Nurse Staffing – Time for a Change in Thinking

There was another interesting article from HealthLeaders Media that the nurse staffing factoring specialists at PRN Funding felt would be beneficial for our nurse staffing friends to read. Entitled Nurse Staffing Costs Must Be Weighed Against the Cost of Errors, the article author believes that hospital executives need to pay closer attention to studies that show how nurse staffing affects a hospital’s overall performance and base staffing decisions on those findings.

Kathy Douglas, MHA, RN, president of the Institute for Staffing Excellence and Innovation, CNO of API Healthcare, and a board member of the journal Nursing Economic$ was quoted in the article saying: “Staffing costs sit in one part of the budget, so we think of the results there. Then the cost of errors sits in another part of the budget. If I could say one thing to healthcare executives it is to make staffing a top strategic priority in your organization. If you look at top priorities-LOS, safety, quality-all of these things have direct links to staffing.”

Moreover, Douglas gave an example of looking at things from a bigger perspective. She said that some hospitals that have cut back on staffing may not notice that it is overusing overtime and it might not notice that there’s a relationship between the overtime and the number if infections on a unit.

Study Shows Temp ER Nurses Could Be a Safety Threat to Patients

The nurse staffing factoring specialists at PRN Funding came across a piece of research that we believe is important to share with our Nurse Staffing Industry readers.  Due to the perceived credibility of the source of the study it is imperative that any company that provides supplemental medical staffing be aware of the study and prepared to address the underlying issues.

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine announced new research showing that temporary ER nurses may inadvertently be a threat to the patients they serve. Specifically, the study found that temporary nurses were twice as likely as permanent employed nurses to have medication errors in the hectic and fast-paced emergency room environment.

Although the studyimplicated temporary nurses, the authors stressed that temp ER nurses are not the only ones to blame for these shortcomings. The authors cited various reasons for ER errors, including the fact that many hospitals don’t give temporary nurses the same level of consideration and training as they do for their permanent staff.

Click here to read the official press release: Temporary ER Staff Poses Increased Safety Risk to Patients.

ACCIM Plans to Certify Medical Scribes

Medical scribe training and accreditation programs have been popping up much more frequently, as the demand for up-to-date EMRs continues to climb. The American College of Clinical Information Managers (ACCIM) has plans to begin a national accreditation program for medical scribes. The ACCIM’s medical scribe program will be carried out online with a certification exam at the conclusion. In addition, the non-for-profit organization will continue to provide resources to the public and scribe programs by following hospital trends and providing information with respect to statements by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as well as The Joint Commission as they relate to the industry.

More importantly, scribe programs that don’t consistently apply and maintain the minimum standards set forth in the ACCIM’s accreditation program will not be considered certified.

Click here for more information on New Group Seeks to Certify Medical Scribes.

ACE11 Recap

All in all, the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) 2011 Conference was a memorable one. Phil Cohen and Taylor Materna represented PRN Funding in booth #406 at ACE11 last week in Phoenix. They had the opportunity to speak with a number of MTSOs about the benefits of medical transcription invoice factoring.

Arriving back in the office today, the two had some overall thoughts to share about their experiences…

  1. They both felt that the show was run incredibly well.
  2. They had a steady stream of traffic at the booth, thanks in part to the Treasure Hunt promotion.
  3. The attendees were ready and willing to engage and learn about transcription factoring.

However, the biggest realization the medical transcription invoice funding specialists walked away with was that CDIA and AHDI need to combine forces and put on one big medical transcription conference in 2013.

Question: What do you think about CDIA and AHDI putting on one medical transcription conference in 2013?

MTChat Moves Back to MTDesk

That’s right! MTChat is moving back to MTDesk.com. The owner of both sites, Lisa Algeo, wrote a guest post on ADVANCE Perspective’s HIM Blog explaining the new change.

Ms. Algeo acquired the site in 2009 from Elsevier when they could no longer commit to running both sites. Ms. Algeo was excited to move the open source online style guide wiki that she has been working on at MT Reference to MTDesk. Over the next two years, MTChat’s forums were not as popular.

At the same time that MTChat participants were dwindling, Ms. Algeo had made significant improvements to the wiki platform being used at MTDesk, and she used that to create active forums on MTDesk.

