DocuWare Case Studies The Providence Center: Medical Records Go Electronic

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	The Providence Center: Medical Records Go Electronic DocuWare

The Providence Center: Medical Records Go Electronic

DocuWare

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Applicable Industries	Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Human Resources
Use Cases	Regulatory Compliance Monitoring Remote Patient Monitoring
Services	Data Science Services System Integration
Challenge	The Providence Center, a mental health and substance use treatment center, was struggling with the limitations of paper-based medical records. These records were only accessible from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and needed to be requested in advance of appointments. This was a hindrance to providing quality care to clients, especially in emergency situations. The Center had already eliminated most of its handwritten forms and had an electronic forms creation system in place, but once the forms were completed, they were printed and stored in a paper medical record. The Center needed a solution that would allow for 24/7 access to clinical records, improve the quality of records by reducing human error, and meet the privacy requirements of HIPAA. Read More
About Customer	The Providence Center is a mental health and substance use treatment center that serves adults and children throughout Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts who are affected by psychiatric illnesses, emotional problems, and addictions. The Center provides treatment and support services within a community setting at four treatment sites, one school, and 11 residential locations. The Providence Center serves over 11,000 clients a year and maintains a clinical medical record for each one. The records vary in size from a few sheets to over nine inches of paper. Each record is standardized into eight main sections: administrative information, assessments, medical information, medication, progress notes, releases, treatment plans, and miscellaneous. Read More
Solution	The Providence Center implemented DocuWare, an electronic document repository, as part of its information management system. This allowed all documentation, whether originating as paper or electronic, to be made available in electronic format. A majority of E-Docs forms were brought into DocuWare already indexed and ready to be stored. In cases where a computer was not available, handwritten forms could still be used and were manually indexed with the assistance of barcodes and database lookups to autopopulate key index values. DocuWare’s open architecture and Software Developer Kit allowed The Providence Center’s programmers to smoothly integrate DocuWare with existing off-the-shelf and custom software to meet their unique needs. The Providence Center implemented DocuWare on a point-forward basis, meaning new client records would be completely electronic, and any forms or information added to existing client records would be done electronically and stored in DocuWare. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)

Applicable Industries

Healthcare & Hospitals

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Human Resources

Use Cases

Regulatory Compliance Monitoring

Remote Patient Monitoring

Services

Data Science Services

System Integration

Challenge

The Providence Center, a mental health and substance use treatment center, was struggling with the limitations of paper-based medical records. These records were only accessible from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and needed to be requested in advance of appointments. This was a hindrance to providing quality care to clients, especially in emergency situations. The Center had already eliminated most of its handwritten forms and had an electronic forms creation system in place, but once the forms were completed, they were printed and stored in a paper medical record. The Center needed a solution that would allow for 24/7 access to clinical records, improve the quality of records by reducing human error, and meet the privacy requirements of HIPAA.

About Customer

The Providence Center is a mental health and substance use treatment center that serves adults and children throughout Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts who are affected by psychiatric illnesses, emotional problems, and addictions. The Center provides treatment and support services within a community setting at four treatment sites, one school, and 11 residential locations. The Providence Center serves over 11,000 clients a year and maintains a clinical medical record for each one. The records vary in size from a few sheets to over nine inches of paper. Each record is standardized into eight main sections: administrative information, assessments, medical information, medication, progress notes, releases, treatment plans, and miscellaneous.

Solution

The Providence Center implemented DocuWare, an electronic document repository, as part of its information management system. This allowed all documentation, whether originating as paper or electronic, to be made available in electronic format. A majority of E-Docs forms were brought into DocuWare already indexed and ready to be stored. In cases where a computer was not available, handwritten forms could still be used and were manually indexed with the assistance of barcodes and database lookups to autopopulate key index values. DocuWare’s open architecture and Software Developer Kit allowed The Providence Center’s programmers to smoothly integrate DocuWare with existing off-the-shelf and custom software to meet their unique needs. The Providence Center implemented DocuWare on a point-forward basis, meaning new client records would be completely electronic, and any forms or information added to existing client records would be done electronically and stored in DocuWare.

Impact #1	Clinical records are available around the clock from any location via a secure Web connection.
Impact #2	Efficient indexing and straightforward document retrieval were achieved by involving key employees early on and consistently throughout the project.
Impact #3	The quality of the record was improved by allowing electronic audits to link services tracked in one database against documentation stored in DocuWare.

Impact #1

Clinical records are available around the clock from any location via a secure Web connection.

Impact #2

Efficient indexing and straightforward document retrieval were achieved by involving key employees early on and consistently throughout the project.

Impact #3

The quality of the record was improved by allowing electronic audits to link services tracked in one database against documentation stored in DocuWare.

Benefit #1	Paper record requests have gone from 1,200 to 200 requests a day and will phase out almost completely within a year from implementation.

Benefit #1

Paper record requests have gone from 1,200 to 200 requests a day and will phase out almost completely within a year from implementation.

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Overview

The Providence Center: Medical Records Go Electronic

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit