Case Study

2010 Baptist Health South Florida

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Baptist Health South Florida is the largest faith-based, not-for-profit healthcare organization in the South East region, with an outstanding reputation for medical and service excellence. Its network of services extends throughout Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties with Baptist, Baptist Children’s, South Miami, Homestead, Mariners and Doctors Hospitals, Baptist Outpatient Services and Baptist Cardiac & Vascular Institute.

Across its service network, Baptist Health has more than 1,600 beds and records over 217,000 emergency room visits, more than 124,000 urgent care visits, and nearly 70,000 patient admissions per year.

Capturing and managing critical data across such a large and fast growing network is a big task. But Baptist Health found an answer with a document capture and enterprise content management (ECM) solution from CGI, ibml and Datacap.

The History

Baptist Health’s migration to an enterprise content management solution began in 1997 with the implementation of CGI’s Sovera® Health Information Management (HIM) solution. Sovera HIM provides the organization with a complete digital document management and workflow system that expedites the coding and medical chart review process which contributes to a decrease in accounts-receivable and enables JHACO compliance. Sovera’s highly scalable architecture allows Baptist Health to manage multiple facilities and large volumes of patient information simultaneously.

Since then, Baptist Health has expanded its Sovera HIM solution to image-enable its Siemens Life Time Clinical Record so users can view content that has been captured in Sovera right from within their clinical system. In addition, Baptist Health and CGI most recently created a new content management repository to capture and store employee health records to help monitor, regulate and respond to employee health and safety incidences and programs.

The Need for a More Powerful Capture Solution

Baptist Health currently processes 43,000 pages per day, representing about 14.5 million pages annually. Faced with data volumes that are expected to rise significantly over the two years as a result of a new 133-bed hospital that is scheduled to open in 2011 plus the need and demand to begin scanning documents from other departments across the organization, Baptist Health knew it needed to implement a new capture solution that would integrate with and complement its ECM Solution – CGI Sovera.

However, Baptist Health’s objectives for implementing a new capture solution were not limited to supporting the increase in data volumes; Baptist Health wanted to maintain, and even improve, its capture service levels. With medical record data (images) more readily available, Baptist Health could improve its coding turnaround time which, in turn, would expedite the revenue cycle—when bills are dropped and claims submitted.

With the new capture system, Baptist Health also wanted to continue to leverage its existing consolidated data capture site, increase staff productivity and reduce the number of FTEs required to support the operation.

The Solution

After an extensive evaluation of available technology, Baptist Health selected a solution that combined two ibml ImageTrac document scanners along with Taskmaster capture software from Datacap, an IBM Company.

The ImageTrac devices scan 429 pages per minute in color and black and white, and handle both 8 1/2 x 11” pages and legal-sized documents. The scanners include an ink jet printer that sprays batch information on a batch cover; dual pockets to automatically out-sort document separator sheets for re-use; a full-color touchscreen control panel; multi-feed detection; and barcode recognition.

The Datacap 7.5 software uses predefined “rules” to increase the capture and indexing efficiency of information for CGI’s HIM and EHS solutions. For instance, in the case of a record with a face sheet, the patient’s account number can be automatically extracted from the face sheet and applied to all subsequent documents. If the document includes a bar code, Datacap 7.5 automates the indexing; documents without document-type bar codes are manually indexed. The software also includes a custom index interface with definable hot key and tab assignments to speed any manual indexing.

The Implementation

The first step in the implementation of the new capture solution was a visit to another user of CGI’s Sovera HIM and the CGI/ibml/Datacap front-end capture solution. Armed with ideas from this visit, Baptist Health then evaluated its existing capture processes, and analyzed its document types to identify likely exceptions scenarios; the objective was for Baptist Health to identify potential process improvements and document redesign opportunities early on in the process.

Next, the ibml scanners were installed and configured at Baptist Health, and the Datacap software was interfaced to CGI’s Sovera HIM solution. This was followed by unit testing, operator training on the ibml scanners, and customized end-user (indexer) and supervisor training on the Datacap software. Once user-acceptance testing was completed, Baptist Health went into production with the new solution at all of its document capture sites in April 2010, backed by “post go-live” support from its vendors.

The Results

As a result of implementing the faster and more efficient document capture solution, Baptist Health has already reduced from a little less than 24 hours to a little more than 4 hours the turnaround time from receipt of records to availability in their Sovera HIM solution. The faster processing helps with patient care facilitating Baptist Health’s high-quality standards and good risk management -- both of which have positive financial implications. It also allowed Baptist Health to eliminate its second and third processing shifts. In the past, Baptist Health required five scanners running three shifts a day, seven days a week, to process all of its work; Baptist Health’s two ibml scanners now process all of the organization’s work in just one shift a day.

The new document capture solution also has quickly provided a return on investment by enabling Baptist Health to electronically release patient records to payers for review in outlier cases and denials.

In addition, the ability of the ibml scanners to out-sort separator sheets for re-use will reduce the amount of paper used in the capture process; with its previous capture solution, Baptist Health used over 200,000 pages per month. Having fewer scanners means less hardware consumables, too.

And, the new document capture solution provides significant room for growth, with the ability to easily manage documentation from more Baptist Health departments and facilities.

The Bottom Line

At a time when healthcare organizations of all sizes are trying to balance requirements to electronify records with pressure to control operations costs, Baptist Health found an answer in a new capture solution.

About CGI

Founded in 1976, CGI Group Inc. is one of the largest independent information technology and business process services firms in the world. CGI and its affiliated companies employ approximately 26,000 professionals. CGI provides end-to-end IT and business process services to clients worldwide from offices in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific as well as from centers of excellence in North America, Europe and India. As of June 30, 2010, CGI’s order backlog was $11.4 billion. CGI shares are listed on the NYSE (GIB) and the TSX (GIB.A) and are included in both, the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and the FTSE4Good Index. Website: www.cgi.com.

About Datacap, an IBM Company

Since 1988, Datacap Inc. has provided award-winning document capture and forms processing software solutions to organizations worldwide. Datacap Taskmaster software accurately transforms paper into information, increasing efficiency while reducing costs and document cycle time. A client/server, rules-based capture workflow platform, Taskmaster is industry’s most adaptable solution for capture. Taskmaster also enables browser-based capture and integrates with all leading document management solutions, databases and ERP systems. www.datacap.com

About ibml

ibml provides intelligent scanning and document capture solutions that drive business process improvements from the point of capture -- whether it’s a high-volume centralized operation or a remote office. Combining hardware, software and services, ibml’s comprehensive solutions automate the most demanding document applications in banking, financial services, healthcare, government services, outsourcing and more. Every day, hundreds of ibml customers across 39 countries use our technology to capture millions of document images. For more information, visit www.ibml.com.