Zangmeister Center
Leading Cancer Care Treatment Center Consolidates Offices, Uses Move as Opportunity to Move Directly Into Paperless World
Industry/Solution
Medical
- Cancer Care Treatment Center
Established in 1982 as Mid Ohio Oncology Hematology, Inc., Zangmeister Center merged four outpatient cancer and blood disorder treatment facilities into one location in early 2007. The new facility is a progressive treatment center serving 16,000 patients annually. But while Zangmeister Center’s opening was eagerly anticipated, the challenge of moving mountains of paper patient records and related documents was daunting.
Unique Challenges of Patient Charts and Medical Records
Zangmeister Center, like most medical facilities, generated a variety of documentation, which together comprised comprehensive patient records. Unfortunately, this documentation was collected and stored in a variety of formats. Patient records resided in an electronic medical record system, and/or paper patient charts along with external documents in both digital and paper form such as outside laboratory correspondence. Some files contained over 500 pages of paper!
Other documents such as research study records were voluminous; as Nancy Merriman, Research Manager at Zangmeister Center, noted, “Many research studies contain 200 page protocols for the nursing staff, along with multiple supporting documents – a staggering amount of paper that needed to be produced, filed and continually accessed. In addition, HIPAA compliance requires proper security and authorization of all paperwork, making lost charts and patient privacy a more pressing concern than ever.”
All of these medical documents needed to be retained, but would not fit into the new Zangmeister Center in their paper form. Establishing an automated electronic document management solution to handle electronic medical charts would require careful planning and expertise. Information in patient records had to be examined for relevance and then indexed into digital files and folders. Progress notes, patient information, images, prescriptions, insurance information, EOB’s and other medical documents also had to appear in electronic medical
charts.
Healthcare Industry Places Premium on Ease-of-Use
Nurses, receptionists, support staff, and
doctors were accustomed to having a large
file in hand to review when caring for patients.
As part of the move to electronic
document management, viewing and updating
patient records needed to be quick and
easy.
Advantage Data Systems (ADS), a complete solutions
integrator for a variety of industries, introduced
Zangmeister to Cabinet NG’s CNG-SAFE document management platform. CNG-SAFE is
Cabinet NG’s Shared Access Filing Environment
and holds the well-earned reputation as the most
affordable and comprehensive document management
and workflow platform for SMBs. In the
words of Roger Veach, President of ADS, “Advantage Data Systems has focused solely on
Cabinet NG as our electronic document management
system of choice for three reasons: 1) intuitive,
user-friendly interface, 2) the hands-on, responsive
and capable people at Cabinet NG and
3) the reliability of the CNG-SAFE product itself.”
Mr. Veach added, “The CNG-SAFE interface was
a major factor in Zangmeister’s decision to go
with Cabinet NG. CNG-SAFE electronically mimics
paper patient charts and files, avoiding steep
learning curves that could adversely impact the
facility’s productivity.” Andrew Cooper, Information
Technology Manager at the Zangmeister
Center said, “When ADS introduced us to Cabinet
NG, we were immediately impressed by
CNG-SAFE’s simplicity, flexibility and low cost
implementation”.
CNG-SAFE in Action
ADS demonstrated CNG-SAFE in real time by
taking Zangmeister staff to The Bone & Joint Clinic, a busy and successful orthopaedic practice
in Franklin, Tennessee already using Cabinet
NG’s electronic document management solution.
The Bone & Joint Clinic uses CNG-SAFE and its
workflow capabilities to address the challenge of
storing, accessing, and automating the flow of
patient information throughout the clinic. In the
process, the facility reclaimed enough space to
add doctors and new exam rooms.
Seeing CNG-SAFE in practice at a leading medical
facility with similar document management
needs solidified Zangmeister’s decision to go
with ADS and Cabinet NG.
Directly addressing the challenges of moving into
a new facility and introducing a new electronic
document management system to the center’s
employees, ADS commandeered the electronic
conversion of 15,000 patient files using CNGBatch.
Several high speed Canon scanners were
used to feed CNG-BATCH with a stream of documents.
CNG-Batch processed these streams by
quickly separating, naming and filing each document
into the appropriate folders in CNG-SAFE.
The conversion process is ongoing, but has already
enabled Zangmeister to accommodate the
remaining paper documents in the new facility.
Expert attention to the unique needs of medical
facilities and the specific processes involved
when handling electronic patient records ensured
a smooth transition to the CNG-SAFE document
management platform. Zangmeister’s existing
EMR/practice management software linked to
CNG-SAFE, providing a measure of business
continuity without disrupting in-place processes
and procedures.
Application Integration Allows For Immediate
Access to All Patient Data
The key user challenge in medical environments
is the need to see complete patient charts quickly
and easily. The lack of time to learn a new system
explained the continued use of heavy, cumbersome
paper files and folders. Both the Bone &
Joint Clinic and Zangmeister Center were early
users of Cabinet NG’s innovative Retriever™
technology. Cabinet NG specifically developed
this breakthrough in integration so software applications
can be integrated without the need for
custom development. Retriever™ appears as an
icon button in the native application used by physicians
and staff, and gives access to patient's
record information stored in CNG-SAFE with a
click of the button. All patient data is available
quickly and easily, and the practice of printing
multiple copies of patient documents is obsolete.
Retriever also enforces user access privileges so
sensitive patient data remains secure and only
viewable by appropriate Zangmeister staff. The
result is instant access to authorized documents,
and the value of integrated applications without
the expense of a custom IT retrofit.
Zangmeister Looks Forward to Extending
CNG-SAFE Throughout Facility
Starting with 40 concurrent Zangmeister users,
the benefits of going paperless have inspired
Nancy Merriman to bring CNG-SAFE to other
departments, such as Human Resources. The
Zangmeister Center is pleased with Cabinet NG’s
and ADS’ role in helping them move thousands
of patient records into the new facility. Zangmeister
staff can quickly and easily retrieve patient
data and email or fax documents directly out of
individual patient folders. “There is no more chasing
paper at Zangmeister Center” said Nancy
Merriman. Added Andrew Cooper, Information
Technology Manager, Zangmeister Center, “Our
goal is to go paperless, and Cabinet NG is key to
doing so.”
© Cabinet NG, Inc. 2008 |
