DocuWare Case Studies Mercy Health Network Digitizes Lab Processes with DocuWare Cloud

Edit This Case Study Record

	Mercy Health Network Digitizes Lab Processes with DocuWare Cloud DocuWare

Mercy Health Network Digitizes Lab Processes with DocuWare Cloud

DocuWare

Technology Category	Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
Applicable Industries	Healthcare & Hospitals
Use Cases	Predictive Replenishment Process Control & Optimization
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services System Integration
Challenge	Mercy Health Network, a nonprofit organization operating hospitals and healthcare facilities across 18 states, was facing challenges with its Mercy Clinical Laboratory. The lab, which analyses over 1,800 samples a day from patients across 17 hospitals and 300 facilities, was struggling with a slow and inefficient paper-based system for processing lab orders and billing. The lab contributes approximately $30 million to the hospital’s annual revenue, so digitizing processes was a high priority. The lab needed to speed up the processing time from when a specimen is received to the time it is billed. During the period the lab was looking for a new system, it had $7-8 million in lab work waiting to be billed. The goal was multi-pronged: automate processes; reduce time-to-bill; streamline document sharing between patient access, medical coding and billing teams. Read More
About Customer	Mercy Health Network is a part of Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), a nonprofit organization headquartered in Colorado. The network operates hospitals and healthcare facilities across 18 states. One of its facilities, the Mercy Clinical Laboratory, analyses over 1,800 samples a day from patients across 17 hospitals and 300 facilities. The lab contributes approximately $30 million to the hospital’s annual revenue. The lab was looking to digitize its processes to improve efficiency and reduce time-to-bill. The lab had $7-8 million in lab work waiting to be billed, highlighting the need for a more efficient system. Read More
Solution	Mercy Health Network implemented DocuWare Cloud to digitize its lab processes. Today, specimens and lab orders are scanned in real time using barcoded labels to index the documents by a unique accession number. The lab utilizes third-party software Kofax to scan, index and run a Quality Assurance check on the documents, before moving them into DocuWare for access and storage. DocuWare is seamlessly integrated with Cerner, Mercy’s electronic medical record and lab software. When an employee opens a patient record in Cerner, they simply click the integrated DocuWare button to access lab records and test results pertaining to that patient. The system for managing lab orders worked so well that it was expanded to manage future or standing lab orders which are initially indexed by medical record number, a number unique for each patient and later tied to the accession number. Implementing DocuWare Cloud also allowed the lab to easily share information with offsite coding staff using an internet connection and login credentials to access and share information with the staff in Des Moines. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Applicable Industries

Healthcare & Hospitals

Use Cases

Predictive Replenishment

Process Control & Optimization

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

System Integration

Challenge

Mercy Health Network, a nonprofit organization operating hospitals and healthcare facilities across 18 states, was facing challenges with its Mercy Clinical Laboratory. The lab, which analyses over 1,800 samples a day from patients across 17 hospitals and 300 facilities, was struggling with a slow and inefficient paper-based system for processing lab orders and billing. The lab contributes approximately $30 million to the hospital’s annual revenue, so digitizing processes was a high priority. The lab needed to speed up the processing time from when a specimen is received to the time it is billed. During the period the lab was looking for a new system, it had $7-8 million in lab work waiting to be billed. The goal was multi-pronged: automate processes; reduce time-to-bill; streamline document sharing between patient access, medical coding and billing teams.

About Customer

Mercy Health Network is a part of Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), a nonprofit organization headquartered in Colorado. The network operates hospitals and healthcare facilities across 18 states. One of its facilities, the Mercy Clinical Laboratory, analyses over 1,800 samples a day from patients across 17 hospitals and 300 facilities. The lab contributes approximately $30 million to the hospital’s annual revenue. The lab was looking to digitize its processes to improve efficiency and reduce time-to-bill. The lab had $7-8 million in lab work waiting to be billed, highlighting the need for a more efficient system.

Solution

Mercy Health Network implemented DocuWare Cloud to digitize its lab processes. Today, specimens and lab orders are scanned in real time using barcoded labels to index the documents by a unique accession number. The lab utilizes third-party software Kofax to scan, index and run a Quality Assurance check on the documents, before moving them into DocuWare for access and storage. DocuWare is seamlessly integrated with Cerner, Mercy’s electronic medical record and lab software. When an employee opens a patient record in Cerner, they simply click the integrated DocuWare button to access lab records and test results pertaining to that patient. The system for managing lab orders worked so well that it was expanded to manage future or standing lab orders which are initially indexed by medical record number, a number unique for each patient and later tied to the accession number. Implementing DocuWare Cloud also allowed the lab to easily share information with offsite coding staff using an internet connection and login credentials to access and share information with the staff in Des Moines.

Impact #1	The lab was able to improve its billing processes and gained a centralized document storage system.
Impact #2	The manual handling of documents was eliminated, which decreased errors and improved HIPAA compliance.
Impact #3	Lab records can now be shared with Mercy’s IT system and are part of a patient’s chart.

Impact #1

The lab was able to improve its billing processes and gained a centralized document storage system.

Impact #2

The manual handling of documents was eliminated, which decreased errors and improved HIPAA compliance.

Impact #3

Lab records can now be shared with Mercy’s IT system and are part of a patient’s chart.

Benefit #1	Improved cash flow due to increased billing capacity.
Benefit #2	Reduced time-to-bill by one day.

Benefit #1

Improved cash flow due to increased billing capacity.

Benefit #2

Reduced time-to-bill by one day.

Download PDF Version

Overview

Mercy Health Network Digitizes Lab Processes with DocuWare Cloud

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit