Successes - Banner Health
Multi-state Healthcare Giant Uses Westbrook Fortis for HIPAA Compliance and Credentialing Verification Organization

Banner Health, based in Phoenix, AZ, is one of the largest not-for-profit healthcare systems in the country with 34 hospitals and healthcare facilities throughout the western United States and more than 35,000 employees. Not only does Banner Health now have the most technologically advanced medical equipment available in its facilities, but it also has a powerful document management process in place with Westbrook’s Fortis software that is as state-of-the-art as its patient care units.

Before implementing Fortis, Banner Health used manual processes and archived paper documents both on- and off-site. When documents needed to be shared among departments, they were copied and mailed, faxed or couriered. Costly off-site storage was needed and the manual document retrieval process was inconvenient and time consuming.

Banner Health’s goals were to:

• Create a paper-light office environment by making business documents available online
• Enable more efficient sharing of information across the organization
• Reduce staffing for manual paper processing and data entry to redeploy resources to value-added activities
• Centrally organize geographically diverse functional areas
• Reduce costs related to paper document storing and sharing
• Reduce security risks of documents being lost in transit or getting into the wrong hands
• Eliminate time spent hunting through stacks of paper and the wait for paper documents to be returned from an off-site storage facility

Solution
By implementing Fortis document management software, Banner Health achieved tremendous efficiencies throughout their organization by reducing time spent searching for paper documents and eliminating mailing and off-site storage costs. The organization also reduced staff for manual paper processing and data entry. For example, in the Clinical Care Operations department alone, seven full-time employees (FTEs) were reassigned from data entry to other departmental work.
Fortis’ flexible security provides permission-based group access and easy retrieval for geographically dispersed departments and facilities. In general, the document management project streamlined information management and operations allowing Banner Health to manage its growth and add new facilities to the system with minimal purchases of new business hardware and software. The document management implementation has had a positive affect on productivity in many administrative areas and is aligned with Banner Health’s focus on paper-light processes, standardization and integration of business applications.

Western Region Central Billing Office - Prior to implementing Fortis, scanning insurance denial documents was outsourced by their Western Region central billing office (CBO). Banner had no control over annual changes in scanning costs or turnaround time. All scanned documents were retained on CDs, a potential single source of failure if one of the CDs was lost or damaged. Although the images were available for viewing, the CBO had to conform to the rules imposed by the outsourcer.

With Fortis, documents are scanned and stored in a central database. Users throughout the Banner system, who have appropriate security access, can retrieve these electronic records at any time, printing only as needed. A secured access and back-up system provides a simplified way to maintain important document images with appropriate controls.

The success of the installation resulted in Banner Health’s ability to consolidate all of its CBO activities to a single office for the enterprise reducing costs for office space and increasing productivity with current staff levels. All of its CD-based images were converted into the electronic document archive system. Ongoing, paper documents are scanned directly into Fortis.

“Our initial objective was to digitize the Central Billing Office in Western Region,” says Stacey Morris, director, enterprise integration services. “The project was accomplished in four months with the ROI achieved five months post go-live. Success criteria for the initial implementation were to reduce days in AR, reduce costs associated with paper processing and increase staff productivity through efficiencies provided from electronic search and retrieval of documentation.”

As a result of the Fortis implementation, the Central Billing Office was able to eliminate the cost of outsourced scanning, resulting in a savings of approximately $33,000 per month and $1 million over three years. Banner Health has installed Fortis enterprise wide for centralized departments such at Patient Financial Services, Accounts Payable, Physician Credentialing and Legal. It is being deployed in new departments at a rate of about six per year. By implementing Fortis, the time spent during audits has been cut in half for many departments because of the ease of locating the information auditors request. Instead of looking through filing cabinets and requesting documents from off-site storage, Banner Health staff is able to create and run a quick query and return results and documents immediately. The documents can then be sent to a file for the auditors and access to documents auditors don’t need is eliminated.

Accounts Payable - Fortis is the central repository for managing invoices in the Accounts Payable department, which can efficiently scan and index invoices and expense forms. Supplier information is now electronic and the department has dramatically reduced paper storage and mailing costs. Distributed scanning across the enterprise and centralized indexing save time, eliminate paper storage and provide payment information to geographically dispersed facilities. Packing slips are also scanned into the AP database for verification of delivery. Having immediate access to these documents in Fortis has had a positive impact on staff productivity. Backend updates to and from the Lawson financial system reduce the need for manual data entry.

The Accounts Payable department achieved an initial ROI of $42,000, based on eliminating overnight carrier service and time to process invoices from multiple locations.

Clinical Care Operations – Registry and travelling clinical staff require documentation of licensure, certifications and educational requirements. These transitory files are stored in a central location for use across multiple hospital and clinic facilities. Banner Health has reduced filing systems, paper usage and time spent in finding and transferring registry staff records. Increased productivity allowed staff to take on new responsibilities following the implementation. In Clinical Care Operations, $49,000 in paper costs will be saved over the next five years and seven FTEs were reassigned from data entry to other departmental work.

Banner Plan Administration – Claim service staff have view access to insurance claims for services provided which are electronically programmed for storage and retrieval in the Fortis application. When they receive an inquiry, these fully-searchable documents allow them to respond quickly. Scanning claims with data capture allows services to be automated and data to be integrated with other line of business applications saving valuable staff time previously dedicated to such tasks. Banner has also eliminated offsite storage costs.

Central Verification and Medical Staff Offices – Physician credentials and verifications are scanned, stored and retrieved in Fortis with specialized security and standardization. Centralized online document storage has eliminated redundant paper storage and filing systems. In addition Fortis provides customized storage for facility specific documents.

Legal – Fortis is being used to manage legal contracts which are scanned into the system. The legal departments have quick access to records needed for court actions, for example, increasing their ability to comply with documentation demands. Also, when they receive requests for payment, Fortis saves time in finding and verifying contracts prior to issuing funds. The Legal Department estimates they will reduce the expenses of contract research and verification by two-thirds.

Human Resources – Documents and forms filled out by new employees are scanned into the Fortis system. This allowed Banner to avoid purchasing a $10,000 filing system when three new hospitals joined their organization. Banner scans existing paper records into Fortis, allowing employee records to be shared between Human Resources departments across the enterprise. The department has saved $30,000 by eliminating off-site paper storage.

Summary
Banner Health created a more integrated and efficient system for sharing documents and data. Their business applications, including Lawson, iCIMS, VisionPro, Impact, Lockbox and their legal filing system, have been integrated with Fortis document management. Electronic files are secure and yet easily accessible by staff with the required authorization. By streamlining their administrative processes, Banner Health met their goals of reducing reliance on paper, more efficiently sharing information across the organization and reducing administrative costs. This helps Banner Health fulfill their overall mission of providing excellent patient care.

Banner Health has achieved ongoing savings in office supplies and equipment, reduced storage and mailing costs associated with sharing documents, reduced office space needed for filing cabinets along with higher productivity from staff. Banner has been able to continue to add hospitals and clinics with minimal additional administrative staff needed in support departments. Documents are secure from being accessed by unauthorized personnel and from being lost or destroyed due to backup systems and redundancy within the data center.

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