Outsourcing may be the solution. While they're not for every practice, many urologists depend on contracted services to deliver caregiving that improves their patients' lives and advances the field. Here's a quick primer on medical outsourcing and five ways it's empowering urologists to achieve higher standards of care.
Outsourcing relationships fundamentally operate the same way in medicine as they do in other fields. Your practice will contract with an external provider who'll assume responsibility for the functions enumerated in the terms of the agreement.
Theoretically, there's no limit to the kinds of processes an outsourcing arrangement can cover: For instance, you might hire an outside party to handle clinical, business, or administrative work. Any use case is fair game, provided that you ensure your provider adheres to the same regulations and rules that govern you.
There have always been many reasons to outsource, but the COVID-19 pandemic brought one of the biggest motivators to the forefront: Hiring and retention challenges.
One MGMA Stat poll found that 73 percent of medical group practices anticipated staffing would be one of their biggest challenges in 2022. Other studies highlighted staffing shortages as contributing to medical errors, and more than 25 percent of urologists polled in the American Urological Association (AUA) 2021 Annual Census reported having to leave vacant positions unfilled due to revenue losses they incurred during COVID-19. As it becomes harder to maintain a reliable labor pool of competent, accredited staff, it's only natural that practitioners would turn to alternative strategies.
Make no mistake here: The pandemic may have accelerated the timetable for practices that were already considering outsourcing, but the change has been a long time coming.
Practices, hospitals, and clinics have been outsourcing different forms of essential labor for decades. The difference with this most recent surge is that technology has finally caught up, making it far easier to surmount hurdles like sharing medical records safely, conducting remote consults, and analyzing lab results rapidly.
There are several reasons why a practice might outsource certain functions:
With that intro out of the way, here are five areas you might not have thought of as being ripe for outsourcing-driven improvements.
As the name implies, telehealth entails the remote provision of healthcare services and information using telecommunications technology. In other words, it allows patients and at-risk individuals to consult with healthcare professionals in real-time without having to travel to a healthcare facility – A huge improvement in convenience and safety.
Telehealth exploded during the pandemic after national health organizations like the CDC promoted measures like social distancing and remote consultations. While your urology practice may no longer be eligible for the waivers and other incentives that initially drove the jump in adoption, the benefits of offering your patients telehealth services are still worth investigating. In fact, the AUA has touted the potential advantages of telemedicine since at least 2016.
It also helps that there are many ways for medical practices to outsource telehealth effectively. For instance, it's common to contract with an organization that specializes in secure telemedicine, but you can also hire individual providers, including remote experts whose insights would otherwise remain inaccessible.
Many urologists will end up choosing a sort of hybrid route where they use third-party services, such as HIPAA-compliant applications and dashboards, to let their regular staff provide telehealth consultations. This strategy can make it easier to see more patients without losing the face-to-face touch that often characterizes smaller and community-oriented practice business models.
Another interesting idea involves using outsourced telemedicine to supplement and track existing caregiving efforts. For instance, a patient might be more prone to adhere to a recommended course of treatment if they undergo virtual consults with a familiar doctor or nurse who can answer their questions and keep them on the right track. Such hybrid treatments might prove particularly effective in niche urological subfields, like smoking cessation.
Urodynamics, the study of how urine is produced, stored, and eliminated by the sphincters, bladder, and urethra, has many practical benefits for urology patients. For instance, it can obviously help diagnose common problems with the urinary system, such as blockages and leaks. Many of the symptoms highlighted by urodynamic tests can also reveal the existence of underlying conditions, such as incontinence, bladder stones, and UTIs.
Urodynamic tests commonly include a battery of specific procedures designed to measure urethral pressure, muscular response, bladder capacity, voiding pressure, and urine flow, to name a few. This wide scope makes sense considering the complexity of the bladder and related organs – Determining whether everything works properly often requires a comprehensive functional assessment.
While these tests aren't so complex that they defy practitioner understanding, it's important to remember that administering them isn't always straightforward. Not only do these procedures require exacting attention to detail from well-trained staff, but they also necessitate the use of expensive equipment, which can represent unsustainable burdens on providers.
Urodynamics outsourcing is the process of delegating urodynamic testing to an outside company. Modern providers offer a range of comprehensive testing services that come complete with the necessary equipment, trained staff to perform tests, and advanced result analysis using leading software. Some also make it possible to build a team within your practice by offering compliant training.
