University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Faced with a Business Emergency, Improves on Print and Mail System

	We were truly in a situation where we needed heroism in order to stay in business! Until we found that solution, our revenue stream would come to an abrupt halt, and our employees would not receive their paychecks. The situation was that critical.
	- Connie Kinsella Vice President of Patient Business Services University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics

Hospitals and clinics are used to managing and responding to emergency situations. But most of the time, those are medical crises. 

On a Wednesday afternoon (three days before payroll, patient bills and patient appointment reminders were due to go out) the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, a 477-bed facility ranking among the top 10 academic health centers nationwide, found itself in a business emergency it had never experienced and couldn’t possibly have foreseen. 

Its regional print and mail supplier for payroll, billing, and patient communications had gone bankrupt and abruptly shut its doors, with no forewarning or plan for completing pending print projects.

Cash Flow and Payroll in Jeopardy
The University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics was suddenly without a print and mail supplier to image, print, insert and mail payroll checks and patient bills, due to go out in just three business days. 

Unless the hospital and clinics’ Patient Business Services could find a partner, more than 1500 employees would not receive paychecks, and the billing system, as well as cash flow for the facility, would come to an abrupt halt.

That was the 911-level business challenge facing the organization, according to Connie Kinsella, Vice President of Patient Business Services.

“Fortunately, I was aware of Standard Register,” Connie said. “Standard Register was our national partner for producing forms. I went straight into action mode and contacted our purchasing department, and then contacted Standard Register at 3 p.m. that Wednesday afternoon.”

Careful Review of Business Needs Results in Efficient Response
Standard Register’s efficient, calm response included a full implementation of a print and mail system that didn’t just replicate the hospital’s defunct vendor’s solution, but improved on it.

By Thursday morning, a dedicated team of three staff members were on site at UW Hospital and Clinics’ Patient Business Services office.  The four-day whirlwind timeline had begun.

Within hours, that team pulled together the resources of 45 associates from across Standard Register, including consultants from Implementation, Engineering, Manufacturing, Client Services, Sales and Technology.

The team drew upon Standard Register’s 17-year-long relationship with UW Hospital and Clinics as the provider of the organization’s print solution for forms.  They worked with UW Hospital to carefully review and understand the organization’s technical requirements and business needs.

“Standard Register’s response was effective and immediate,” said Connie.  “I’ve never seen anything like it. We were truly in a situation where we needed heroism in order to stay in business!  Until we found that solution, our revenue stream would come to an abrupt halt, and our employees would not receive their paychecks. The situation was that critical. But Standard Register did what I would have thought was impossible, specifying a transition that should have taken six months, so that it could be done in four days.  Our internal print crisis was resolved before it could severely impact the business of our organization and the lives of our employees.”

And thanks to Standard Register’s document outsourcing technology platform and commitment to customer service, by the following Monday, UW Hospital and Clinics’ Patient Business Services had a new print solution in place.

A Crisis Averted
By Monday morning, UW Hospital and Clinics was able to use their new document outsourcing technology platform to produce paychecks for more than 1,500 employees. By Tuesday, it was able to produce vendor payments, and by Wednesday—just one week after the original print and mail supplier shut down with no notice, it was able to produce patient statements, bills and reminder notices.

“We were so pleased with Standard Register’s service and professionalism and grateful for the outstanding effort to mitigate our crisis,” Connie said. “Standard Register immediately understood our situation and what it meant to us as a business. The responsiveness of Standard Register’s staff and its effectiveness in terms of delivering quality outcome in a, frankly, inhumanly fast amount of time, was truly the most amazing thing I’ve ever been involved with in my career.”

Connie adds that the quality of the Standard Register solution was also much higher than the quality of the UW Hospital and Clinics’ previous solution.

“Even in the midst of helping us mitigate our emergency, the Standard Register team made suggestions that improved the appearance of our documents,” Connie says. “They are more aesthetically pleasing, more readable, and project a more professional image.”