Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)
- General FAQ's
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General FAQ's (All Clinical Departments)
- What is AccuCore Quality Management & Peer Review application?
AccuPeerReview is an automated web-based solution for Peer-Review, Performance Improvement, and Quality Management program. It includes efficient quality event data collection, reporting and analysis for the entire healthcare organization/facility.
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- Can AccuCore be used at clinical departmental level?
Yes, it integrates itself at the user/ departmental level and thus improves the accuracy of data collected. Specific areas of quality concern include specialties such as Radiology, Anesthesiology and Pathology are addressed in separate functions in the application, each with the ability to capture supplemental data.
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- Does AccuCore offer a dashboard (road-mapping) functionality?
Yes, advanced rules and workflow automate final disposition of the event immediately in detailed standard or user-defined dashboards that include reports and graphs to establish current status, patterns and trends.
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- Does The AccuCore Group help with "outside" peer reviews?
AccuCore is an all-inclusive software application that supports your Peer Review and Quality Management Processes. We are not an outside peer review agency although we can support interactions between your organization and outside agencies if desired.
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- Can AccuCore be integrated in our facilities workflow? How can our PI department be incorporated in AccuCore?
Yes, performance Improvement workflow is designed to capture data from organization/facility IT/HIM/AIMS programs in real-time. Additionally, PI Liaison/representatives will have the ability to review and screen cases to determine if additional action is required such as refer case(s) to specific department to be peer reviewed. Automated workflow lends itself to a closed loop concept which includes providers' evaluation & scoring in addition to limitless data reporting output. Credentialing & privileging can be incorporated into the workflow.
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- How does AccuCore contribute to effective peer-review?
AccuCore program offers the following:
- Web-based 3-tier system built on today's latest open technology
- Can be universally applied to hospital, clinical departments and PI department
- Easy to use and flexible to assign role and execute a task
- Departments are in control of setting up threshold and benchmark for their chosen indicators
- Distributed workload to responsible faculties as to not to overwhelm departments' chairs
- Clinician evaluation & scoring card are already built in as peer review takes place
- Can be interfaced with your existing HIM system
- Is ICD-9 code compliant
- Objective peer-to-peer true review which increases clinicians' confidence level about process and subsequently increase participation & compliance
- Clinical indicators provide familiar terminology to clinicians
- Automated alerts minimizes the need for human entry and optimize system usage
- Avoiding fragmented systems, paper & penciled entry all save valuable time
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- Does AccuCore program offer providers evaluation and scoring system?
Yes.
- Providers evaluation & scoring supports a combination of clinical skills and soft skills.
- Evaluation and occurrence thresholds and scoring ranges can be assigned by each department program administrator.
- Clinical skills score are extracted from peer-review reviewed cases. A user adjusted mathematical calculation is displayed in the form of score percentage.
- Soft skills are derived from ACGME provider competency evaluation.
- The healthcare facility/department will determine the relevance of clinical skills vs. soft skills in contributing to final providers scoring along with color indicators in the dashboard.
- Recommendations for credentialing healthcare providers will be based on objective peer review data.
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- Can AccuCore work in "stages"?
Yes, there are three distinct however automatically linked stages.
- Pre-analytical stage
- Automatic triggering and reporting of the unwanted outcome(s) or manual triggering
- Department Level reporting driven is automatically collected by administrative coding, manual or clinical indicators. Data is peer-reviewed to produced quality data to be both fair and accurate
- Alerts are reviewed at departmental level to create a PI/QM-friendly environment for providers which encourages reporting of unwanted events
- Analytical Stage
- Automatic assignment of case in question to reviewer (e.g. Administrator, Chair or PI or Risk Mgmt liaison)
- Case is reviewed then triggers a final review which presents an objective provider's evaluation & scoring
- Post-analytical stage:
- Scoring dashboard includes combinations of objective provider's evaluations
- Supports reverse engineering of ICD-9 codes to insure an accurate account of occurrence
- Objective clinical and soft skills analysis (ACGME)
- Credentialing and Privileges reports are incorporated into the workflow
The PI Department and particularly the medical staff get the benefit. More detail means more accuracy.
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- Does AccuCore program safeguard anonymity?
Yes, ideally the clinicians' identity should remain confidential during the generation, auditing and validation of performance data. Failure to ensure anonymity could adversely affect the objectivity of evaluation and infringe on the privacy of the clinician whose performance is being reviewed. Greater automation of the performance evaluation process and allotment of a certain percentage of cases for mandatory peer review may help safeguard anonymity.
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- How efficient is AccuCore?