Outsourced urodynamics testing makes it easier to provide flawless services without having to shoulder the startup costs associated with purchasing new equipment and training staff. It can also be more convenient for smaller practices, which benefit from being able to schedule urodynamics tests on-site and serve a broader range of patients conveniently – without asking them to travel to labs for separate testing!
Many large hospital and clinic admins know that doing billing in-house isn't always the best option. That message still seems to be spreading among independent urology caregivers and clinics even though there are a number of clear reasons why medical providers should at least think about outsourcing their billing.
When you outsource your billing, you're essentially hiring a third-party company to handle all of the billing and coding for you. This can be a great way to save money because your provider will often benefit from an economy of scale that you can't access. For instance, you won't end up paying for as much billing software or struggling to maintain secure computer systems.
Outsourcing the billing record-keeping can also free your staff to concentrate on their patients. Since they'll no longer have to worry about billing and coding, they can spend more time dealing with clinical tasks instead of office work – not to mention investing in continued education and training.
Outsourced billing can also elevate your financial outlook by treating you to a more impartial perspective. For instance, if you've been working with the same in-house billing system for a while, you might tend to get mentally or emotionally invested in it, particularly if you improved it with your own in-house tweaks or hacks. Such insightful efforts aside, this kind of human-technology relationship can ultimately lead to tunnel vision, making it hard to spot inefficiencies on your own because you've grown so accustomed to them.
With billing outsourcing, you can take unbiased big-picture snapshots of your income and expenses. If you're smart, you'll use this feedback to paint a more accurate picture of your practice's financial health and make better business decisions.
Finally, outsourcing billing can improve your cash flow. Third-party companies are often able to secure payments from insurance companies and patients much more rapidly than medical practices can. If you struggle to keep revenue flowing, then taking a close look at how you do payments might help.
Lithotripsy treatments rely on high-energy waves or pulses to break up hardened masses, such as kidney stones. This non-invasive procedure varies in methodology, with ultrasonic, electro-hydraulic, laser, and mechanical means used to produce the shock waves that pulverize any undesirable objects.
As you might expect, this is extremely precise work. The use of high-energy lasers or mechanical actuators introduces the possibility of patient injury, meaning that training and reliable equipment are essential.
Even though lithotripsy is non-invasive, it's still as serious as any other procedure that requires general anesthesia. In other words, urologists who want to provide this service need to ensure their practices have the appropriate support systems in place before diving in.
Once again, it's clinical outsourcing to the rescue. Lithotripsy outsourcing makes it possible to provide compliant, accurate services without paying for extremely expensive lithotripter hardware that you'll rarely use. Being able to schedule a third party to come in as needed is the more sensible, cost-effective option.
Physical therapy isn't the first type of treatment that springs to mind when most people think about urology, but it can be a crucial aspect of delivering effective, holistic care. For instance, pelvic floor physical therapy (PFPT) is commonly prescribed to help patients address postpartum muscle strength issues, constipation, incontinence, and a range of other conditions having to do with the urinary tract and reproductive organs.
To derive the maximum advantages from a course of PFTP, patients need more than just an instructive exercise chart or helpful weblink. For this reason, most therapists start with an in-depth examination that may include palpitating muscles internally or externally. Therapy diagnostics may also be coupled with different forms of standardized urological testing designed to categorize the exact nature of the specific muscular dysfunctions involved in each case.
With all due respect to your skilled practitioners, physical therapy is beyond most urologists' knowledge: It's a highly specialized type of care that revolves around not only consistency but also expertise. This makes outsourcing the clear solution for expanding your service portfolio.
Working with a reputable outside provider to offer therapy on-site may be an attractive way to win loyal clients. Just like your patients, however, you have to commit to excellence if you want to reap the rewards. It's critical that you do more than merely go through the motions.
Having therapists come to your practice empowers you to provide superior care without having to augment your staff. It can also be an effective PR move that positions your practice as a more convenient alternative to other providers that only offer some of the services they recommend to their patients.
Urology is a complex field, and it doesn't help that practice management demands so much of your attention. From running the office to engaging with existing and potential patients, you're in a constant battle to juggle clinical, administrative, and other vital tasks.
Investing in urology outsourcing could be the best way to strike a healthier balance. No matter which direction you want your practice to grow in, partnering with reliable outside help can make it easier to serve your community, hone your craft, and drive sustainable revenues. To learn more about how urology practices are evolving to keep up with the times, discuss the options with a Brighter Health Network expert today.