Case study: The switch to eSigning unblocks an HME order
When a home health worker requested a clinician signature by fax to connect a patient to vital oxygen therapy, the signature was stalled for days and the patient was left waiting for almost a week. A switch to eSigning on the Parachute Platform got the order unblocked and the patient on track to receive vital care in less than 2 hours. No patient should be left gasping for air because a piece of paper doesn’t get where it’s supposed to go. Parachute Health’s ePrescribing can help eliminate HME / DME order confusion, encourage visibility and accountability, and stop delays before they start.
DME / HME ordering can be challenging for home health workers. With a geographically distributed home health workforce, varying levels of technology access, and the constant need to connect to signing clinicians to ensure orders stay unblocked, assembling all the necessary information and documentation is often both time-consuming and confusing.
Not only is homecare a challenging DME / HME ordering area, more patients are opting for homecare over nursing homes and other residential facilities. It’s a trend that’s been going on for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on staffing and patient safety in residential care has further intensified the shift — and the US elder population is expected to double between now and 2050, which means an ever-increasing elder population in need of safe, effective home health care.
One of the ways the Parachute Platform helps home health workers and their patients is by expediting order assembly and facilitating communication so that clean orders can be fulfilled quickly.
Here’s a closer look at a recent Parachute Health success story: When a home health worker requested a clinician’s signature on an oxygen order by fax, the signature was cut off in the original signed script, and a sadly familiar sequence of events unfolded. The clinician, who worked out of a busy metropolitan office that was geographically distant from the homecare patient, did not know that the order was stalled and as a result the patient was left waiting for crucial oxygen for 5 days.
Concerned for their patient’s comfort and safety, the home health worker called the office to locate the fax and ask the doctor to sign again or eSign on the Parachute Platform. Instead of a long wait for a doctor at a distant location to see and respond to a pile of dozens or even hundreds of blurry paper fax forms, here’s what happened next:
- The home health worker sent the signature request to the signing clinician digitally.
- The clinician received a notification by email and SMS with simple, easy prompts to verify identity, review the scrip and sign with 1-click, and completed the workflow within an hour of receiving the notification.
- The signed documentation was digitally sent to the supplier immediately to accept, which they did in minutes, going on to fill the order quickly.
- The home health worker got a notification with full order visibility, which eliminated the need for more follow-up calls.
The moral of the story? When home health workers switch to Parachute Health, rapid eSigning options can keep crucial HME orders unblocked by prompting clinicians to sign and offering easy, secure methods for doing so from virtually anywhere, on any mobile device. Home health workers spend less time chasing down HME for their patients, and patients get needed HME fast, without long waits and the associated risk and discomfort.