- Workload is distributed among all departments' eligible medical staff. i.e. free Department's Chair to tend to other administrative issues
- Eliminates redundancy in peer-review data between different clinical departments and hospital-wide peer review committee
- Lends itself to efficient and user friendly credentialing of medical staff
- Proactively email alerts to those involved in the process thus minimizing the need to review reports
- Effective peer review reduces Incidents and Medical Malpractice Claims
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- How accurate is AccuCore and can it help Administration?
- Aids in correcting administrative coding data when appropriate to minimize billing errors
- Reviewer comments e.g. multiple physicians, medical staff specialties to help insure fair analysis
- Department-specific question and comment screens are defined to facilitate the peer review process
- Offers peace of mind to physicians & hospitals that data produced is correct and valid
- Supports secure communications, automatically generated within the peer-review program
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- How can AccuCore Reporting help us?
- Presents quality indicators in a dashboard format which can be sorted by physician, services, specialty, procedure, diagnosis or other criteria. etc… for easy analysis
- Graphically tracks the review process simultaneously from multiple departments and committees to final resolution
- Department-specific question and comment screens are defined to facilitate the peer review process
- Automatically prepares for committee/department meetings with identification of pending reviews
- Provides peer review worksheets that can be attached to medical staff meeting minutes
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- What are the direct positive effects on an individual provider by using a robust peer-review AccuCore?
- Practitioner-specific clinical performance data have various uses and ramifications for individual clinicians. Collected on an ongoing basis, such data is necessary for credentialing and certification.
- As for licensing, the House of Delegates of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States declared in 2004 that "state medical boards have a responsibility to the public to ensure the ongoing competence of physicians seeking relicensing," although legislation to that effect will require state-by-state adoption of this policy. Performance data also may guide continuous self-improvement, and qualifications based on these data can be expected to affect healthcare choices of patients and providers.
- Pay-for-performance reimbursement, whereby a portion of the payment to a physician is based on his or her adherence to quality and efficiency standards, is increasingly common among public and private insurance carriers.
- Federal and state laws afford some legal immunity in situations relating to peer review for the purposes of improving the quality of healthcare services. The legal and malpractice implications of peer-review systems could be significantly minimized. Please consult with local Council for details.
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- AccuPathology® FAQ's
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AccuPathology® FAQ's
- What is AccuPathology® quality Management and peer-review program?
AccuPathology® automates Anatomic Pathology QA and Peer Review process. It integrates with existing Laboratory Information Systems (LIS) optimizing the Pathology Department's ability to provide accurate and timely diagnoses in support of clinical decision making. It monitors the entire test cycle identifying pre-analytic, analytic and post-analytic variables that contribute to diagnostic errors.
Benefits include reducing time performing/analyzing QA while increasing metrics and details to improve patient safety. Eliminates the pain associated with the management of SOPs, maintenance records, educational materials and OSHA documents leveraging check in/out, version control, distribution and reporting. AccuPathology® guides staff through QA and Peer Review and eliminates the painful crunch associated with generating periodic reports for Performance Improvement (PI), Credentialing, CAP and The Joint Commission.
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- Does AccuPathology® fully automate the QA & peer-review process?
Yes, AccuPathology® fully automates your QA, QM, and peer-review processes. To summarize, when deficiencies associated with quality indicators are identified, the reviewing pathologist is alerted to subcategorize the type of diagnostic error/deficiency. To the extent possible, the application assesses the clinical impact on patient care taking into account the relative risks by time at the time of discovery. Typically major diagnostic discrepancies are those that fulfill two criteria. The discrepancy must represent a significant change between the original diagnoses and the one rendered upon review. The discrepancy must potentially have a serious impact on the patient's treatment or prognosis. Examples include reversal of a benign diagnosis of malignancy, reversal of a malignant diagnosis to benign, and failure to recognize a specific treatable inflammatory condition (e.g. infectious organism). The primary and reviewing pathologists will enter data from the review process into the AccuPathology® Quality Management application.
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- Is AccuPathology® a self-Administrating Role-Based system?
Yes, the Administrator(s) have access to the Admin Control Panel that allows them to toggle various triggering indicators, mandatory fields, weighting factors, reviewers, etc… simply and without any special computer skills.
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- Can AccuPathology® provide dashboards and reporting?
Yes, dashboard diagnostic and summary reports include assessments of the quality indicator categories which can be stratified by department or individual provider. A thorough drill-down dashboard allows quick visual identification of any problematic areas. Quality data can be assessed quarterly, semiannually or annually by authorized users. It also resolves CAP requirements for assessing and reporting. The PI Department, Medical Director or others can address significant discrepancies or trends within the department as a whole or with an individual pathologist as appropriate. Significant findings are summarized in a written report and plans of corrective action are developed as necessary.
