"Managers and workers across Good Shepherd Health System are working faster and smarter with easy access to online reports, and automatic analysis of report-based data, thanks to Datawatch|ES. We have kicked the paper reporting habit and have gained automatic access to Meditech data in the process!"

 

Paperless reporting and business intelli­gence are now routine operations for Good Shepherd

Good Shepherd Health System, based in Longview, Texas, is a 452-bed regional referral center providing a wide range of specialized care, including cardiology, neurology, cardiovascular surgery, maternity, emergency care, and many other services. Good Shepherd has been at the forefront of healthcare delivery in Northeast Texas for nearly seventy years.

For the last seventeen years, Good Shepherd has relied on the Meditech healthcare information system as its core operational technology solution. Good Shepherd brought the power of its Meditech system to an exciting new level, by implementing Datawatch|ES, a web-enabled report management and business intelligence solution. Datawatch|ES has made Good Shepherd's Meditech report production and distribution a secure, paperless process. Plus, Meditech reports are now transformed into live online data, without programming.

GETTING OUT FROM UNDER THE PAPER WITH DATAWATCH|ES

"We run at least one hundred different standard Meditech reports on a daily basis," says Wiley Thomas, IT Director for Good Shepherd. "Still more reports are produced on a weekly or monthly basis. Many of these reports must be split apart, with the different sections each sent off to the right department. Printing, bursting, and hand-delivering thick Meditech reports is a slow, expensive process."

"Plus, paper reports also present a challenge in terms of HIPAA demands," Wiley adds. "Sending a confidential report via interoffice mail does run the potential risk of being delivered to the wrong person, or it could be accidentally looked at by someone in transit. "

"These concerns were our key 'points of pain' for which we were seeking a solution. Our end users wanted to get their reports more quickly, and do away with paper-based reports, using an electronic reporting system, which proved to be Datawatch|ES."

DATAWATCH|ES: 'THE NEXT STEP' FROM DESKTOP MONARCH

"Beyond our paper-based reporting concerns, another key issue for Good Shepherd was the significant amount of manual rekeying of data going on across departments. Our Meditech users were hand-typing data from Meditech paper reports into an Excel spreadsheet quite often, just to work with the data in a useful way," says Wiley. "The whole process of manual data entry of report information into Excel is by nature error-prone and can result in misinformed decision making."

Wiley and others at Good Shepherd had used Monarch desktop report mining soft­ware already, with much success, to 'mine' data from Meditech report files, downloaded to a PC, for easy analysis. "Datawatch|ES was a logical 'next step' in technology for us," Wiley says, "to move from the individual, personal productivity that Monarch offers, to the enterprise-wide productivity through paperless reporting and data analysis that Datawatch|ES offers."

"Datawatch|ES has fulfilled our needs for paperless, secure report distribution, plus the ability to analyze report-based data, without rekeying or programming."

DATAWATCH|ES IN ACTION FOR GOOD SHEPHERD

"One of the first reports we archived into Datawatch|ES was Meditech's Labor Distribution Report. This report shows number of hours and dollar amounts charged by department, person, and job classification, as well as the type of hours worked: regular, overtime, standby, etc. It is a very detailed report that is hard to read."

"Our department managers can now access their own section of the Labor Distribution Report using Datawatch|ES, and view the data from the report in an easy-to-read data summary with department totals. From there, managers can spot anomalies that warrant looking at specific details. For example, the summary data view Datawatch|ES generates might show an unusual level of overtime within a certain area, which the manager can quickly address. "

"Accounting users have been very pleased with how they can retrieve specific report sections and take the data into Excel with just a click of the mouse," says Wiley. "They also like the Report Annotation feature of Datawatch|ES, which lets users add 'sticky notes' directly to reports. Datawatch|ES is not only a secure report repository, but also a central site to include additional relevant comments about a report for others to easily see. "

"We have also rolled out Datawatch|ES to our laboratory department users, who are also happy with how Datawatch|ES works," Wiley says. "Lab personnel can now access Meditech's Patient Master Log, for example, which lists lab results by patient. It is a very detailed and obviously very confidential report. Our lab users can now work with the data in these reports – often 800 pages or more on a daily report – and easily review in detail results which fall outside of acceptable levels."

DATAWATCH|ES DELIVERS EARLY HARD­DOLLAR ROI

Before Datawatch|ES, Good Shepherd main­tained an archive room, filled with paper reports. "Our hospital policy calls for required retention of certain records; in some cases, reports must be retained for five years, seven years, or perhaps even much longer," Wiley says. "Datawatch|ES helps us electronically fulfill these requirements, and eliminate concerns stemming from safe and secure disposal of paper reports that no longer need to be retained."

"The report management and secure distribution features of Datawatch|ES provide clear benefits in terms of record retention, business management and workflow, as well as helping meet the data security demands of HIPAA."

In addition to sharply reducing the administrative headaches associated with managing piles of paper, Datawatch|ES has already helped Good Shepherd realize a return on investment in hard dollar savings. "Just a few months since our implementation of Datawatch|ES, we have already saved one half of a Full Time Equivalent (FTE), who used to be exclusively responsible for printing, splitting, and delivering Meditech paper reports," Wiley says. "Plus, we expect at least $25-30,000 in annual savings in paper and printing costs alone. "

"I can't emphasize enough the combined Meditech reporting and business intelligence benefits Datawatch|ES offers to us," Wiley adds. "In fact, we delayed other projects in order to implement Datawatch|ES now instead of later. That decision has proven to be a very good one."

"Managers and workers across Good Shepherd Health System are working faster and smarter with easy access to online reports, and automatic analysis of report-based data, thanks to Datawatch|ES. We have kicked the paper reporting habit and have gained automatic access to Meditech data in the process!"

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