Terri Embry
Mar 17 2025
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Digital tools developed in the past 10 to 20 years have completely changed the way most Americans work. But in some ways, it has taken healthcare providers longer to catch up. The COVID pandemic heightened the expectation that healthcare should function like Amazon or Dominos, for both caregivers and patients. People want the ability to quickly and easily find the information they need.
Today, the competency of clinicians and organizations is directly dependent on the ability to quickly get accurate, correct information. A knowledge gap could be detrimental not only to a patient, but also providers and the referral sources who rely on their clinical expertise. What’s more, convenient, fast access to patient data is vital for an organization that wants to grow, since overburdened employees simply won’t have the capacity to take on additional patients if they’re mired in old fashioned paperwork.
Robust, effective digital solutions can transform care for providers by letting clinicians quickly gather and share important data. These technology tools offer many benefits for improving care in post-acute settings, including reduced paperwork, more complete documentation and eliminating phone tag. We’ll cover some key areas you should evaluate when considering adopting new tech tools.
Reducing the documentation burden
Staff burnout is a real thing that creates its own set of challenges. When an organization implements a communication platform that has interoperability with the EHR, helping eliminate duplicate work, it can drastically improve the staff experience. It’s important to find a secure way to reduce the documentation burden and coordinate care at every step of the process. Let’s start at the beginning: intake.
A robust tool will make it easier to ensure patients have completed required paperwork before starting treatment. Getting forms for consent to bill and provide treatment is the lifeblood of a post-acute care organization. Without that documentation, every time any caregiver provides care, they can be in violation of the law. If there’s no consent, the provider can’t bill, which affects cash flow.
The right digital tools can also expedite compliance and claims submission. Tools like CitusHealth can send electronic forms to patients, track whether they’ve been signed and returned, and send reminders when needed. Using these kinds of tools can make it easier to gather required information in a timely manner. In fact, many of our clients are seeing consent forms returned in less than 24 hours with a 90% return rate, easing the burden of chasing down documentation for staff.
Digital exchange of admissions information
Being able to quickly and accurately exchange patient data with other providers—especially during the admission process—is a challenge. Interoperability is a major part of streamlining that process, but interoperability usually requires integrating systems within an EHR. Some providers still use fax or unencrypted email to exchange information, but those methods can be time-consuming and are not always secure. Some agencies rely on drivers to deliver documentation to speed up the process and help ensure security, but that comes at a higher cost.
Having the ability to securely send information app-lessly, meaning no download of an app is required, opens up the data exchange process to any provider or patient. Users can send information to a physician’s office or a referral source without that office needing to download anything. And It’s all secure.
Patient support made easier
It’s important to remember that even though patients get instructions and education during an office or home visit, they generally remember only 10 to 15 percent of what they’re told. Digital tools can relieve the burden on caregivers by offering resources that help patients find answers about their therapy or know when it’s appropriate to contact their service provider.
Now that hospitals are penalized financially if a patient returns within 30 days of discharge, there’s great incentive to keep treatment on track. Digital tools can help prevent escalation of issues that might otherwise cause a patient to return to the ER. For example, if a patient is worried that their IV isn’t working correctly or they’re having a bad reaction to a medication, a secure appless video chat with a clinician can quickly and conveniently lead to an evaluation and next steps to keep the patient safe and healthy—and help prevent issues from escalating.
These kind of secure, real-time workflows also help with work-life balance for home and clinic care staff. For example, if a patient has an issue outside of office hours, a provider can use video chat to evaluate and offer advice. This has the potential to save the clinician the effort of driving to a patient’s home in the middle of the night for what might be a relatively minor fix.
Better care coordination enables growth
Your staff works hard to deliver timely, coordinated, accurate care. Having the right technology tools to make their job easier is really the only realistic path to staff retention and organizational growth. Tools like CitusHealth give them the complete information they need to deliver high quality clinical care while also easing the burdens of managing paper forms, gathering required documentation and coordinating care with other providers.
