%20copy.png)
.png)
Eric Glow, PT and VP of Clinical Services at Easterseals Central Illinois, has been in rehab therapy for almost 25 years. In that time, he’s heard complaints about every EMR he’s used.
That hasn’t been the case since he switched to Prompt.
“We don’t get complaints about Prompt from our clinicians, which is incredible,” he said.
Easterseals Central Illinois (ESCI) has served central Illinois families for over 105 years, providing physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and applied behavioral analysis.
Their old EMR wasn’t built for pediatric workflows, which resulted in Eric and his team needing to create manual workarounds that were ripe for human error. Prompt allowed them to automate almost all of those processes, increase their productivity, and spend more time connecting with patients and their families.
Since switching to Prompt, ESCI has seen:
- 33% increase in co-pay collections with Kiosk
- 95% of documentation is completed within working hours
- 50% decrease in documentation time
- 15% increase in schedule utilization
- 10% increase in productivity
Before Prompt: Relying on manual workarounds
Before switching to Prompt, Eric says the team really struggled with cash collection, authorization tracking, and the amount of time clinicians spent documenting.
Like many EMRs the team evaluated before Prompt, their old system was an adult therapy product with pediatrics tacked on at the end. To fill the gaps, the team created workarounds, but each one added manual effort and a new chance for mistakes.
“We created a lot of workarounds, but almost all of them were incredibly labor-intensive. They relied on manual processes and were ripe for human error,” Eric said.
When ESCI started looking for an EMR, automation and the ability to streamline their processes was a high priority.
“Prompt really stood out for having the ability to meet the compliance and regulatory needs, but also the ability to fit the needs of the multi-discipline and the [ability to] customize within each provider to give them exactly what they are looking for,” Eric said.
Everything flows from the time of check-in to the time of claim submission and then even after claim submission.
Since making the switch, every department within ESCI has felt the benefit. Prompt has created efficiencies within the scheduling and back office teams, which in turn has improved clinical outcomes, because the team has all the information they need right from the start.
“Everything flows from the time of check-in to the time of claim submission and then even after claim submission, where that wasn’t the case in many of the other processes we had before,” Eric said.
Rolling out AI with intention
Eric said many of his clinicians were skeptical about the idea of an AI scribe simply because of the nature of pediatrics. They were concerned some of the activities they often do during visits might not translate to a note via a scribe, and as any pediatric clinician can tell you, sometimes the conversations during a visit may wander off topic.
To help combat this, Eric and the rest of the leadership team rolled out Sidekick very deliberately.
“We’ve been very intentional in how we’ve rolled [Sidekick] out,” Eric said. “We had a small group of test users, and what we’ve seen is after we’ve figured out how it works within our system and that it’s not as clunky as people thought it would be, more people are interested in trying it.”
Now that more of the clinicians at ESCI have begun using Sidekick in their visits, they’re seeing first-hand how Sidekick is actually built with pediatric care in mind.
They are amazed at how accurate the notes are [with Sidekick].
“They are amazed at how accurate the notes are and how the tool is able to weed through some of the potential chaos or side conversations that happen during every pediatric session,” Eric said.
And from a leadership perspective, Eric has seen how being able to capture the entirety of the visit in the moment has improved his clinicians’ note accuracy and compliance.
“Our compliance and the accuracy of the notes are even better than before because they’re not having to sit and recall what happened that morning or the day before. They’re getting real-time data, and they’ll go in and tweak it however they might want to tweak it, but it’s really been a time-saver,” Eric said.
As a result of using Sidekick, ESCI has been able to cut their documentation time by over 50%, and 95% of all notes are completed during working hours. Eric was shocked to see this and says it’s been a game changer.
An unexpected lift in co-pay collections
Out of ESCI’s 2 locations, 1 has implemented Prompt Kiosk to encourage their patients to use self check-in. Now, about ⅓ of patients at that location check themselves in when they arrive, something leadership wasn’t quite expecting.
Eric said because their front desk was doing a good job before Kiosk and had a good rapport with patients, they weren’t expecting a huge change from implementing Kiosk. But, since rolling it out, their collections for copays has increased by 33%.
An additional benefit of Kiosk, Eric said, is that it “freed up our front desk team to tackle a lot more of the bigger tasks. They’re able to focus their attention on bigger projects and things that are coming up.”
Positive impact on every aspect of the business
Since implementing Prompt, every team at ESCI has seen a concrete positive impact.
“Since starting with Prompt, scheduling has become much easier. We’re starting each month with between 10 to 15% more visits on the schedule than we were before transitioning. And once clients are on the schedule, it flows great,” Eric said.
With that increase in scheduling, Eric’s team has seen over 10% increase in their productivity as well. “And it’s very important that when I say that, we’ve also seen our documentation time reduced by over 50%,” he said.
A system built for pediatrics
The work at Easterseals Central Illinois is demanding, but rewarding. As Eric puts it, “each small gain enhances the lives of the children and of the families.” Work like that needs tools that fit it, not the other way around.
I think Prompt has done a really good job of wanting to understand the pediatric practice and the fact that pediatrics is different.
“I think Prompt has done a really good job of wanting to understand the pediatric practice and the fact that pediatrics is different,” he said. “They’ve built a system that supports each of those disciplines in a way that they’re able to feel confident in their EMR, not that they’ve been shoe-horned into a system that wasn’t built for them.”
