If You're Not Doing These Three Things - You Are Wasting Precious Time.

Moving cases across your desk fast is vital for many reasons. Helping your clients and turning revenue around quicker are just a few examples. If mass tort, personal injury, and malpractice cases are the bulk of your work, retrieving records, from the perspective of a busy attorney, can be slow, frustrating, and expensive.

Examining how you request and whom you work with can profoundly change your record retrieval dynamics. Instead of hiring additional staff, spending hours on the phone verifying status, and doling money upfront to get the process going, consider these essential steps instead.

1. Make sure you have a complete request before sending it to the provider in question. The provider’s staff is juggling a lot of different tasks. Receiving requests that are not legible or incomplete significantly slows down the process. Instead, take the time to review the request and ensure that all pertinent information is included. This process adds a little time to the front end but makes it easier for the physician’s practice to fulfill.

2. Embrace electronic signatures for your requests. Although adding this tool to your process means investing in reputable software that will allow your client to review, fill out and sign the document electronically. Take faxing, scanning, and emailing or asking the client to come in to complete the request process saves time and, I dare say, is good customer service.

3. Work with a vendor that can centralize and streamline the entire record request and retrieval process and has a knowledgeable staff that reviews requests for completeness and accuracy. Conduct follow-up calls to expedite fulfillment, keep your clients informed, and provide tracking and communication.

Not all record retrieval partners support the efforts of a busy practice. Finding a partner that understands your workflow and works with a constant sense of urgency can transform the entire process and should be something you should consider.