Instant Messaging at Work??

Our IT guy set up instant messaging at work for us today.

We. Had. A. Ball. With. It.

Now. Instead of emailing gossip or venting about a patient that’s being a jerk to us (true story), we can send instant messages to each other!

I’m kidding. (Sort of).

We’re getting ready to try something different. I’m excited about it, but there are going to be some hiccups along the way – but if there’s one thing you can count on, it’s change.

Let me explain: part of my job is to pre-certify testing, MRI’s and CT’s. This means, I have to contact the patient’s insurance company and make sure they do not require a prenotification, or a precertification, before the patient has his/her test. If we don’t obtain this authorization before the patient has his/her test, it’s very likely the insurance will not pay their portion of the bill and the hospital will have to eat the cost because it was our fault for not getting the authorization.

This is stressful by itself, add in trying to find the time to do make the call, or sign onto an account online, in between patients, or worse, having to stop what we’re doing because we’ve worked a patient in for the testing and they can’t do the test until we have run the authorization request through the insurance company, and, well, IT GETS STRESSFUL.

Especially when the insurance company wants more documentation and/or denies it.

AWKWARD.

So. Management is looking at farming the precertification process to a department completely dedicated to the process. We’re the last clinic to get on board with this and we’re all REALLY excited about giving it up.

No really. I’m not being sarcastic – WE. ARE. SO. PUMPED.

But. We needed an effective, fast, and easy way to communicate with one another because ultimately, we’ll be still be the ones who make sure everything looks good before sending the final order to be processed and sent to the facility that is doing the test.

Enter instant messaging.

The IT guy got it loaded and working today, but not everyone’s is active. Mine is. And I played around with a few other girls that had theirs set up, but I’m mostly looking forward to giving the nurses a hard time. I work with some pretty awesome ladies and I can’t WAIT to tease them via IM.

Of course. I will be completely professional about it …

… most of the time. HA!

(Did I mention the program comes with all kinds of cutesy smiley faces?? Oh yeah … let the games, er, IM’s begin.)