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- Can AccuPathology® fit into your current QA format?
Yes, AccuPathology® has the flexibility and innovatively to fit into your current review status. Furthermore, it can provide you the platform and automation to set up your review process.
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- What are the current quality assurance & peer-review types in anatomical pathology?
Random reviews, also known as re-reads, second-reads or case over-reads in which a second pathologist reviews select cases, is the most common pathology QA program in practice. A percentage of signed-out cases are selected at random and distributed to a second pathologist for review.
Over-reads are typically selected by a percentage of total cases or by specific diagnostic category or organ system. Random review QA programs can be extensive because many labs review up to 10 percent of their cases. Typically, the reviews are conducted minimally once a week by an assigned pathologist and can take up to several hours to complete.
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- Can AccuPathology® provide configurable Benchmarks and Indicators?
Yes, AccuPathology® can provide configurable benchmarks and indicators. These default standards have been chosen based upon recommendations from the Association of Directors of Anatomic and Surgical Pathology (ADASP) and College of American Pathologists (CAP). Furthermore, AccuPathology® provides the administrative tools to add, create, activate and deactivate your chosen indicators and benchmarks. Simply AccuPathology® has the flexibility and sophistication to adapt to your own rules and needs.
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- Can AccuPathology® interface with my current Laboratory Information System?
Yes, and much more.
- CoPath, Cerner, Sunquest (formerly Misys), PowerPath and others
- Daily Technical QA Monitoring (CAP)
- Hospital HIM/HIS data sources available to eliminate manual entry
- Credentialing application integration
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- Can AccuPathology® avoid potential bias from reviewer Pathologist?
Yes, AccuPathology® would avoid potential bias if it is chosen to be activated. Unfortunately, case over-reads are subject to a number of potential biases. For example, the reviewer may already know the original diagnosis and/or the identity of the sign-out pathologist. Reviews are most often done at the same facility at which the case was signed out, even in multiple facility institutions. This raises questions and/or concerns when multi-facility systems wish to have standardized quality across their institutions.
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- Can AccuPathology® review process be time consuming?
No, it takes not more than 5 minutes a day for peer- review & quality assurance input. On the contrary, preparation for re-reads is time consuming and subject to potential bias.
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- Can AccuPathology® program evaluate non-Pathologists staff as histo-tech, PA, etc?
Yes
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- Can AccuPathology® program address multiple facility systems that wish to standardize quality across their institutions?
Yes, one of many unique features about AccuPathology® reviews is the simplicity of its administrative tools. Most often review process done at the same facility at which the case was signed out. However, in multiple facility institutions/sites this raises questions and/or concerns when multi-facility systems wish to have standardized quality across their institutions.
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- What is OPPE?
Ongoing Professional Practice Evaluation (OPPE) Measurement of physician performance data to assess competency and approve privileges on an on-going, non-periodic basis to allow them to take steps to improve performance on a timelier basis. The OPPE must be a clearly defined process based on monitors recommended by individual departments and approved by the medical staff. The results of OPPE will be used to decide if current privileges should be continued, revoked, or limited.
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- Can AccuPathology® address OPPE?
Yes, AccuPathology® automatically compile and configure each provider OPPE with a click of a button.
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- What is FPPE?
Focused Professional Practice Evaluation (FPPE) Focused assessment of physician competency " This process focuses on a specific detailed area(s) of a pathologist's performance and may be used to accomplish the following:
- Privilege new pathologists
- Grant new privileges for a pathologist already established at a facility
- Facilitate the resolution of a potential concern
- Initiate general quality improvement
- Initiate quality improvement for a specific privilege or physician need identified by OPPE
The FPPE must be clearly defined and consistently applied. The process must have criteria for conducting the monitoring process and methods for matching the monitoring to a specific privilege and for establishing duration of monitoring. Triggers that would indicate the need for focused monitoring or additional monitoring must also be clearly defined. Interventions to resolve performance issues must be clearly delineated and consistently applied.
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- Can AccuPathology® address FPPE?
Yes, AccuPathology® can address FPPE in a seamless manner.
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- AccuDocument FAQ's
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AccuDocument FAQ's
- What is AccuDocument?
AccuDocument reduces time spent managing documents while improving productivity by making content easier to find. It reduces risk by enabling effective governance of Pathology information; at the same time ensure that information accessed through a central knowledge base is current and approved. In short, AccuDocument unites documents and Pathology processes for greater efficiency and compliance.
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- What are the benefits of AccuDocument?
- Reduce hospital corporate and Pathology Dept. risk through good governance practices
- Increase ROI through low cost of deployment and ownership
- Improve personal productivity and agility while meeting CAP, OSHA, ADASP and The Joint Commission requirements
- Leverages technology investment of the AccuCore Suite
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- Does AccuDocument organize and share electronic documents?
