Introduction

In the midst of a pivotal EHR transition from NextGen to Epic, a multi-specialty medical group based in North Carolina faced the formidable challenge of maintaining uninterrupted patient care. The chief medical officer’s utmost priority was to ensure seamless accessibility, continued processing and accurate retrieval of patient health information throughout this transition. Specifically, Tronitech needed to sustain the efficiency of their medical record incoming faxes and document scanning indexing processes to prevent a lapse in care. However, the transition between EHR systems involved navigating the intricate nuances of different requirements, rules, index fields, and workflows. These disparities always pose some risk but since Tronitech was already providing medical indexing services in NextGen, ensuring processing these in Epic could still disrupt patient care. As they prepared for the monumental shift from NextGen to Epic, the medical group collaborated closely with Tronitech to safeguard their fax and scan workflows. The plan was executed with only a few minor glitches but with no disruptions and surprisingly, production increased.

Client Profile

For this 125+ provider North Carolina multi-specialty organization, like other large healthcare organizations, growth is always a priority and they continue growing through acquisitions. During this growth, they recognized keeping up with the influx of medical records was going to present too many challenges as their network expanded. Since this provider offered most specialties, they had over 200 doctypes and training produced less than desirable results due to the errors, employee retention and a management burden. They also were decentralized, leaving it up to the individual clinic to process their own faxes and scans. Rather than increasing staff resources for manual indexing, they sought a partner to automate and optimize their existing processes, ultimately choosing TRONITECH.

TRONITECH’s Distinctive Approach

TRONITECH stood out in the field by combining experience, communication, scalable plan, specifically assigned staff with human validation including OCR when applicable. Achieving an extraordinary accuracy rate of 99.9%, this approach significantly reduced errors, risks, missed results and most importantly, put all documents into the correct chart in 24 hours or less. Impressed by TRONITECH’s speed and precision, our client centralized the filing of all fax documents, relieving individual practices of this burden which freed up resources, stress relieved and providers were happy.

Challenges of EHR Transition

The transition from NextGen to Epic brought forth several challenges for our client’s document indexing workflow:

  • Extended Processing Time: Due to mandatory rules such as “closing the loop” and creating encounters, this adds about 25% more processing time for each document.
  • Epic Repository: Epic stores documents outside the EHR for good reasons as it slows the database. The customer chose Onbase to store, process and integrate into Epic. This needed to replicate the Epic chart configuration and another software was now relied upon. This is unlike other EHR’s where all data is in the software.
  • New Document Types, rules and Fields: Shifting EHRs necessitated updates to document types, new index fields and a different workflow. Strategic adjustments in document handling were essential and vital to the success of this transition.
Strategic Guidance from TRONITECH

Having worked with others, TRONITECH was able to provide invaluable strategic guidance on Fax & Scan workflows. Leveraging the expertise gained from assisting other Epic customers, TRONITECH collaborated with the client’s team on preferred methods in order to mitigate errors, disruptions, maintain quality control and decrease the necessity for additional indexers, all while closing the loop and creating encounters. Since the EHR was not used for medical record processing, this allowed other outside tools to be used to automate the process allowing production to increase.

Client Testimonial

“TRONITECH is not just a service provider, they are a true partner and extension to our operations. We both recognized the obstacles of this monumental undertaking and planned accordingly drawing on their past experience with other clients which ultimately prepared us for a smooth transition from NextGen EHR to Epic. Without their knowledge and making us aware of the requirements for Epic, we would have had major issues in our medical records department. We wholeheartedly recommend TRONITECH to other help any organization needing medical record indexing services.” Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Conclusion

Transitioning to a new EHR does have its challenges, however mitigating risks with preparation can also bring success instead of causing major disruptions. By partnering with TRONITECH, our client achieved the following remarkable outcomes:

  • Strategic Staff Reallocation: The client successfully reallocated staff resources to enhance efficiency, addressing the prevailing staffing shortages in the healthcare industry.
  • Accuracy: The accuracy rate is an impressive 99.99%.
  • Timely Patient Care: Physicians gained immediate access to patient information, ensuring swift and efficient patient care.
  • Continued Growth: No worries about adding medical record resources, instead it’s welcomed. With a scalable, knowledgeable team, the customer knows adding experienced Tronitech staff is no concern.

When confronted with changes that could potentially impact a vital function within any health organization, it needs to be managed diligently and with specific attention to detail. Choosing a technology partner like TRONITECH, which seamlessly blends cutting-edge technology with skilled expertise, can optimize health records management workflows, enhance patient care and unlock growth opportunities.