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Mercy Health Network Digitizes Lab Processes with DocuWare Cloud
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
The 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 The 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.
The 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.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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