Electronic Content Management and Healthcare:
The First Electronic Step Towards the Future and the Paperless Healthcare Facility
by James Girard

It’s that one piece of paper. That one test result that cannot be located, that one invoice that has gone unpaid “because it is not in the file it is supposed to be in…”. It could happen; some day, somehow, something is going to go missing.

There is an answer of course. Electronic Content Management (ECM) can turn all the critical paper in a health care facility into a digitized form. Call it what you want, Document Information Management (DIM) or Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS), it is all about making the healthcare facility more efficient, improving processes and bottom line. “We are not trying to scare anyone, but this is the reality of the industry today.” Says Tim Armstrong, Vice President of Imaging at Surgical Notes, Inc. a provider of transcription and document management services. “With more regulatory pressure on the health care industry and a desire to improve internal business processes, Content Management has a direct impact on how a healthcare facility can become more efficient.”

Historically healthcare facilities have been paper based in how they process patient information, accounts payable, accounts receivable and other internal business processes. But recently the reliance of paper has put many organizations at risk, from HIPPA to Sarbanes-Oxley, security issues to disaster recovery, there is more incentive then ever for healthcare facilities to adopt and deploy document management solutions to protect their valuable information. Says Armstrong, “Whenever we speak to potential clients, we give them an overview of what we see in the industry and we ask them about the pain points they are experiencing. The central theme that comes up time and again is something we call the “4 C’s” of corporate pain”.

The 4 C’s that Tim refers to are:
• Compliance; namely HIPPA, protecting patient information is vital to the health care organization.
• Continuity; especially security and disaster recovery, meaning that only the people with the correct access can view an organizations data and disaster recovery means that critical data can be rebuilt so that an organization can continue functioning.
• Collaboration; meaning that information can easily flow from department to department, without delays and with an audit trail so that all interactions with that data can be traced  and verified.
• And Cash; by eliminating paper intensive processes from healthcare facilities, they become more efficient and can drop  more dollars to the bottom line.

A recent Forrester Research paper indicated that 56% of IT executives plan to increase spending on Electronic Content Management (ECM) in the next 12 months. And other studies point to an overall growth of 90% per year in the amount of paper that organizations generate. As healthcare organizations look forward to pending government regulations that dictate that every American must have an Electronic Health Record by 2012, the need for Electronic Content Management systems becomes more important then ever. But before a healthcare facility becomes completely paperless, it is best to take the initial steps that allow the staff (from the physicians to nurses, admissions to back office personal) to get use to and adopt the paperless concept and learn how to handle ECM so that it becomes a part of their daily work process.

“Before you go completely paperless and adopt a Electronic Health Record system, it really helps a healthcare organization to begin with ECM.” Says Jeff Blankinship, President of Surgical Notes. “At the beginning, you do not have to change the way you do business. Once the paper is completed, scan it into an ECM system and let the inherent efficiencies take over from there.” He continues, “Many of our customers have physicians that do not want to move away from paper, but we show them how to process and scan the paper once the physician is finished with it. That way, the physician maintains their comfort level and we can begin to interject a paperless solution into a healthcare facilities business processes.”

Surgical Notes has incorporated their own ECM or Document Management platform of choice. The ECM system is deployed as a turnkey solution, all in one box. This system is connected directly to the network of the healthcare facility and can easily accommodate up to 15 to 300 plus users. This means that several people at the facility can simultaneously use and access electronic documents from any personal computer. The ease of integration and speed to deploy the ECM makes it an effective choice for healthcare facilities. Instead of taking weeks and months to integrate and deploy, the ECM solution can be configured, and up and working in days. Surgical Notes is also very proactive about training the healthcare facility, they have established a complete training procedure as a core competency of their ECM practice. Says Armstrong, “we want all of our healthcare customers to feel comfortable with ECM and we want them to be able to leverage the efficiencies that this system brings to their organizations”.

Surgical Notes found that many of their customers had digital copiers and Multi-Function devices placed throughout their organizations. And that many of these products had some type of bundled document management software included. Surgical Notes noticed that many of their customers tried to deploy the software, but without the proper training and support, found that these adhoc document imaging systems ultimately did not meet their customers needs or expectations and resulted in failure to begin the process of converting to a paperless office environment. The ECM solution has solved this potential problem and gives the healthcare facility the tools to move forward towards integrating all their applications under a paperless umbrella.

When it comes to scanning, Surgical Notes has centralized on Fujitsu Scanners from Fujitsu Computer Products of America. “Fujitsu’s market share and product reliability means a lot to us and more importantly to our customers”, says Blankinship. “Our customers have come to rely on their ease of use and ability to scan all types of documents quickly and accurately.” Utilizing ECM remote scanning module, scanners can be placed throughout the healthcare facility, in important paper intensive areas. This allows the paper information to be digitized and placed in the ECM data repository more quickly where it can then be accessed.

When it comes to success, Surgical Notes customers can attest as to how the combination of ECM and Surgical Notes have helped to relieve the paper bottleneck within their organizations. “Working with Surgical Notes and deploying the ECM solution, we have reduced out time from receiving invoices to paying them, this has really reduced the cycle time to pay our vendors by several weeks.” Said Tracy Christian, President of Tracy Christian Consulting, Outsourcing IT specialist for Dallas, TX based Texas Institute for Surgery. He continues, “ECM has helped to create a workflow process that has benefited both AP and materials logistics, helping them become more efficient.” Tracy also indicated that the adoption of ECM is the first step towards complete patient automation and hopes to have an Electronic Health Record system deployed by mid-2007.

Matt Huizar, Business Office Manager with San Antonio, TX based Physicians Ambulatory Surgery Center had a different perspective of how ECM has helped his organization, “ECM has given our staff the ability to access electronic information from their PC’s. This is versus the manual process of retrieving the information from each individual paper based file.” Matt continued, “This has greatly helped to reduce errors and speeded up our internal business processes.”

The electronic future of the healthcare industry is coming. Preparing for its eventual adoption will help each healthcare facility to rapidly deploy and benefit from going paperless. ECM is about increasing efficiencies, improving internal processes and workflows, reducing or eliminating manual steps and improving the bottom line. Surgical Notes has the experience to help deploy and implement the ECM system and can be your gateway to going paperless.

For more information contact Tim Armstrong at Surgical Notes: (800) 459-5616 or tarmstrong@surgicalnotes.com.

James Girard is a 19 year IT veteran, specializing in helping companies establish a marketing presence and developing a branding strategy that helps them get their message out and succeed in the marketplace.