Objective
Send reminders to patients per patient preference for preventive/follow-up care.
Description
More than 10% of all unique patients seen at least two times within the last 24 months before the start of the reporting period were sent an appropriate reminder during the EHR reporting period.
Performance metric
Denominator
Count of unique patients who were seen by the eligible provider (EP) at least two times within 24 months of the start of the reporting period.
Numerator
Portion of the denominator receiving a message via either the Web View portal or RelayHealth portal OR printed letter OR a phone call generated through Batch Communications.
Ratio
The resulting percentage should be more than 10%.
Exclusion
Any EP who had no office visits in the past 24 months.
Configuration
PRUtils
Before Patient Records can retain data to report on the metric for Generation of Patient Reminders, two PRUtils settings, Audit New Records and Audit Batch Communication Actions, must be enabled.
To run PRUtils:
1. Make sure that all users are out of the system, all interfaces (PP Connect) are turned off, and all data and application services are stopped.
2. Access PRUtils through the client folder.
3. Users with appropriate access must sign in to the initial login screen and then provide the PRUtils password.
4. Select the Audit Trail tab and select the Audit New Records and Audit Batch Communication actions check boxes.
Access levels Chapter 12 - Core Objective 12 - Generate Patient Reminders
5. Click the OK button to save changes and exit PRUtils.
Access levels
Administrators with appropriate access use the Batch Maintenance jobs to set up and manage the different jobs that are set up.
Users who will be running the batch jobs must have access to do so.
Access Levels > Reports > General Reports > Batch Communication Job Setup Access Levels > Reports > General Reports > Run Batch Communication Job
Steps to access and edit access levels have not changed since previous versions of the product.
Use the same steps as before.
Configuration notes
Although the setup of a Batch Communication job is listed in “End user training” on page 101, it may be completed as part of overall configuration by an administrator.
Chapter 12 - Core Objective 12 - Generate Patient Reminders End user training
End user training
In order to generate patient reminders in Patient Records, users need to:
1. Set the patient’s reminder preference in Patient Demographics.
2. Generate a patient inquiry file.
3. Run batch communication using the file generated from the patient inquiry.
Patient Demographics
The options available from the Preference for reminders drop-down list on the Patient screen are Printed, Portal, or Phone.
The Portal option is appropriate only for patients who are set up to receive electronic messages via RelayHealth or Web View.
To set a patient's reminder preference:
1. Click the Patient button on the toolbar. The Patient Lookup screen appears.
2. Enter the search criteria and filters you want to use to narrow the search and click the Lookup button.
3. In the search results table, highlight the appropriate patient and click the OK button. The Patient Edit screen appears.
Figure 61. Patient Edit screen
4. On the General tab, select an option from the Preference for reminders drop-down list and click the OK button.
5. Repeat these steps for all patients for whom you want to set a preference.
Patient Inquiry Chapter 12 - Core Objective 12 - Generate Patient Reminders
McKesson recommends that you complete this process at the time of registration for all new patients and at check-in for all established patients.
Patient Inquiry
In order to send out patient reminders, a list of patients who are to receive reminders must be generated via the Patient Inquiry feature.
Detailed steps on how to run Patient Inquiry are located in “Core Objective 11 – Generate Patient List by Problem” on page 91. You also can refer to the Patient Inquiry topic in the online help.
Batch Communication
This feature allows operators to automatically generate outbound communications in bulk (that is, multiple separate communications generated in one process), such as alerts to patients about the need for preventive services, or alerts to users about patients who need follow-up care in Patient Records.
Operators can generate patient lists for batch communication jobs using Patient Inquiry and the Overdue HM List report. Operators then can create jobs using the lists and run batch
communication to generate printed letters or send web messages via Web View or RelayHealth to the list of patients. After a job has been run, the letter is saved in the Letter section of the Patient Chart for each patient whom it was printed for or transmitted to.
Setting up batch communication jobs
Operators can set up batch communication jobs to generate printed letters or web messages to send to patients. When setting up a batch communication job, operators can specify the communication details and configure its output.
To add a job for printed letters:
1. Select Reports > Batch Communication. The Batch Communication Select screen appears.
Chapter 12 - Core Objective 12 - Generate Patient Reminders Setting up batch communication jobs
2. Click the New button. The Batch Communication Detail New screen appears.
Figure 63. Batch Communication Detail New screen
3. Enter the name and description for the new job in the provided fields.
4. To attach a Patient List file (under Subjects), click the Browse button to navigate to a previously-created patient inquiry file (.inq) and then click the OK button.
5. In the Output section, enable the desired modes of output by selecting the Printed Letter and/or Portal Message and/or Phone Message options. You may select more than one type of output for a reminder.
Setting up batch communication jobs Chapter 12 - Core Objective 12 - Generate Patient Reminders
6. For each of the output options selected, designate a letter template in the Template field by clicking the Select button, which displays the Letter Templates Select screen. This screen displays a list of all letter templates in the system.
Figure 64. Letter Template Select screen
Although a different letter template may be used for each type of output, McKesson
recommends that the same template be used for all output types for the sake of consistency and easy tracking of data.
7. Select the Exclude patients with Web Message access option to exclude patients with access to Web View or RelayHealth.
8. Select the Exclude patients without "OK to Mail" recorded option to exclude patients that don't have the OK to Mail check box selected on their Patient Demographic screen.
9. Select one of the Limit to patients with recorded reminder preference options if operators want to exclude patients based on the Preference for reminders field on the General tab of the Patient screen. For example, if operators select Printed, reminders will only be generated for patients with this selected preference.
10. Click the OK button.
Chapter 12 - Core Objective 12 - Generate Patient Reminders Running a Batch Communication Job
Running a Batch Communication Job
To run a batch communication job:
1. Select Reports > Batch Communication. The Batch Communication Select screen appears.
Figure 65. Batch Communication Select screen
2. Highlight the batch communication job and click the Run Job button. Click the OK button at the confirmation message.
3. The Batch Communication - Job Status screen displays the status of the job. If running a printed letters job, the Windows Print screen may appear. If it does, select a printer and then click OK.
4. When the job is complete, the Job Summary screen displays the job's details. To retain the contents of the Job Summary, you can highlight all of the text inside the box and copy and paste it into a Word document.
Figure 66. Job Summary screen 5. Click the Close button.
End user notes Chapter 12 - Core Objective 12 - Generate Patient Reminders
6. When the job is complete, a list of recipients who received the latest reminders can be found by highlighting the job on the Batch Communication Select screen and clicking the Recipients button. The Batch Communication Recipients screen appears.
If you want to copy this list, click the Copy button and paste the list into a Word document.
Figure 67. Batch Communication Recipients screen
End user notes
• The act of running a batch communication job triggers the performance metric for this objective.
• The batch communication job should be run at least once during the reporting period for the EP.
• The batch communication job needs to be set up only once (before the first time it is run). If no changes are needed to the output options or the letter templates, subsequent runs may be done with a new current patient list file simply by highlighting the job on the list and clicking the Run button.
• McKesson recommends that EPs create a current patient list using the Patient Inquiry feature prior to every run.
• Patients who opt to receive their reminders via the portal option will receive portal messages