are stressed and intimidated by the paperwork due to language barriers or other issues. Often completed forms are missing information, which puts pressure on our staff and impacts reimbursement.”
At the core of the Seamless solution are iPads loaded with patient intake forms in both English and Spanish. Instead of wading through stacks of paper, patients are handed a tablet and simply click through a series of screens and sign with a finger when done. Collected data is automatically uploaded to the FQHC’s practice management (PMS) and electronic medical records (EMR) systems.
“What attracted us to Seamless Medical is the simplicity of the digital forms. The tablets are not intimidating to people. The screens are simple and patients get through them quickly. The data will upload to our NextGen PMS and EMR so there’s no data entry by staff. Eliminating paperwork is going to make everyone much happier,” Johnson added.
Seamless Medical also enables FQHCs to collect more complete, accurate information from each patient at the point of service, reducing staff time spent walking patients through the registration process and later filling in unanswered fields. More complete, accurate information supports better patient care and more streamlined claims and collections processes. Eliminating paperwork also represents a significant savings in paper, printers, storage, shredding, and energy,
Seamless Medical CEO David Perez said the company’s solution is ideally suited for FQHCs’ workflows and patient population needs. “Our platform is very accessible. We have a 99 percent patient satisfaction rating because it’s easy and engaging. Our provider rating is equally high because we don’t add steps to the process we remove them. So FQHCs and other providers can improve the customer experience, gain significant operational efficiencies and relieve a lot of frustrations related to less integrated solutions.”
In January 2015, Seamless Medical received $1.5 million from The Kresge Foundation and California Healthcare Foundation as part of a Partnering for Impact Initiative. The investment supports the rollout of the Seamless solution to Federally Qualified Health Clinics and safety net providers nationwide. Seamless Medical is also a partner of the California Primary Care Association.
About Sonoma Valley Community Health Center
Sonoma Valley Community Health Center (SVCHC) opened in 1992 as a freestanding primary care clinic to address the lack of access and disparities of healthcare services for the uninsured and underserved in Sonoma Valley, which is designated as a Medically Underserved Population and Health Professional Shortage Area. Over the years, SVCHC has grown in capacity and is the area’s only safety-net health care provider for Medicaid and the uninsured. SVCHC, a non-profit, is a Federally Qualified Health Center and a 330 Grantee through the Bureau of Primary Health Care.
About Seamless Medical Systems
Seamless Medical Systems is the creator of the Seamless Paperless Patient Intake solution, a unique, mobile enterprise patient communications platform. Our platform seamlessly captures patient data during registration, exchanges it with EMR and practice management systems, verifies insurance, collects payments, and delivers personalized health education and marketing to healthcare consumers, at the point of care and beyond the office setting. The Seamless Paperless Patient Intake solution is currently deployed in 25 states, has logged over one million patient encounters, and has increased front office productivity of Seamless clients by 20 percent or more.
Contact: Melanie Lux, [email protected]
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