Preparing for Flu Season in athenahealth: Key Steps for Success
Flu season is quickly approaching, and healthcare organizations must ensure their athenahealth workflows are ready for the influx of patients. At Ignite Healthcare Solutions, we understand the importance of preparation. Below are the key steps your practice can take to ensure flu season runs smoothly and efficiently.
1. Use the New 2024-2025 Flu Vaccine Order Types
To manage flu vaccine administration more efficiently, athenahealth has introduced new order types specifically for the 2024-2025 flu vaccine orders. These new order types allow practices to better categorize and track flu vaccines for this season. However, it’s important to note that there may be a short delay before First Data Bank updates are available as vaccines are added. In the meantime, you can use order sets to manually add the vaccine. Check out athenahealth's guide on how to create and manage order sets to ensure you can continue administering flu vaccines without delays. Don't forget to update your consent forms, too, as well as your Order Type and Procedure Template mappings.
2. Update Lot Numbers for Vaccines
To avoid disruptions and ensure compliance, it’s essential to keep flu vaccine lot numbers up to date in athenahealth. This helps track inventory accurately, ensures proper documentation, and enhances patient safety. Following athenahealth's steps to update lot numbers will help ensure you’re ready to administer flu vaccines without any administrative issues.
3. Create a Designated Flu Shot Schedule
If you’re offering a stand-alone flu shot clinic, consider creating a flu-specific schedule with a dedicated non-person provider for streamlined scheduling and check-in. Additionally, mapping your flu shot appointment type to a focused encounter layout and flu-shot encounter plan can simplify documentation. With a high patient volume, an efficient process will be essential to prevent staff from feeling overwhelmed.
4. Implement Automated Wellness Outreach for Influenza
A great way to minimize the administrative workload while boosting patient engagement is through athenahealth’s Automated Wellness Outreach for Influenza. This feature automatically contacts your patient population to remind them to schedule their flu vaccine appointments. Automating this task increases compliance with preventive care measures and helps improve the patient experience, while freeing up staff time for other important duties.
5. Stay Informed with the Quality Resource Dashboard
To ensure you are always up-to-date with the latest flu season workflows and any changes within athenahealth, we recommend using the Quality Resource Dashboard. This tool provides critical updates on best practices and processes, allowing you to fine-tune your workflows for flu vaccine administration. At Ignite Healthcare Solutions, we suggest regularly reviewing the dashboard to make the most of athenahealth’s capabilities.
6. Staff Training and Preparation
As always, it’s important that your staff are well-prepared for flu season and fully trained on the latest workflows within athenahealth. Ignite Healthcare Solutions ensures that our consultants complete all necessary training with each release, including flu season updates. We then share these key insights with your team, so you can deliver the best possible care during this busy period.
Final Thoughts
Flu season can be a stressful time, but by taking advantage of athenahealth’s latest tools and following these preparation steps, your practice can handle the season with confidence. At Ignite Healthcare Solutions, we’re committed to helping you every step of the way—from workflow optimization to staff training and beyond.
Reach out to us today at info@ignitehs.com to make sure your practice is flu season-ready for 2024-2025!
