We have a lot of exciting news for you this month and top of the bill is our new app. I have no hesitation in saying that it will change your working life for the better.
We’ve been out and about spreading the app word, and it has faced an inherently positive reception in both Sydney and Melbourne over the past few weeks.
And, as I promised earlier, we are getting serious about social media. We’ve been busy tweeting and Facebooking, thanks to the inspiration of our newest staff member.
Margaret Faux
Synapse Medical Services
How app-t is that!
Australia’s first medical billing app Synapps is here and we’re convinced it’s going to make your billing easy as! Testing with a few of our doctors will commence a few weeks from now and we plan to have the new app available for you by the end of June. It will be free for our clients to download from the Apple iTunes Store.
What makes Synapps so good? Well, we’ve managed to dispense with patient stickers and consultation sheets. Hearing from doctors about their struggles with this paperwork, we just knew there had to be a better way. We’ve done away with writing out item numbers, scanning and faxing of forms.
Check out this YouTube video link and you’ll see what we mean: https://www.youtube.com/user/SynapseMS
As you can see, it’s easy to add patient names, choose Medicare item numbers from the menu and photograph patient stickers. Once you have finished adding the details, hit the send button and the information needed for processing is sent direct to the Synapse server – all from your iPhone. It will take seconds for you to input your billing after consultation.
For our existing clients, patient details and referring doctors already in our database can be imported to your app, so you won’t have to enter them one-by-one.
As well as being convenient, Synapps has a few tricks up its sleeve. We’ve been able to include Medicare rules to minimise billing errors. For example, if you are trying to enter billing details for item 880, which can only be claimed for the same patient every seven days and you’ve already billed that number less than a week ago, a message will pop up advising you that you won’t be able to proceed billing with that number and asking if you’d care to choose a different one. It’s an app that helps keeps you on track.
In the coming months further releases will include customisation for various specialties such as anaesthetists and paediatricians, an iPad and Android version of the app and a ward round function.
News on Synapps’s progress will be available via Twitter which you can also see on our website and secure area homepages which both now have a live Twitter feed.
Launching Synapps
Those who attended both the Geriatricians conference in Sydney in the first week of May and the World Congress for Neuro-Rehabilition in Melbourne in mid-May were able to trial the Synapps prototype and have a play. The feedback was tremendous, with everyone keen to download the app as soon as possible.
As part of our launch celebration, we held a “MediMind” quiz, and encouraged people to visit us on Facebook and Twitter. We tempted them to take part by giving away Kindles and Bang and Olufsen headphones. We want to thank everyone who participated in our quiz in both Sydney and Melbourne and congratulate all of our winners. We hope you had fun and might have even learned something new!
eReports – a new way to send your letters
eReports is an internal mail system that delivers your letters directly into the referring GP’s computer software. No printing and faxing or posting. GPs already receive radiology and pathology reports this way and with around 95% of GPs already set up for eReporting, it’s the best way to send your letters to them.
GPs prefer it because the file is delivered directly into their clinical system to the patient file. They also know as soon as the report has arrived, because a message pops up on their screen that it’s been received from a Specialist.
For those still wishing to have their letters faxed, we can continue to do that for you, but we are now eReport enabled so we’d encourage you to consider it – it’s a very convenient and secure ‘postal service’.
Contact us if you’d like to find out more about this service.
Remembering the bad-old, good-old days
Remember the time before Medicare when … ‘People didn’t come to the doctor because they could not afford to pay and so when they finally did come they were very sick. Often they would refuse to have blood taken or X-rays as they could not afford to pay the additional costs.’
Dr Lorraine Jones does and she recently shared her memories with me. You can read about it in an article we published in the most recent issue of The Private Practice. Click here to read more…
Ready … set … go!
We were recently asked to make a presentation of our transcriptions services to a large Radiology group. Their main concern was that we would be unable to turnaround their reports in the required timeframe of 30 minutes.
Here’s what happened … We went to their practice and gave them a live presentation. When we arrived, the practice manager selected a report which had been transcribed earlier that day by one of their own team. We were handed the report and, sight unseen, dictated the report into an iPhone using Dictamus, while the practice manager looked on. Then we sent the dictation audio file to the Synapse transcription team.
Did we meet their deadline? We did indeed! The report was typed and back with us and the practice manager in eight minutes flat – without a single error: 100% accurate.
A new face at Synapse
Having just completed her degree in Media and Communications at UNSW, Larissa Rankine joins Synapse as our Client Service Administrator. Well, that’s her official title, but we like to think of her as our social media guru.
She’s determined to develop our presence across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, making sure our communications with you are timely, to the point and full of the information you need now.
We like her and know you will too.
