There is no pre-registration with the hospital’s Electronic Health office certified Electronic Health Record (EHR), meaning unless you are at the hospital to be treated or to use their services, you cannot just register.

“It’s then and there you will register,” says Ray Talaleelei Tulafono, LBJ’s Chief Information Officer, who heads the hospital’s Information Technology Office.

The CIO was responding to Samoa News questions following complaints by the public alleging that no one can pre-register. A mother of 15 contacted Samoa News last week, saying that she took in all of her (adult and minor) children’s proper documentation, assuming she would be able to register her children, due to the long wait.

However she said, she was surprised that she was not allowed to pre-register and she found it “ridiculous” that the hospital system will only allow registration when a person is soliciting LBJ’s health care services.

“I don’t want my children to come to the hospital and wait. I want them — if and when they are sick — to just come in, pay to see the doctor and then see the doctor…not go through a series of questions, when in fact, they need the medical attention, more than being questioned!” said the frustrated mother.

The CIO told Samoa News that LBJTMC cannot intake info and register a patient without creating a hospital visit and the hospital is asking patients to register only when they come in to get hospital services. 

“As a recipient and participant of the CMS E.H.R. Medicaid Incentive program, there is required demographic information as part of Meaningful Use Stage 1 that needs to be updated and asked as part of the registration process. There are also other important fields such as advance directive education, contact information, next of kin contact information, and guarantor/insurance information that LBJ has never had the ability to fully capture until the implementation of the new E.H.R.” said the CIO.

Consideration was made regarding the old registration information LBJ records had on file, and had originally recorded through prior registration. He explained that a majority of this registration information was not complete, and did not meet some of the new requirements. He also explained it had not been updated regularly.

Tulafono pointed out that if a patient seeking hospital services has not registered in the new E.H.R. system, they are asked to please fill in LBJ’s new registration form available at the Health Info Management (HIM) or Records office and then take this form to the Registration window at the main lobby area at LBJ hospital to complete the registration process. 

“The initial registration process will ask more detailed questions and is more lengthy, and after this initial registration process, the patient will not have to answer all the detailed questions again, but will be asked if there are any changes in contact information or insurance information.” That information needs to be updated for every visit thereafter.

The very first registration process will need to be done with LBJ’s registration department to make sure the form and fields are done properly, he noted.

“Pre-registration means to register for a service that the patient will be receiving. Once a patient’s registration is done, it indicates the patient will be receiving a service from the hospital and triggers a visit in the new system. LBJTMC cannot intake and register a patient without creating a hospital visit,” he explained.

If a patient goes through the very first initial registration process, and does not complete their visit (pharmacy refill, laboratory lab testing, radiology test, doctors visit, dentist visit) that registration will not be complete and that patient will need to go through the registration process again. After this registration process is completed all the way through to completion of the visit, that patient will not need to go through the full registration process again.”

According to the hospital CIO, LBJ has registered a little over 15,000 patients as of August 8, 2015.

He explained that one of the benefits of this process is that LBJ has been able to correct many deficiencies and outdated information that was still on the patient’s registration files. He said, “We are continuing to work diligently on improving our registration process, which currently does not have the resources to accommodate a pre-registration process for patients having future appointments.”

“LBJTMC will work towards this process as we improve all other much needed infrastructure to provide this service. We know that there are increased wait times, and our staff is doing as much as possible to improve the wait times. We ask our patients to rest assured that the LBJTMC is making absolutely sure that every prescription, lab, or physician’s visit is conducted correctly with the correct information and on the correct patient.”

He made it clear the hospital will not sacrifice patient safety or the health of the patients in order to send patients out the door more quickly. “Also understand that it is a tedious process for our staff, and our staff is qualified to make sure it is done correctly, even if it takes that extra five minutes.”

“We just continue to ask for the patients’ understanding as we work toward improving our care,” he told Samoa News, adding that “We improve our quality of care by making sure the patient’s information is complete and accurate. We anticipate wait times will decrease as we register all of our patients in the new system and transition information from our old records to the new records. We also continue to thank the public and the community for their continued support and patience with our hospital services.”