Franklin Medical Center, Winnsboro, LA
At Franklin Medical Center the task of complying with the record keeping portion of HIPAA is notable for how easy it was to accomplish.
"We added Audit Trail to our Laserfiche system," reports the hospital's plant operations manager, Dwaine Boothe. "We had planned to add this module to ensure HIPAA compliance when we chose Laserfiche.
"We brought it in as soon as our database of images of our medical records was large enough to start sharing files with other departments and medical professionals. With Audit Trail in place, we are confident that our records will be in compliance with HIPAA moving forward."
At this point, Franklin Medical Center has more than 250,000 pages of medical records in Laserfiche, including all active files going back a year. Emergency room doctors now have the ability to refer to Laserfiche to review the medical records of incoming patients.
Boothe expects the hospital to have all its archives in Laserfiche per an intensive scanning program put together by his assistant, Judy Ogden. That program will enable them to remove the five portable paper storage buildings that were their chief reason for turning to Laserfiche in the first place.
Dougal, McClellan and Sullivan Eye Associates, Chicago , IL
If Janice Goodyear has anything to say about it Laserfiche will soon be essential software at medical practices in the Chicago area. Ms. Goodyear is the office manager at Dougal, McClellan and Sullivan Eye Associates in Northwest Chicago. She has been using Laserfiche and likes it so much that she tries to convince every medical practice office manager she meets to get one for themselves.
"I'm a one person department servicing six very busy doctors," Ms. Goodyear says. "Laserfiche enables me to handle my insurance paperwork in a few hours every week. It used to take me three days. I started to call my system Sue because I think of Laserfiche as my assistant, always there, always ready to help."
Ms. Goodyear has already had a hand in convincing one other eye care practice in the area to convert to Laserfiche and has prompted no fewer than seven other medical practices to ask her Laserfiche Value Added Reseller, Jerry Breitbarth of Westmont, IL-based TKB Associates, for demonstrations.
In addition, Ms. Goodyear caused a near sensation when she told of her experiences with Laserfiche at the Chicagoland Chapter of the Professional Association of Health Care Office Managers (PAHCOM). "When told them how much time I was saving, they couldn't believe their ears," Ms. Goodyear says. "Some of them literally ran up to me afterwards to find out how they could get going." Not surprisingly, she and PAHCOM invited Breitbarth to make a full presentation on Laserfiche at one of their meetings.
"I'm involved with my counterparts at other practices because I hope to learn things from them that will make my job easier and better," Ms. Goodyear says by way of explaining her outspoken support for Laserfiche. "So when I have something to offer that I think will really help them, I'm not going to hesitate to let them know."
Accucode Medical Billing Service, Chico, CA
Phyllis Morgan started Accucode, a medical billing service, with only two clients. Three years later, the firm was handling six medical practices and was running out of space in their small office. Photocopies of bills overloaded the file cabinets.
A move to a larger office helped for only a couple of months. More file cabinets did not solve the space problem, and another move was out of the question. Accucode had 20 medical practices and the ability to handle more. They just needed a way to manage all of the paper.
After reviewing several document imaging solutions, Ms. Morgan determined that only Laserfiche provided a scalable, easy-to-use management tool with embedded security features vital to the medical billing industry. The need for comprehensive security was especially important for compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which sets standards for handling healthcare information electronically.
"Doctors depend on us to watch what they're doing with their billing and to make sure all claims are being paid," Ms. Morgan said. "We deal with thousands of documents every day. For every patient, we scan in an information sheet, a copy of their insurance cards, and the charge slip. It all goes into the appropriate doctor file and categorical sub-file as soon as it is scanned in. The patient's billing records are almost instantly secure and retrievable."
Today, Accucode scans all documents into their Laserfiche server and handles billing for 32 doctors. That is a 1,600 percent increase since Ms. Morgan sensed the trend toward privatization and opened her company
While the workload has grown, Accucode has saved "at least a half-time employee" or at least $10,000 in payroll since converting to Laserfiche, according to Ms. Morgan.
Surgery Center of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD
One of the nation's top free-standing surgical centers has solved its medical records problems, improved its billing processes and assured critical federal HIPAA compliance with the application of Laserfiche Document Management software across its 300 doctor and 57 staff member enterprise.
