Quickly gather critical information on patients
Electronic Patient Interviews not only have the advantage that the patient is doing the data entry, but also that the patient completes the interview prior to being seen, so everything is electronically documented and in your hands before you meet with the patient.  Not only is the critical information that you need documented, you also have the opportunity to dig in deeper to fully understand the patient's situation before you embark on a specific course of treatment.

Meet ACOEM Guidelines
While monitoring the Primary Indicators of pain (every visit) and functional complaints, disability & psychological distress (at re-evaluations) and performing in-depth assessment when indicated works well, ACOEM has a simplified guideline of recommending in-depth assessment if the patient has not returned to work within 6 weeks.  One of the best tools for in-depth assessment recommended by ACOEM is the BBHI^TM 2 which can be queued or triggered in the Electronic Patient Interview.  The BBHI 2 does an excellent job of assessing for issues leading to Chronic Conditions and works so well that progressive insurers will reimburse for its use with no questions asked.

Reduce Medical Legal Liability
One of the major advantages of an electronic interview is that the information gathered is consistent & complete.  This may not sound that important, but if you are documenting medication decisions for example, you know that you have not forgotten to check something.  To the degree possible, you'll know that you have not missed something that indicates a need for further psych evaluation, and if further psych evaluation is needed you'll have documentation for doing so.  The Medical Legal Liabilities for Occupational Medicine clinicians are unusually high, and the more complete the documentation, the lower the risk.

Best Practices
The costs associated with delays in returning to work, or the more serious issues of chronicity or disability progression, are extremely high.  ACOEM guidelines advocate early detection and the informed Occupational Medicine clinician understands the value of monitoring the Primary Indicators from the initial visit through the entire course of treatment, enabling detected issues to be addressed as quickly as possible.  Using an Electronic Patient Interview with trigger logic at every visit, is a low cost, highly effective way to automatically perform early detection and monitor treatment effectiveness.  

Please Contact Us to learn more or discuss how Electronic Patient Interviews can be used for early detection in your setting.