NURSE
SmartText. Medlog intuitively guides nurses to send providers specific information pertaining to the patient’s chief complaint.
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MEDLOG HEALTH
SmartText Visits
SmartText Visits are asynchronous telemedicine encounters that, when implemented in your practice, can yield outsized results in provider efficiency, patient and nurse satisfaction, clinical outcomes, and practice bottom line.
How SmartText Visits work
Messaging with SmartText
We’ve created unique, physician-designed question sets specific to common chief complaints and patient problems that guide facility clinical staff to obtain thorough histories and exams prior to initiating the visit with you. Within these questions include places to upload labs, photos, imaging reports and video snippets giving you all the information you need to address the vast majority of patient issues online and asynchronously. What you receive is a context-specific foundational history and exam (when appropriate) within the first SmartText message allowing you to interpret the data all together before deciding on a plan. You can still securely ask follow-up questions and receive more data if required, while keeping all the encounter data together and tied to the patient.
Logging SmartText Visits
We designed a streamlined process for providers to log, sign, and generate documentation for each SmartText Visit. Once they’ve addressed the patient’s problem, providers can log the encounter (see image below) to set the level of care provided and submit the visit.
Below are the steps for logging a claim:
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Click log icon
Found in Message list or within the message thread
Select the billing practice
If you are associated with more than one practice​
Set level of care provided
This is a time-based selection, however providers should use their judgement on what level of service they provided
Updating SmartText Visit log
If a provider logs an encounter, and then subsequently receives additional messages related to that problem for that patient, the provider can change the level of care by re-logging the encounter (click LOG icon again). Note: this should be done prior to the end of the month to ensure updated log time is accounted for prior to submitting claims.
SmartText documentation
When the provider logs the encounter, Medlog generates a structured note that captures all the information shared by the nurse, the providers response, and any other communication in the SmartText thread. This documentation is tied to the encounter and patient’s record in Medlog.
Below is a sample SmartText Visit note:
Billing
Medlog automates the process of converting message-based encounters into claims. For all logged visits, Medlog codes the encounter and processes it against all other services delivered by the practice for that patient. The result is a clean claim set that is ready to be submitted for reimbursement. To ensure we are able to eliminate date of service conflicts and accurately identify which SmartText Visits are eligible for reimbursement, the practice must upload a CSV file with all in-person claims submitted by the practice over the prior month. This way, practices avoid submitting claims for SmartText Visits on the same date of service as an in-person visit. Practice admins and billing staff can use Medlog’s SmartOffice web app to upload the CSV batch file, access ready to bill claims, and export these claims as a batch (CSV or Excel).
Getting nurse buy-in
While nurses benefit from using Medlog Health’s app for patient-related communication, behavior change may take some nudging. If you find that some nurses continue to send traditional text messages outside of Medlog for patient-related communication, we’ve found the following strategies to be helpful for getting them to switch to using Medlog Health:
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Confirm they are users in Medlog. If not, you can invite them in less than a minute through the app. Go to How to invite nurses to learn more.
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Reply to their text message with a request to use Medlog. Here is an example message you can use:
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Some of our providers have created a shortcut on their phones that copies this message whenever they type “use medlog” in their text thread. Here are two guides for adding shortcuts on iPhone and Android devices.
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Discuss the benefits of using Medlog Health for HIPAA-compliant messaging with the facility’s Director of Nursing (DON).