Successes - Marshall County Hospital
Easily customized Fortis document management works cost-saving wonders at community hospital

Marshall County Hospital has been providing healthcare to Benton, Kentucky and the surrounding area since 1964. The hospital’s mission is to provide primary and specialty services with high quality care, concern, dedication and value in a cost-effective manner. Keeping costs under control while maintaining clinical excellence requires a strong collaborative effort between the administrative and medical staff.

As part of planning for a new facility, which opened on March 8, 2009, Marshall County Hospital incorporated document management into their technology mix to automate administrative processes and reduce the need for storage space.

“In the old building, we had filing cabinets everywhere full of paper. Each time we were asked for a copy of a bill, it would take several minutes to find it,” said Patrick Waters, director of Information Technologies for the hospital. “I knew there was a better way. I started looking at which document management system would be the best fit for us. The main goal was to save space and promote better organization in the new facility.”

Marshall County Hospital chose Fortis document management software because it was easy to customize. “With other systems we looked at, you got a generic set of document types and databases, and you were stuck with them,” Waters said. “With Fortis it was easy to create a system that met the hospital’s specific needs.”

The software was implemented by KeeFORCE, a systems integrator based in
Paducah, KY. “KeeFORCE has been great. They’re very knowledgeable. They were able to ask the right questions to help define our document types correctly and make sure the initial set up was done correctly,” Waters said. He estimates that it took less than two months from the time they started talking with KeeFORCE to initial training for employees.

The hospital started the Fortis implementation in their accounts payable and billing departments. Accounts payable staff scan and then track invoices and purchase orders in Fortis. They also use Fortis to archive and reconcile bank statements, and for year-end reporting. The business office stores Explanation of Benefits (EOB) forms which can be retrieved and viewed as necessary when patients have questions about a bill.

“Our admissions department scans in all driver’s licenses and insurance cards. Before using Fortis, we had to make paper copies and retain them for a year. Now our staff can scan, index and file these documents without leaving their desks,” Waters said. The admissions department also scans in doctors’ orders that come in by fax or mail. “We’re able to pull those orders up by typing in a few letters of the patient’s name, rather than searching a folder to pull out a paper copy,” Waters said.

Using document management has speeded up administrative processes throughout the hospital. For example, before Fortis all documents related to a purchase order were stapled together and filed. Now departments submit purchase orders electronically, the purchase orders are sent to Fortis and the delivery tickets are scanned in as well. Instead of having to match the documents manually, this now happens automatically.

“Fortis has saved the accounting area a tremendous amount of time,” Waters said. “The accounts payable manager told me that this is the first time she’s been caught up since she started working at the hospital in 1997.”

As more admissions documentation is scanned into Fortis, the business office will retrieve insurance cards through Fortis. Waters anticipates that this will also represent significant time savings. “The hospital was still using paper everywhere. I have been pleasantly surprised by the acceptance of Fortis – more so than I would have thought,” Waters said. “It’s mainly because it’s so easy to use. There’s nothing really to learning it.”

Fortis has already been helpful to financial auditors. “They are not just here to check our financial records, but also to review check production security. Instead of having to follow a paper trail, everything was in Fortis. The auditors could easily verify who signed each check and when it had been signed,” he said.

Fortis has helped with HIPAA compliance since the system defines who can access each document type and exactly what is stored in the system. “We have been very selective about who has access to confidential information,” Waters noted. The Fortis Audit Trail automatically records these activities adding a further layer of accountability.

Fortis is integrated with CPSI, the hospital’s Health Information System. When the Admission’s Office indexes identification and insurance cards, Fortis Data Entry Assistant pulls over the patient’s name, account number and date of birth.

Marshall County Hospital plans to roll out Fortis to their lab, radiology and respiratory departments to give them access to doctors’ orders online. The hospital will also start scanning in employee records and contracts, as well as documents related to physician credentialing.

>> Click here for printable PDF