The Surgery Center of Baltimore, site of a projected 8,000 outpatient procedures in 2002, stores all of its medical records electronically, providing immediate patient information to doctors and nurses in operating rooms, recovery areas and consultation offices, according to Jeffery R. Johnson, Systems Information Coordinator.
Thanks to Laserfiche, the Center is also able to route charts to the billing department in less than a day, significantly shortening the payment cycle. Billing staff members scan EOB (explanation of benefits) letters electronically and are able to provide additional information required by insurance companies to settle patient accounts quickly.
"When it comes to HIPAA compliance, the Surgery Center of Baltimore has what it needs with Laserfiche, with its Audit Trail feature to safeguard patient privacy", Johnson explained. "Our administrator, Ms. Jerry Henderson, serves on a national HIPAA compliance panel and she frequently invites confused hospital administrators to see how we have solved the problem with our built-in security."
These technology advantages not only improve the operation of the Center, but they save money wherever they are deployed, Johnson said. For example, the Medical Records department is saving $20,000 in reduced labor costs alone and reimbursement from insurance companies is coming several days faster. In addition, the Center is saving hours of work and improving employee morale by ending frustrating searches for files.
Affiliated with Mt. Sinai of Baltimore and Medisphere, Johnson reports that its partners and doctors frequently request medical records from the Surgery Center of Baltimore, which are quickly sent using Laserfiche Snapshot, which creates high quality copies of documents which can be sent by fax.
The Center's reliance on paper and on-site file cabinets is virtually over. Paper records are only kept in the office for three-months, then sent to storage. Laserfiche copies are kept for six years (for five years past the age of majority for children). They are removed from Laserfiche at the end of that period, in keeping with Maryland law.
Johnson credited Laserfiche reseller Dwayne Bank of Professional Recovery Consultants of Baltimore with carefully learning the Center's needs, then tailoring a solution to meet them precisely. He said Banks was particularly helpful with designing a stable solution, since vital records must always be accessible.
Next steps at the Surgery Center of Baltimore include
full integration between Laserfiche and HIS software. Johnson expects to use
Laserfiche's Template Express to speed up the link.
Laserfiche (www.Laserfiche.com) is a division of Compulink Management Center, Inc. in Long Beach, CA. Since 1987 Laserfiche has been helping manage documents in over 20,000 government agencies, schools, law offices, financial services companies and other businesses worldwide.
NJHA Partners with Laserfiche to Help Hospitals Better Manage Record Storage, Access and Retention
PRINCETON, N.J. - The New Jersey Hospital Association (NJHA) and Laserfiche of Long Beach, Calif., have entered into a joint marketing agreement to assist hospitals with the management of their medical, financial and administrative records using Laserfiche's internationally proven product suite.
NJHA Vice-President Guy Evans sees this partnership as an opportunity for New Jersey hospitals to save money and gain operational efficiency through a simple-to-use and easy-to-deploy document management technology.
"In the healthcare setting, the adoption of sound, reliable imaging technology not only reduces the volume of stored records while facilitating authorized retrieval, but enables accelerated billing and collections, simplifies HIPAA compliance and improves efficiency and accountability organization-wide," Evans said. "The benefits of an easy-to-use system to store and retrieve documents with the click of a mouse are obvious; the trick has been finding a partner scalable enough in usability, functionality and price to satisfy our diverse membership."
The partnership will provide NJHA members with special incentives and pricing while at the same time providing Laserfiche with access to NJHA's vast Health Information Management (HIM) resources for marketing guidance and future product development.
"Laserfiche is committed to providing cost-effective solutions for the healthcare industry and we're very excited about our new relationship with the New Jersey Hospital Association," said Gerald Bengtson, Laserfiche President and COO. " We're confident that with NJHA's guidance and Laserfiche's technology, our partnership will expand Laserfiche's usage in the healthcare marketplace."
In addition to the marketing agreement, the Laserfiche product suite will be exclusively utilized by NJHA's records management partner, Cybergistics, to transport documents among remote offices via Laserfiche's secure web tool. Laserfiche products will be exclusively utilized by our record management company Cybergisics to transport documents via the secure WebLink product as well as perform imaging functions on site or as a service bureau.
About NJHA
NJHA is a leader in advocacy, education, and information. It partners with its 110 members so that they can better provide accessible, affordable and quality healthcare. NJHA offers its members and other health care providers an extensive portfolio of products and services, including customized cost management solutions, through its subsidiary, NJHA Corporate Services.