Yes, AccuDocument manages any type of electronic document in any file format. You can organize electronic documents into hierarchies of folders that reflect the different ways in which people work.
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- Does AccuDocument apply custom metadata to documents?
Yes, AccuDocument lets you associate extra information, called metadata, with documents. Metadata is indexed and can be used to easily retrieve and generate reports on documents based on your custom criteria. Each piece of metadata information is an attribute, and sets of attributes can be grouped into categories that can be associated with any document.
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- Does AccuDocument automate change request, review and approval processes?
Yes, AccuDocument automates document management processes, such as document change requests and document review and approval processes, to ensure that they are carried out accurately and consistently according to your own requirements or according to those imposed by regulatory agencies.
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- Does AccuDocument use permissions to fine-tune access to documents?
Yes, you can set up levels of permissions on a document. This helps you fine tune the type of access that you want to grant to individuals and groups based on hospital or department policies. For example, some users may not have the permission to even see a document, others may have the ability to add, edit, or delete a document.
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- Does AccuDocument provide audit all document events?
Yes, a comprehensive audit trail automatically records the date, time and performer of every type of event that can be performed on a document. Events that can be recorded include document creation, renaming, adding or deleting versions, viewing and so on.
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- Does AccuDocument provide a control and manage document versions?
Yes, control document versions and prevent multiple authors from overwriting each other's work using Document Management's check-out and check-in functions. When a user checks out a document, it can be viewed, but not modified, by other users. Users can access the complete version history of a document and view the content of previous versions.
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- Does AccuDocument generate usage reports document?
Yes, AccuDocument includes predefined reports, such as all department members who have certified they read a SOP.
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- Does AccuDocument offer Lab Process (Workflow) Management Functions?
Yes, predefined and ad-hoc routing during the workflow execution along with workflow instances execution monitoring.
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- AccuCredentialing FAQ's
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AccuCredentialing FAQ's
- How can AccuCredentialing help our organization meet or exceed regulatory requirements?
AccuCredentialing automates many of the daily tasks associated with Medical Staff Management allowing staff to focus on issues that could adversely affect credentialing, privileging, or reappointment. AccuCredentialing provides the ability to either manually scan current OPPE/FPPE practice reports into the system, or integrate with other AccuCore products to automatically support objective and efficient completion of the OPPE/FPPE processes.
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- Does AccuCredentialing have the ability to integrate quality data in support of reappointment, OPPE, and FPPE processes?
When paired with other AccuCore modules, data is automatically assembled into the appropriate reports to facilitate completion of the OPPE/FPPE processes as required by The Joint Commission and CMS regulations.
Since AccuCore products are web based and complement each other, Physician leadership can access the information and complete OPPE/FPPE tasks efficiently, rapidly, and objectively from any computer. Final documentation resides with the permanent physician file in the AccuCore system. Also, electronic files can be exported to a number of popular formats, should the need arise.
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- How can AccuCredentialing help us streamline our credentialing and privileging processes?
- If chosen, the Online Application System eliminates the need for a staff member to manually enter data into the system
- Whether through manual entry or the Online Application System, AccuCredentialing does not allow completion of the application until all areas of the application have been addressed
- Through use of the Worklist, tasks can automatically alert the appropriate staff member of a pre-determined occurrence to facilitate completion of tasks for the Medical Staff Department.
- Any supporting documentation can be scanned into the corresponding section of the application.
- A template for more than 70 different specialties' Core Privileging is provided within the system.
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- Does AccuCredentialing support online completion of applications?
Yes, the Online Application System allows for secure entry of the application by an applicant.
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- How does AccuCredentialing support tracking of practitioner specific information?
AccuCredentialing automatically analyzes practitioner information and prompts the practitioner or appropriate staff member when something is needed. An example is the tracking of the annual PPD requirement, where the practitioner is alerted that it is time for a PPD. The Medical Staff department is alerted if the report is not provided back to the department within a designated timeframe.
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- How does the AccuCore Group support the transition from our current Medical Staff Software product to AccuCredentialing?
Transmission of provider data into AccuCredentialing is at the discretion of your facility. Should your facility wish to transfer the current practitioner database into AccuCredentialing, AccuCore Group will work with your Information Systems department to interface the data into AccuCredentialing. Contact us to find out more.
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- What AccuCredentialing features support movement towards a paperless Medical Staff Office?
- Online Application System
- E-fax and E-Mail support
- Document scanning
- Web-based role-assigned access to complete tasks
- Role-based Worklists
- Export of reports to popular document formats
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