EDIS yields $1.3 million in new gross revenue
Infusion revenues increase $400,000 a month
Computer systems might be costly, but they can also save you a good deal of money in a short time. For example, the computer system installed at Beaufort (SC) Memorial Hospital and implemented in December 2009 recouped its costs of about $500,000 in just three months.
"Gross revenues went up $1.3 million, or 72%, the first month," says ED Ricks, MHA, the chief information officer, who adds that the ED has increased infusion revenue by $400,000 per month. What's more, he adds, "we had been spending $20,000 a month on dictation transcription. That's completely gone." Ricks estimates that the system [Emergency Department Information System (EDIS) from Addison, TX-based Medhost] will yield about $2 million in net cash received annually.
Beaufort's ED Director, Kevin Kremer, RN, BSN, says, "We already had a system, but it was used primarily by the nurses. The doctors still dictated and put in all orders by hand." This system was labor intensive for the ED physicians, Kremer says. "We were looking for something that would be a universal approach that could be used both for CPOE [computerized physician order entry] and physician documentation," he notes. Kremer wanted something that was easy to use, efficient, and provided guidance to ensure regulatory requirements were followed, and research found the Medhost system to be the best fit.
"I was primarily looking for improved documentation efficiency," Kremer says. "This system was designed as a touch-screen, which made for easy, succinct documentation." It provides pop-up messages for nurses when there is incomplete documentation and a similar interface for physicians, he says. "We were able to improve charge capture through this more thorough process," Kremer says.
One of the areas where he knew his department was losing revenue was in IV infusion time. "With the old system it was very difficult to find "stop time," and you can't bill unless you have that," Kremer says.
The old system did not provide automatic reminders, so nurses had to be reminded to go back into the system if they had not recorded the stop time, he says. "You could be in the middle of something minor, and then a critical patient would come in," says Kremer. The nurse would forget to go back into the system. With Medhost, only two touches of the screen are required to record that information. "And when the nurse finishes documentation, if she did not enter stop times for any infusion, it reminds her she has to do it before she can close the charts," he says.
EDIS training has two phases Before a new computer system could be implemented at Beaufort (SC) Memorial Hospital, two phases of training had to take place, says ED Director Kevin Kremer, RN, BSN. "Four staff members one physician's assistant, two ED nurses, and one IS clinical support person went to Dallas for three days of training," he recalls. The system is Emergency Department Information System (EDIS) from Addison, TX-based Medhost. There they were taught to use the manufacturer's toolkit, which enables the user to build documents and change documentation, he says. Following that training, 10 "super users" in the ED received 4.5 hours of training with the manufacturer so that they could help train the remaining staff. RNs and physicians then received 3.5 hours of training. Hospitalists received 2.5 hours, and ancillary personnel received 90 minutes. The staff training took place in November 2009, about a month before the system went live. "We gave them time to complete 10 parallel charts old and new over a two-week period," Kremer says. "The assistant director and I took every chart and graded them much like a school teacher would grade a test, with letter grades and comments so they could see where documenting was done properly and where it wasn't." In all, he says, 700 charts were graded. "This made 'go-live' almost seamless," he says. "It was so incredibly smooth, with no major issues." For the first three days, the manufacturer shadowed the users for 20 hours. "After 30 days we did not feel like we had ever used anything else," says Kremer. Sources/Resource For more information on emergency computer systems, contact:
For more information about the Medhost EDIS, contact: Medhost, 5055 Keller Springs Road, Suite 400, Addison, TX 75001. Phone: (972) 560-3100. Fax: (972) 560-3939. Web: www.medhost.com/Home.aspx. E-mail: [email protected]. |
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