July 27, 2017

Why automate the CLINITEK Status analyzer workflow

The United States healthcare system is undergoing a change, as the emphasis shifts from curative to predictive medical practice. Amongst…

The United States healthcare system is undergoing a change, as the emphasis shifts from curative to predictive medical practice. Amongst this reshaping is an increased prevalence of point-of-care testing in primary care facilities, as these tests underpin the basis of predictive medicine, as the data they provide is essential.

Siemens CLINITEK Status

Urine tests are the most common test to be conducted in primary care facilities. As a result, you are likely familiar with the CLINITEK Status urine analyzer: the most common tool of the trade for Urology exams.

These devices are a vital component in providing point-of-care Urology tests, however utilizing them comes with a number of challenges to primary care facilities.

Urology testing: the key challenges

There are various inefficiencies involved with running point-of-care Urology tests in a primary care facility. Most of these inefficiencies transpire as a result of entering test data into the EHR manually, as 10-12 analytes will require actions at once.

Given the relative complexity of analysing urine samples, as there are many variables, and the requirement to take samples from every patient, it is unsurprising that the process can be tedious and that errors are common.

Let’s investigate some of these challenges.

Challenge 1: Data Accuracy

Data accuracy is of the utmost importance when running Urology exams at the point-of-care. Regardless of how excellent your members of staff are, they are bound to make mistakes when inputting test data into the EHR. This is forgivable (up to a point) but can have serious implications.

Audits are commonplace, to ensure that you are compliant with regulation. Whether on behalf of CLIA, or an insurance company, to have trouble free audits, you need a complete set of records that are error free.

This is a challenge that can have serious implications on the finances and reputation of your practice, but it can also use up a lot of time.

Challenge 2: Time Management

Relying on staff to input test data is also a laborious task. Given the quantity of Urology exams being run through Siemens CLINITEK Status urine analyzers, data entry can account for a significant portion of your practice staff’s workflow, which will often be secondary to more immediate, value adding tasks.

When you begin to add the time that members of staff spend on inputting data, you will be surprised at the cost. You will also be surprised by how this inefficient process affects patient perspective.

Challenge 3: Patient Experience

Estimates indicate that the process between beginning a Urology test and receiving the results on the corresponding patient’s EHR can take an average of 10 minutes. This is time that your patient should be spending discussing their plan and improving the outcomes of their appointment.

Delays in this process can lead to a negative experience for a patient, which is best avoided in a competitive healthcare market. Negative experiences can be reflected by poor patient satisfaction scores, which can make it difficult to find new patients, and act as a barometer for the approval of existing patients.

How Relaymed Can Help

These are some of the key challenges that are presented by running Urology tests at the point-of-care. By using Relaymed, these challenges cease to exist, as we automate the process of running a test from your Siemens CLINITEK Status and receiving the results in the EHR. Instead of taking 10 minutes, the process happens in an instant.

This provides a number of benefits to your practice and vastly improves the quality of healthcare that your practice provides.

By using Relaymed to connect your Siemens CLINITEK Status to the EHR, you can experience these benefits on a large scale. As we are already compatible with this analyzer, setup up is simple and can be conducted in an instant. Relaymed is also totally scalable, allowing you to try it on a few devices to begin with, in order to experience how easily it can work in your practice.

Learn more in our white paper, “The Importance of Connectivity for the Future of Point-of-Care Testing in Primary Care”.

Download White Paper

Further Reading

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