ERM Strategies and Solutions
Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, located in Boise, Idaho, offers advanced medical care and health services to residents of Boise and nearly 280,000 people in outlying rural communities throughout southwest Idaho and eastern Oregon. With approximately 390 licensed beds, 3,500 employees, a trauma center, an orthopedic spinal care unit, a Life Flight air medical transport service, and a home health and hospice division, Saint Alphonsus is known for its community-based services and innovation in technology and treatment. Saint Alphonsus is a member of Trinity Health, the fourth-largest Catholic health care system in the country.
Saint Alphonsus manages an intricate system of health and wellness services that extend into the communities around its region. The Saint Alphonsus Medical Group has over 70 primary care physicians, contracts with four rural hospitals and a growing network infrastructure system connecting computers, operating systems, applications and databases containing vital clinical, operational and business information.
In 2006, Saint Alphonsus launched the “Genesis Project”, a hospital-wide initiative to modernize its health information system and develop a fully integrated system of electronic medical records.
Facing a 9% annual increase in print volume, no financial visibility to its document costs, inefficient workflow, and an overburdened IT department, Saint Alphonsus looked to AUXILIO, its trusted Managed Print Services (MPS) partner, to reassess its overall print and connectivity strategy for the entire hospital network and develop a customized print strategy and migration path from their legacy system to the Genesis Project’s advanced new communication system.
As the only health care exclusive MPS provider, AUXILIO’s “Centers of Excellence” team of experts, led by a Resident Manager, became integral members of the Genesis Project team. In collaboration, AUXILIO conducted a comprehensive audit of each area of the hospital and delivered an in-depth situational workflow analysis that examined usage patterns and uncovered waste and inefficiencies.
An example of such, Saint Alphonsus’ registration system was comprised of 1,600 various forms. Keeping up with these forms was a significant administrative burden. Updates were time and cost prohibitive, especially as the number and complexity of the forms increased. Project Genesis would result in new and improved patient check-in procedures, eliminating all of the preliminary paper forms and utilizing advanced technology to print patient identification bracelets that communicate important information and instructions about each patient to all hospital staff.
AUXILIO provided project management support, which resulted in a customized print solution by:
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Evaluating the workflow and needs of the entire hospital system
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Establishing device standardization and asset management
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Converting several incompatible printing networks to one compatible electronic printing infrastructure through iPrint
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Providing information to the data teams resulting in the connection of computers, operating systems, applications and databases containing vital clinical, operational and business information
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establishing financial visibility into the hospitals' print costs and drastically reducing overall costs
In order to ensure the ability to interface with and print the hospital’s required forms in a logical and efficient manner, AUXILIO mapped out Saint Alphonsus’ entire print network and in order to configure each end-users’ laptop with the local print. It then deployed printers in carefully selected locations, based on employee and patient needs in order to maximize interoperability, connectivity and improved patient safety and care, while drastically reducing overall costs.
With the proper fleet in place throughout the hospital network, AUXILIO came up with user-friendly naming conventions and a common language for Project Genesis’ revamped electronic information infrastructure and assisted Saint Alphonsus’ IT department with its new information technology architecture, linking all hospital departments, pharmacies, labs, as well as Saint Alphonsus’ hospital partners via a new digital network infrastructure.
AUXILIO significantly improved Saint Alphonsus’ print management strategy and process. Saint Alphonsus now has transparency into their critical business practices, an optimized print environment and is nearing completion of its system-wide EMR implementation. As a result of a successful collaboration on Project Genesis, Saint Alphonsus will have a fully-integrated system of electronic medical records in the Fall of 2010 and more than 600,000 Boise metropolitan area residents, as well as patients in outlying rural communities, will benefit from advanced medical and health care services.
As new medical clinics open, AUXILIO will ascertain equipment and workflow needs based on patient volume and number of doctors with the end result of integrating the clinic into the Saint Alphonsus’ standards of faxing and scanning and overall print management.
The Genesis Project delivers a new electronic information infrastructure that greatly increases efficiency throughout Saint Alphonsus’ vast hospital network and improves staff morale as they benefit from improved user training, simplified management and a single interface for all output devices.
Saint Alphonsus was so pleased with AUXILIO’s service, it signed an early renewal in 2009 in order to continue to benefit from AUXILIO’s “best practice” print management techniques and assistance with system-wide EMR implementation.