Handling patients faster and better
What makes a Patient Advocate an effective solution for this difficult patient population is the time she or he spends face-to-face with patients. "Face-time" is very important but it is, well, "time consuming." The best advocates spend as much time as possible with their clients and, as a result, can only assist so many people.
One way we can help advocates work faster and better is to remove as much of the drudgery and paperwork of the job from them. Computers are not very good at human "face-time', but they excel at paperwork and the tedious tasks such as finding forms and keeping records.
From prescription to completed application in minutes
Once the patient data has been saved in the system, things happen very quickly. Defining and saving the new script means making a few selections from lists. The form is returned within seconds. The longest part of the process is waiting for the printer.
After the form is printed:
Once the printed form is in hand the process continues normally. The printed form must be signed by both the physician and the client/patient, and then mailed to the pharmaceutical manufacturer along with the patient's documentation of income. (We're working on ways to make this step easier as well. Stay tuned!)
The more you use PDA, the more patients are already in the system, and the faster your advocates are able to handle their clients. What will they do with all that freed-up time? Give your patients what they need most, a bit of friendly "face-time."