Urban Health System Uses Technology to Speak to Needs of their Diverse Patient Population and Better Manage their Documentation

Manual processes are fraught with problems. They are inefficient and prone to error.  Patient data is often illegible and information security difficult to maintain. Preprinted forms are a nightmare to manage in terms of availability, version control and cost containment.  Now think about a medical center with a widely diverse patient population that requires certain forms in 66 different languages – including Urdu, Yiddish, Arabic and Chinese. The challenge of managing patient documentation becomes ever more daunting!

That was the plight of one 700-bed metropolitan medical center. The hospital was genuinely concerned about controlling patient data and improving assessment scores from accreditation agencies.  They wanted to create a more personalized experience and improve health literacy for their multilingual patients.

The Root of the Problem
The health system had been relying on an embossing system, proprietary printers and preprinted forms to register patients.  Processes were slow. Patients were often left to themselves as the registration staff tediously gathered all the necessary forms, then printed and assembled them into the patient’s chart, complete with labels for identifying other patient documentation. The registration kit was sometimes incomplete, and forms were not always compliant since there was no centralized control over version management. 

Those problems flowed into the clinical areas where forms were often illegible or sometimes missing. The clinician was then forced to go back to registration and re-stamp the blue card or retrieve the missing form.  With no direct access to patient data in their Heath Information System (HIS), clinicians manually transcribed information from one form to another.  They often drew from a hidden “stash” of forms or consulted a binder of preprinted forms which they photocopied.  With the revision process so slow, they couldn’t be assured of having the most current documents.

Identifying the newly created documents posed its own set of problems.  Though registration had printed additional labels, there was always the risk of placing the wrong label on the wrong document.  At the same time, in nursing and other points of service, data was handwritten on labels, creating further problems with illegibility and incomplete information.

A New Vision
The medical center was troubled and frustrated -- until its staff visited another health system and learned about a “clinical friendly” technology that would align nicely with their workflow while getting to the root of their problems.  It supported their vision of migrating to a digital workflow environment where patient records would be more easily accessible and controlled, where positive patient identification would be assured and patient safety enhanced.  And they found a partner whom they were confident could lead them to their future state. Standard Register.

The First Step Forward
Already committed to implementing ChartMaxx, the hospital selected Standard Register’s SMARTworks® Clinical Enterprise.  It would enable them to output compliant patient documentation with accurate, positive patient identification information embedded into the design along with proper bar codes for indexing.

This solution gets to the heart of the medical center’s concerns by improving document workflow:

Patient Safety – Patients are positively identified and documents linked to enhance safety.  And ultimately, when they begin capturing photos, the software will link to bedside verification systems whereby the patient’s photo appears on a PDA with medications upon scanning the wristband. Patients are also identified with a uniquely bar-coded wristband – specifically designed to ensure the scanning is done from the wristband and not from any paper document.  This approach ensures the nurse is with the patient at the bedside rather than at the nursing unit.

Data Integrity – It increases security over the Patient Health Information by printing directly on documents, thereby assuring the right patient information is on the right document in the right location

Efficiency – It automatically brings together all patient-centric output –appropriate information and forms – making them available wherever they are needed.

The Patient Experience   It truly personalizes the patient experience by providing language- specific documents.  If a specific language isn’t available, the logic is configured to produce the document in a language similar to the patient’s native tongue. No special steps or translation skills are required of the registrars.  And it’s an important step toward improving health literacy, which is a key goal of the Joint Commission.

A Workflow Transformation
First implemented in their Outpatient centers, it’s next rolling out to Inpatient and Emergency registration. In the process, workflow is being dramatically transformed:       

  • Inventory of preprinted documents at all networked nursing & registration stations are being eliminated.
  • Manually-labeled forms are being replaced by laser-printed documents that automatically incorporate personalized patient-data and compliant bar codes correctly positioned on the form.
  • Documentation will be dynamically linked to the electronic medical record with the specific bar codes, based on: document ID, incident number and medical record number.
  • Manual assembly of kits is being eliminated.
  • Scanning is being eliminated for most documentation.
  • Only documentation with signature or handwritten information requires scanning, but bar codes eliminate need for manual indexing.

Increased Compliance, Reduced Liability
SMARTworks Clinical Enterprise is addressing all the issues that have undermined compliance. It provides centralized control of all document designs with decentralized output management.  With forms residing in an electronic library, both the registration staff and the clinical staff can produce needed documents on demand with the assurance that the forms are the most current version.  Likewise, patient information produced with the proper bar code and static document data eliminate misidentification of forms, so the medial center is assured the right document is going into the right chart.

Moreover, with improvements in patient safety and compliance, liability is being reduced as well.

A Smooth Transition
The Standard Register implementation team is making the transition seamless.  Their support first focused on converting forms to a digital format compatible with the electronic archival and retrieval system the medical center was putting in place.

Within the space of just six weeks the SR team had designed and implemented 200 forms, and trained the medical center’s staff to create their own forms.  With the ability to use any digital design rendered as a PDF or Word document, the hospital is able to use their current design files without costly conversion.

The implementation team has also simplified the process of handling foreign language forms.  Set up to handle some 66 languages, the software is configured to allow the medical center’s forms designers to make a simple table change to add a document without re-programming. So the many clinical documents, patient rights advisories, maps and advanced care directives the center has planned can be quickly and easily added to the forms-on-demand library.

Moving from paper to digital workflows is a daunting undertaking, but guided by Standard Register’s experienced project management team, this first phase is moving swiftly and smoothly.  Each day introduces further efficiency and enhances the medical center’s ability to provide exceptional care for the diverse community it serves.

 

For guidance in transforming the way patient information is managed to improve patient safety, compliance and efficiency, ask to talk to a Standard Register healthcare technology professional or download more information about our patient information solutions now.