She said in the blog post: “After reviewing the site statistics for both sites, I felt bringing the discussion forums back to MT Desk would benefit both sites and make it easier for me to manage the forums while continuing to build the reference wiki at MT Desk.”

As for the future, the forums on MTChat will remain active for some time, however, they all will eventually be migrated to MTDesk, and then MTChat will close permanently.

Click here to read Ms. Algeo’s blog post in its entirety: MTChat is Moving Back to MTDesk.

How Important is it for Nurse Staffing Agencies to Pay Payroll Taxes on Time?

From time to time, the nurse staffing invoice funding specialists at PRN Funding gets asked a question that we think our nurse staffing readers would appreciate hearing about. So today, our nurse staffing factoring staff are answering:

How Important is it for nurse staffing agencies to pay payroll taxes on time?

In short, VERY! Nurse staffing business owners may be able to dodge the bullet for a bit, but not paying your payroll taxes on time will catch up on business owners eventually. When the IRS discovers that a nurse staffing agency owner is behind, the punishment can cost the agency dearly.

The good news is that there are ways to catch up on back taxes. The best way for staffing agencies to stay in good-standing with the IRS is to respond to their calls and letters, and once a re-payment plan in is place, agency owners need to honor their commitments. Demonstrating a willingness to cooperate with the IRS helps nurse staffing agency owners avoid an IRS tax lien on his/her business.

It’s important to note that when a nurse staffing agency has a factoring relationship, the factor will be most likely want to see proof that payroll taxes are being paid. Nurse staffing invoice factoring companies will ask for this proof because the IRS is the only entity who can trump a factor’s lien.

Small Companies Need Business, Not Credit

Did anyone see the article entitled Small Firms Hunger for Sales, Not Credit in Friday’s Wall Street Journal?

The invoice funding specialists at PRN Funding thought the article was interesting because it brought to light the fact that small businesses aren’t really having a hard time securing funding these days, rather, they’re not looking for it at all. According to polls and surveys conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the National Federation of Independent Business, The National Small Business Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the main challenge small businesses are facing is lack of customers.

Question: What are your biggest business challenges?

Learn about Medical Transcription Factoring at ACE11

Phoenix, AZ – The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI)is holding its Annual Convention and Expo at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge August 17-21, and PRN Funding, LLC will be in booth #406.

MTSOs and business owners interested in learning about an alternative form of financing can meet with the owner of PRN Funding, Phil Cohen, and Account Specialist, Taylor Materna, during exhibit hours.

In addition, AHDI attendees are encouraged to stop by PRN Funding’s booth to get a sticker as part of the Wheel of Prizes game. After visiting with participating exhibitors and collecting stickers, attendees can turn in their completed cards for a chance to spin the Wheel of Prizes.

Click here to read the official press release: Learn about Medical Transcription Factoring at ACE11.

8 Things to Love About Speech Recognition Technology Editing

Just in case our medical transcription readers missed it, the July issue of Plexus Magazine had a little write-up about SRT editing, entitled: Eight Things to Love about SRT Editing. The medical transcription factoring specialists at The Factoring Blog re-printed them below:

  1. The natural language processors is sometimes better at deciphering accents compared to the human ear. As long as sound quality is god, ESL dictators are usually easier to edit compared the typing.
  2. For slower typists, high gains in production through editing may be possible.
  3. With practice, most transcriptionists can becomes successful medical editors within three months.
  4. Back-end editing can keep costs to the client low, and the client will less likely consider alternative means of documentation thatseek to remove transcriptionists and editors form the equation.
  5. Less wear and tear ib tge hands, wrists, and shoulders; this is further minimized with utilizing a word expander to do the editing.
  6. Editing can actually be a wonderful learning tool. Often speech recognition already knows a term the MT has not yet been exposed to. Research can then confirm if SR was right. It can also help the MT learn a lot of the ESL accents. Seeing the typed word and comparing it to the voice file can help MTs learn how specific accents are likely to pronounce certain words.
  7. Transcribing is limited by how fast your fingers can move. There is only so fast one will ever get transcribing once the expander is being fully utilized. With SR, you can teach your expander to do more of the work.
  8. For some it is easier to catch SRs mistake’s than it is to catch your own. After a point, you can almost pick out the errors at a glance. Over time your brain becomes trained to pick these things out of the document quickly.