The Challenge
3rd Party Chart Requests Cause Workflow Bottlenecks
As a busy multi-specialty clinic, Murfreesboro Medical Clinic (MMC) had scores of chart copy requests for several different 3rd party needs: legal and insurance company audits, social security disability requests, patient and MD transfers.
Each request required staff to print copies of the patient chart, many of which were dozens of pages long. For some audits, hundreds of charts were required. They also had to organize, label and package each chart bundle to be mailed to the requesting organization.
It was a heavily manual process taking hours of time with several FTEs. In addition, there were considerable supplementary costs tied up in printers, toner and paper required to print the charts for distribution.
With a growing clinic and ever-increasing request for chart copies, MMC decided to find a software tool and process improvements that could address their manual workflow and copying cost issues.
The Solution
Automates Manual Chart Copying Process
MMC evaluated a few vendors and applications before focusing on Chart2PDF from Keena. As a trusted vendor over many years, the final decision to move forward with Keena and Chart2PDF was an easy one.
Keena’s implementation team was deployed shortly after the contract was signed. The entire project from implementation, system configuration, through testing and training took about 4-6 weeks to complete.
The Keena project management and technical teams were responsive and readily available to assist in any trouble-shooting requests throughout the process.
The Result
With Chart2PDF fully deployed, MMC was able to automate nearly every part of their chart copying and distribution process.
“Chart2PDF has allowed Murfreesboro Medical Clinic to automate the process of converting multiple patient charts to a PDF file that we can burn that to a CD, or put on a thumb drive, or upload to a secure records portal for any requesting 3rd party to easily and securely retrieve.
The product has several convenient features that has allowed our clinic to cut our chart production time in half, while saving us a lots of paper, toner and staff aggravation compared to the old manual methods.”
Tracie League
Medical Informatics Manager, Murfreesboro Medical Clinic
Benefit to Organization
Chart2PDF’s process automating capabilities resulted in the following benefits for MMC:
- Chart production capacity doubled from 15-30 charts per day, to nearly 50 per day.
- Human and financial resources involved in printing and packaging paper were transitioned to saving electronic files for instant distribution to the requesting party.
- Significant dollar savings were recognized by eliminating paper, toner and IT resources required to maintain high- volume printers throughout the network.
- Data security improved as PMI was more securely protected through the software’s password protection functionality.
Benefit to Providers & Staff
MMC’s healthcare information management teams staff time to manage chart pulls, copies and distribution cut in half, was allowing them to spend time on more strategic and productive cost-saving activities.
Provider involvement in any insurance, Medicare or legal chart auditing tasks and the process for transferring incoming or outgoing MD’s digital patient chart copies was dramatically reduced.
Benefit to The Patient
In common situations where a patient needs a chart to take to another provider organization, it’s a convenient and simple process for them.