Challenge
Nearly a decade ago, Allegiance Health (a.k.a. Foote Health) had limited integration power to combine all patient information. Patient Access was continuing to see registration, scheduling, and admission transaction volumes increase. Paperwork was growing in the back-office workload of the Health Information Management (HIM) Department. Manual processes were leading to increased wait times for charts and delays in Release of Information (ROI) requests. Like other hospitals attempting to maintain paper and electronic records, these challenges were affecting revenue potential.
Goals
The goals were to capture information and payments sooner in the revenue cycle, automate processes and integrate all patient information systems. Allegiance needed a system to solve these issues without slowing down or interfering with physicians’ quality of care or the organization’s daily operations.
Solution
After an extensive search for a content management solution, they selected Solcom, EDCO Health Information Solutions’ electronic document management system. Allegiance began the partnership in 1998 by addressing their integration needs in Health Information Management (HIM). Solcom took the isolated patient information amongst multiple systems and put it all in one view. This comprehensive power aided the making of a paperless environment for HIM while enhancing the existing systems. Solcom Workflow Builder allows HIM to create their own workflows to process things faster for billing and physician access. This application has also allowed Allegiance to create an electronic process to release information to JCMR, a community medical record for physicians in the Jackson area and create a proactive follow-up process for discharged patients.
Allegiance tackled their HIM workload further by implementing Solcom Productivity Workflows to expedite common processes such as coding, chart analysis and deficiency completion. Productivity Workflows are also currently used to speed processes for Lab (Lab Management), Patient Access (Patient Scheduling and Order Processing) and Care Providers (Case Management).
Results
With Solcom Productivity Workflows, Allegiance has decreased an average of 30 minutes waiting time per chart, saved over 3,000 physician hours per year, and eliminated scanning backlogs.
To capture patient information and payments sooner, Allegiance uses Solcom Registration and Solcom Payments at key areas of patient registration. Since installation, Allegiance Health is seeing significant improvements in point-of-service collections and less unbilled charts in the Business Office. This has decreased A/R (Accounts Receivable) days, which equates to “more revenue faster.”
Solcom proved successful in providing content management, workflow management, and integration technology for patient medical records.
To speed the revenue cycle even further, a document retention system for patient financial records became a logical extension. Now the Business Office can also tap into the benefits of electronic records.
With Solcom, Allegiance Health has automation power that has led to a higher level of productivity. The staff is meeting the demands of the increased volume and has reduced ROI delays. The future of Allegiance Health looks bright as they strive to increase physician and patient satisfaction.
