In the first installment of Terrifying, but True, Tales SourceMedical's Client Services team shared some frightful technology fails and scary human behavior. If those tales weren't scary enough, there are more!
The Client Services team at SourceMedical is back with some truly horrifying acts of ghoulish human behavior. Warning: what you are about to read is true. Continue if you dare…
The Invoice Graveyard
An effective billing process requires follow-through on outstanding claims. Sounds simple enough; yet for some, managing the claims of a busy ASC is a constant struggle. One biller's solution for dealing with a high volume of claims will surely send chills down your spine. Rather than asking for assistance from co-workers, the biller stashed six months' worth of claims in a filing cabinet that no one knew about (GASP)! As if this gruesome tale couldn't get any worse, when the new billing director came onboard the outstanding claims were shipped to her via Fed Ex in huge boxes. Bloodcurdling screams could be heard coming from the billing director when she received the boxes (and several tears were shed as well). While the biller's actions were truly wicked, what is even scarier is that no one in the billing office was paying enough attention to realize what evil actions were taking place. What a nightmare!
Phantom Dates
Medication safety is a key component of an ASC's patient safety efforts; this includes proper management of meds. For example, centers are required to make sure there are no outdated meds in the facility. To identify outdated drugs, most centers perform inventory spot checks on a monthly basis. For those that don't, the result can be truly frightful. One center learned this nightmarish lesson the hard way after it was discovered that the Viscoelastic on the shelf had expired 10 months earlier. The most spine-chilling part of this tale, the expired drug was discovered by a surveyor… during an accreditation survey! But wait… this nightmare gets worse! After this shocking find the surveyor went on and conducted additional checks throughout the facility and found more expired drugs, some that had expired a full year prior (EEK!). The horror didn't end there; when questioned by the surveyor it was discovered the consultant pharmacist didn't even know there was a refrigerator specifically for meds. Talk about scary!
Now THAT'S a Costume
Verifying a patient's insurance eligibility, deductible and co-pay responsibility prior to a procedure is standard practice at ASCs (if it isn't, it should be).This process also includes verifying a patient's identity via photo ID upon arrival for a procedure. For one facility, this seemingly standard process quickly turned into a hair-raising ordeal. A patient, using his brother's driver's license and insurance information, fraudulently had a procedure done using his brother's identity. This masquerade was not discovered until the deceitful "patient" went to the doctor's office for follow-up. After closer examination of the ID and chart, it was determined the ages were a little different and appearance slightly off. The ghoulish gig was up! The moral of this costume story, make sure a patient is who they say they are.