Leveraging Automation to Streamline Document and Order Management Processes
Intermountain Healthcare
BACKGROUND
Founded in 1974
Salt Lake City, Utah
Ranked in the Top 5
of US Health Systems
2400 Caregivers
160 Clinics
24 Hospitals
In 2015 Deployed
SmartFiler/InteleFiler
System:
Allscripts Touchworks EHR
THE CHALLENGE
Historically, managing incoming patient clinical and administrative documents at Intermountain Healthcare Nevada (IHN) was a challenge. It was not unusual to see 1-2 weeks turnaround from receiving a document to having it scanned and indexed into the patient record.
Looking at the domino effect of a document management backlog, bottlenecks were occurring in tasking caregivers with incoming referrals, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to get a handle on order reconciliation.
Over a 4-5 year period commencing in 2015-16, IHN embarked on a rapid growth path, that saw their clinics grow from 13 to 50, and their incoming documents increase ten-fold, from 150K/yr to 1.5MM/yr!
In order to manage such rapid growth, IHN implemented a new Central Scan department and looked to find a technology partner to help automate the manual tasks of scanning/indexing/tasking and closing orders.
How InteleFiler Helped
InteleFiler enabled IHN to implement their Referral Management and Orphaned Orders applications which allowed the organization to get their arms around the order reconciliation backlog and greatly improve clinical workflow.
THE SOLUTION
In the first phase of automating their document management processes, IHN purchased SmartFiler from DISC Corporation to auto-file documents to their patient charts in Allscripts Touchworks EHR.
THE RESULT
After making great strides with SmartFiler, DISC’s strategic partner, Keena Healthcare Technology, was introduced to showcase a new application from a collaborative technology project- called InteleFiler. InteleFiler added new time-saving functionality that automated the process of tasking time-sensitive documents reviews to physicians, further improving efficiency for the healthcare provider.
“
After 30 years of working in the industry, I can honestly say that DISC and Keena are the best technology partners I’ve worked with, by far! They are responsive and communicate very clearly and their applications always work as promised!”
Director, Clinical Systems, Intermountain Healthcare
BENEFIT TO
Organization
Intermountain Healthcare Nevada and their technology partnership with Keena grew progressively as their document workflow needs expanded. Over a period of 5-6 years, they recognized the following benefits:
- Automated scanning/indexing/tasking and closing tasks which dramatically reduced errors, improved workflow and saved thousands of hours of caregiver and staff time.
- Reduced document indexing time from 1-2 weeks down to 24-hrs.
- Acquisitions/mergers drove a ten-fold increase in incoming documents with only moderate growth of the Central Scan team (doubled).
- Expanded document management capabilities beyond the Medical Records to include Billing and Care Management teams.
- Reduced click-count required to index a document from 30-35 clicks down to near zero.
BENEFIT TO
Providers & Staff
Automating the scanning and indexing process while adding increased functionality to auto-task and auto-closeout caregiver orders resulted in the following clinical benefits:
- Improved workflow by significantly reducing time previously required to find missing or errantly indexed patient records.
- Significantly improved timely access to clinical and administrative documents resulting in improved care delivery.
- Reduced risk and errors associated with missing critical patient data and patient follow-up.
BENEFIT TO
the Patient
Automating the scanning and indexing Document from outside the IHN network is now available for providers to assist them in quickly and efficiently ensuring high quality and timely care. By eliminating extra time required to find critical patient care documentation, patient throughput has signficantly improved resulting in a better patient care experience.
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