Access

Buchanan County Health Center Supports MEDITECH 6.0 Upgrade with New Barcoded e-Forms on Demand Solution from Access

11/16/2011 11:13:30 AM

Dynamic barcoding by the Access Intelligent Forms Suite makes it easy to get patient forms into EHRs via MEDITECH Scanning & Archiving without manual indexing

When the executive team at Buchanan County Health Center (BCHC) decided to upgrade their MEDITECH health information system to version 6.0, they realized that their paper-based patient registration process would make it difficult to get forms into the Scanning and Archiving (SCA) module. Typically, this involves manually labeling forms and then HIM staff members keying in data – a time-consuming and error-prone task that Buchanan County wanted to avoid.

To overcome this challenge, BCHC formed an eight-person, cross-department committee to find an electronic forms management solution that could automatically barcode forms in preparation for quick and accurate scanning into MEDITECH SCA. After evaluating several products, they chose the Intelligent Forms Suite from Access, the world’s leading provider of enterprise forms management software.

“We felt that the Access Intelligent Forms Suite was more versatile than the other electronic forms solutions we looked at, and would enable us to more easily create and modify forms,” said Chris Youngblut, CIO at BCHC.

To ensure that BCHC derived maximum benefits from its electronic forms project, Access’s professional services team worked closely with the hospital’s IT/IS professionals and provided hands-on training that helped prepare them to manage their e-forms system after deployment in September 2011.

“Access’s professional services team has been great to work with,” Youngblut said. “The implementation consultant who came on site had a patient registration background, so she was able to meet the specific needs of that department.”

In the patient registration area, a staff member sets up a patient record in MEDITECH 6.0, and then clicks a button. The Access Intelligent Forms Suite then selects the appropriate forms, pulls patient demographics onto them, and applies barcodes.

“With the Access Intelligent Forms Suite, we print the exact forms needed for each patient, and our staff members no longer waste time pulling pre-printed forms out of drawers,” Youngblut said. “That provides a significant time savings.”

Once a patient completes their forms, BCHC’s HIM team scans them into MEDITECH SCA, which uses the barcodes to automatically incorporate the forms into the correct electronic health record (EHR).

“The forms barcoding provided by the Access solution eliminates manual steps for our HIM staff, and they’d never let us take it away from them now,” he said. “We’re also confident that the scanned forms are going into the right EHRs because of the seamless integration with MEDITECH Scanning and Archiving.”

In addition to the Access solution producing forms on demand, it also generates barcoded wristbands, which help ensure positive identification throughout each patient’s visit. BCHC plans to make the most of these wristbands on its clinical floors.

“We will soon use the barcoded wristbands generated by the Access system alongside our Bedside Medication Verification system,” Youngblut said. “This will provide another safeguard for our patients.”

Youngblut feels that Access’s support team has helped his facility succeed with its e-forms initiative.

“The Access support staff checks in on us regularly to make sure everything is running smoothly and they’ve always been there for us,” he said. “With some vendors you can feel alone, but that’s not the case with Access.”

In the financials and payroll departments, Access’s enterprise check printing module enables BCHC to customize its checks, direct deposit slips and other output, and to easily change the look and feel of these as needed.

BCHC is planning to adopt more products from the Access Enterprise Forms Management suite. The registration department plans to roll out Access e-Signature, which will enable patients to electronically sign their admissions forms and for the BCHC to capture biometric data that reduces litigation risk.

Combining e-Signature with Access Image Portal will create a paperless registration solution, as Image Portal will bridge the completed, electronically signed e-forms directly into MEDITECH SCA – saving even more time than the current barcoded forms solution. The hospital’s clinical floors will soon start using Access e-Forms Repository to generate forms packets customized to departmental, specialty, patient and physician needs.

About Buchanan County Health Center
Buchanan County Health Center, a critical access hospital in Independence, Iowa, serves more than 3,000 people each month and is Buchanan County’s only hospital. Its many services include 24-hour emergency care, lab and radiology, inpatient nursing care, long term care, outpatient clinics, surgery, physical, speech and occupational therapies.

About Access
Access is the world’s leading electronic forms (e-forms) management, automation and workflow software provider. Our solutions transform any paper-intensive forms process into a paperless, collaborative workflow. Hundreds of hospitals worldwide are using Access solutions to improve patient care and safety, cut costs and enhance electronic health records (EHR), patient safety and downtime planning initiatives. Learn more at http://www.accessefm.com

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