Specialists are familiar with the demands of a busy practice. Between patient appointments, updating charts, and hospital rounds, your days are packed. Yet, you often receive curbside consults—quick, informal questions from referring providers who need guidance. These can come through hallway conversations, texts, emails, or unexpected phone calls.
While these curbside consults are essential for patient care, they can also disrupt your workflow, go undocumented, and unpaid. Without an easy way for referring providers to ask consulting specialists these quick questions, patients are often sent to specialists for problems that could easily be addressed via curbsides.
That’s why DocSide was created. This intuitive, affordable mobile and web-based solution allows consulting specialists to manage consults efficiently, capture charges, and easily document curbside consults, all while maintaining control over when and how they respond.
The Challenges Consulting Specialists Face Daily
Frequent Curbside Consults Without Structure
Referring providers often need quick, expert guidance, but without a formal system in place, these questions come in through random texts, calls, emails, or in-person drop-ins. These consults are necessary, but they are usually disruptive, undocumented, and not reimbursed.
Time Drain & Interruptions
You’ve had days where multiple curbside consults pulled you away from your patients. Every interruption can throw off a clinic’s rhythm, leading to delays and frustration for both providers and patients.
Lost Revenue from Unbilled Consults
Many consulting specialists provide valuable expertise without compensation because curbside consults are undocumented and unable to be captured on their EHRs. Over time, this adds up to significant financial loss—especially considering that each documented curbside consultation can earn 0.7 wRVUs, the same as a Level 2 follow-up visit.
Unnecessary Specialist Appointments
How often do you see patients referred for problems that could easily be addressed with a brief curbside consult? This happens a lot. In fact, some studies suggest more than half of referrals might be unnecessary if there was an easy way to conduct curbside consults. This would save time, money, and unnecessary stress for patients.
Fragmented Communication
Without a structured way to manage curbside consultations, miscommunications are more likely. An efficient way for healthcare professionals to share expertise across any care environment is needed to streamline these interactions without adding complexity to your workflows.
How DocSide Solves These Curbside Problems
Efficiently Manage Curbside Consults
With DocSide, specialists control when and where they respond to curbside consults. This platform provides:
- A structured way for referring providers to submit questions.
- An efficient process for tracking and responding to consults.
- A simple way for both providers to incorporate documentation into their patient records.
- An effective means for consulting specialists to capture reimbursement for work they are already doing.
By conveniently organizing curbside consults, DocSide replaces the chaos of interrupted clinics, unsecured texts, forgotten voicemails, and unending phone tag with a more efficient workflow. Providers can then focus on what matters most – their patients.
Enhance Referral Triage and Optimize Care
Specialists spend a lot of time providing care that could easily be addressed if there was a better way to collaborate on your patients. With DocSide, consultants can:
- Provide quick expert guidance through DocSide.
- Replace referrals for lower acuity conditions with more affordable care.
- Ensure referring providers have the information they need to optimize patient outcomes.
Everybody wins! Specialists get to focus on more complex cases. Referring providers expand the scope of their practices. Patients get timely, convenient, and more affordable care.
Capture Charges for Expertise
One of the biggest advantages of DocSide is that it allows specialists to capture reimbursement for their curbside consults. YES, in 2019, Medicare approved reimbursement for consultations!
- Earn 0.7 wRVUs per consult—the same as a Level 2 follow-up visit.
Instead of continuing to offer curbside consults as a professional courtesy, specialists can effortlessly document and capture charges for their time and expertise.
Seamlessly Integrate Into Existing Workflows
You don’t need another complex system to navigate. Fortunately, DocSide is designed to streamline your existing workflows.
- Mobile and web-based access allows specialists to document consults on the go.
- Works alongside existing EHRs and across all care environments—no need to overhaul current systems.
- Fast and intuitive, it was designed with busy healthcare professionals in mind.
This means no extra administrative burden, just a simple way to improve efficiency and capture revenue.
Call to Action
As specialists, your time is valuable. You want to provide excellent patient care without being buried in administrative tasks and be recognized for your time and expertise.
DocSide is the solution. Try it today and experience a more efficient, connected way to practice medicine.
