Navapache Regional Medical Center

Enterprise-Wide Electronic Storage Simplifies Hospital’s Processes

Arizona hospital, Navapache Regional Medical Center, is using DocuWare enterprise-wide to improve the access and the security of information. The hospital is streamlining business processes and redirecting dollars once set aside for records storage to increasing the quality of care it provides its patients.

Navapache Regional Medical Center (NRMC) is a rural 66-bed acute-care hospital in Show Low, Arizona, located 175 miles northeast of Phoenix, and 195 miles north of Tucson. The hospital serves a population of 70,000 in the Navajo and Apache counties. Built in 1970, NRMC employs over 600 people and is committed to providing quality healthcare and promoting optimal wellness for the individual, family and the community.

The hospital wanted to use a document management solution to store different records across the organization from accounting, business office and human resource records to living wills, patient medical records and lab orders.

Work Processes

As the hospital grew, the facility no longer had enough room to store all of its documentation on-site. To meet the need for more space, NRMC expanded by building a separate facility a quarter of a mile from the hospital to house the Business Office, Home Health, Employee Health and IT departments. This decision freed up a little more office space for everyone, but made sharing information between departments difficult. For example, when the Business Office needed information from the Medical Records department for billing purposes they would have to fill out a request form for the needed ­documents. The Medical Records department would receive the request via the inter-departmental mail system and fax the information. Needless to say, the information retrieval process was slow and inefficient.

Departments that did not share information between sites were still frustrated by the lack of adequate storage space and the long wait time to retrieve older documents that had been boxed up, tagged and placed in long term storage. For the Human Resource department the document storage area was in all kinds of nooks and crannies throughout the office. Employee files were stored wherever they could find a spot.

“Finding an old HR employee file was very cumbersome and might require sending someone to find the right box in the storage shed. On average, the department needed to access older files a couple of times a week and it might be a few days before the information was found,“ said Kent McQuillan, CIO for Navapache Regional Medical Center.

Prior to expanding the facility, the hospital had implemented a stand-alone, electronic document management sys-tem for the storage of Lab records. The system worked well, but was being discontinued as it was unable to be net-worked or expand to other areas of the hospital. The hospital’s CIO understood the potential benefits of document management and began looking for a sys-tem that could be used hospital-wide.

Solution Requirements

NRMC wanted to move to an integrated electronic document management sys-tem to improve access to information and control future storage costs by capping new construction. They wanted a network-enabled solution that would allow information to be easily shared between departments located in separate buildings and that would ensure compliance with the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Solution

OSAM, Inc., an Authorized DocuWare Partner, recommended and installed DocuWare starting with the Lab and ER records. Since then the system has expanded and is now an archive for re-cords from: Accounting, Administration, Business Office, Centralized Scheduling, Data Processing, Diagnostic Imaging, Emergency Medical Services or Ambulance, Home Health, Human Re-sources, Medical Records, Occupational/Employee Health, and Oncology.

Seven years of electronic Lab records from the old stand-alone system were converted into DocuWare TIFF images in a matter of a few weeks. Today, the hospital’s Document Scanning department spends 80 man-hours a week scanning and indexing documents for the entire hospital. In most departments, the hospital started scanning information beginning with the year 2000 and is working forward until they catch up and bring each department live. Once scanned and indexed, the electronic re-cords are reviewed and the paper re-cords destroyed. Security rights are assigned to specific cabinets and allow the information to be shared only by those who need access to the information.

The Benefits in Detail

Individual Benefits

Storing records electronically helps employees throughout the hospital focus on their core responsibilities instead of spending so much time searching for information and refiling documents. Work processes are simplified and workplace stress is reduced.

Department Benefits

For the Human Resource department, once a year the files for all those who are no longer employed at NRMC are scanned and indexed. Answering employment verification requests has dropped from two days to only minutes allowing the staff more time to focus on current employee records. By reducing the volume of paper records the department needed to keep onsite, HR re-cord storage is better organized, contained and secure.

Today, the Medical Records department receives very few requests for information from the Business Office. Self-serve access to information has saved valuable man-hours in each department and increased productivity.

“DocuWare has enhanced the way we process information. By providing the information in a digital format, the employee who needs the information can bring it up on screen and be on their way, without involving so many man-hours throughout the entire organization,“ said Kent.

Organization Benefits

The system has helped the NRMC control overall costs by reducing and eventually eliminating the need for more paper storage space. With a growth rate of 9 to 10 percent a year, DocuWare has helped the organization to manage re-cords without adding personnel at that same rate. Dollars that once had to be set aside for storage construction and added personnel can now be redirected to improving patient care. By implementing a network enabled document management system the hospital is limiting the growth of paper records that they need to store in their facility. What started as 3 to 4 DocuWare file cabinets has now been expanded to 38 as the use of DocuWare has gone hospital-wide.

DocuWare helps NRMC comply with the privacy and access requirements defined by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act commonly known as HIPAA. This increased security of records reduces the organization’s legal risk exposure because all provisions of HIPAA are being met.

The increase of interdepartmental efficiency is another benefit the NRMC has seen. With greater sharing of know-ledge, better patient and employee relations are being realized.

“We are taking little bites out of our elephant of paper. At our rate of scanning now, we don’t anticipate needing to move any more records off-site. We are focusing on catching up with the on-site record storage and those records currently being generated,“ said Kent.

The bottom line is that information is not locked up in a cabinet, but is avail-able 24 hours a day. DocuWare is helping the NRMC meet its goal of delivering exceptional health care and promoting wellness for the individual, the family and the community by making information and resources available throughout the organization and allowing dollars to be redirected to improving patient care.