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By Greg Scarbrough
Vice President, Finance / Chief Financial Officer
Oconee Medical Center
Seneca, S.C.
Failing Infrastructure
For more than 70 years, Oconee Medical Center has been making a difference in the lives of families in South Carolina. Our commitment to quality, coupled with the latest technology and treatment protocols, make us the provider of choice in the region. But a failing information technology (IT) infrastructure was jeopardizing productivity and hampered our mission to help our patients feel better and live life more fully.
A Whole New Focus
With an increased emphasis on hospital care delivery and management, we knew we needed a total overhaul of our IT infrastructure. We turned to McKesson's outsourcing services for help in defining our strategy along with the roadmap to accomplish it.
Together, we replaced and upgraded our entire infrastructure, and implemented a number of new clinical and financial systems, including the ability to "host" an electronic health record (EHR) for community physicians. McKesson's complete overhaul of our technology gave us a new focus on using IT to support our care delivery efforts.
The increase in the number and complexity of our software systems drove the rapid expansion of our computing power. We went from just nine servers to more than 100, and we tripled the number of personal computers (PCs). Engaging experienced IT resources provided a means to manage the cost and complexity of the advancements.
Our new applications and systems have streamlined our scheduling, compliance, billing, reimbursement and other financial processes. We are more efficient and effective in how we manage everything, from clinical systems to email to security.
Cost Savings
By outsourcing our IT functions, we were able to improve our operations and reap financial and productivity benefits. With the appropriate expertise and backup systems in place, we have minimized downtime, improved operational performance, and significantly improved our ability to monitor systems and troubleshoot effectively.
Focus on Our Core Business. Using outsourced IT expertise has allowed us to focus our internal resources on supporting patient care delivery with a strong partner at the table. This has enabled us – a rural, community hospital – to expand our service offerings in ways that we would not have been able to otherwise.
Fine-tuning the Technology to Meet Our Needs. The experienced outsourcing staff is able to fine-tune our existing technology to meet our requirements without purchasing additional software. For example, when we wanted to increase transparency and educate patients about the cost of procedures, our IT manager designed a solution without buying any special software. We use it to share cost information and improve collections.
Online Reporting and Elimination of Print Costs. All departmental charge logs, census reports and other data are now available electronically through a viewer. The IT department no longer prints and distributes daily, weekly or monthly reports, saving us $100,000 per year in paper costs.
Upgrade and Expansion of Systems. With the recent upgrade and expansion of the EDIS, ED physicians now document their care directly in the system, eliminating a significant amount in annual transcription costs.
Managing a Complex Environment
As a healthcare provider, we operate in a complex environment. One of our biggest ongoing challenges is to better manage and make use of the daily avalanche of data to improve our business flow. McKesson has helped us design the tools we need to capture key data, consolidate it in a meaningful way, and distribute it automatically to the right people at the right time.
The ability to get relevant information into people's hands in real time enables us to nimbly react and adjust our activities. For example, we use this real-time information to flex to patient volume, adjusting staffing to meet flow increases or decreases as they occur throughout the day.
Sharing Information Across Boundaries
One of our most successful initiatives is the implementation of an EHR in a community setting, with independent physician practices and our hospital-owned practices sharing information. This physician-led initiative has helped improve the coordination and quality of care while enhancing provider capacity and efficiency.
McKesson's IT staff helped us use their technology to develop a comprehensive, local geographic model in which physicians can share health information at the click of a button. With secure access to a complete view of patients' records wherever and whenever they need them, specialists and referring physicians can view and discuss data to make faster, more informed decisions for patients.
We are implementing the EHR in each new physician practice we've acquired, positioning them to achieve meaningful use as defined in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2012.
Transforming the Culture
We are in the process of implementing inpatient clinical information systems. Our goal is to achieve meaningful use while supporting the practice of care. The systems will integrate seamlessly with our community EHR and other technology to help us enhance clinical decision-making and patient safety. Our priority is to have tools at our disposal to help us manage information and make informed, efficient decisions.
The wave of the future is as much about quality as it is about volume. A combined focus on quality and outcomes is our focus moving forward. By outsourcing our IT services, we are in a much stronger position to use our clinical solutions to support better care for our community.
Gregory E. Scarbrough, Vice President Finance and Chief Financial Officer at Oconee Medical Center, has more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry, working with a big five public accounting firm and in financial leadership roles for various sized hospitals. Since joining Oconee in 2004, he has been responsible for capital and strategic financial planning; Finance and Accounting; Patient Financial Services; Health Information Management; Materials Management; Information Technology; Pharmacy; and Oconee Physician Practices.
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