CUSTOMER: Large IDN in the U.S.
CHALLENGE: Enable rapid adaptation to health and business changes
OUTCOME: Dollar and time savings by eliminating manual tasks and enabling data integration between diverse systems, new and old
The developers at this large U.S. integrated delivery network (IDN) have no patience for integration engines that mindlessly do one job and one job only. Since replacing an old engine with InterSystems integration technology over a decade ago, the IDN has seen InterSystems solutions solve multiple problems to power growth, save employee time, and reduce costs. In one project alone, InterSystems saved them $100,000. Other examples of benefits delivered using InterSystems integration technology include:
- Smoother and faster onboarding of acquired practices and business partners
- Extracting and transforming information from the electronic medical record (EMR) for public health reporting on newborn screening
- Responding rapidly to new infectious disease challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic
Smoother, Faster On-boarding for Practices and Business Partners
Delivering care takes on many forms, but one thing is constant – the need to have all patient information in one place, in one consistent format. This is a challenge when physician practices and business partners use different EMRs. In one case, the IDN used InterSystems technology to correct patient identifier issues and convert a practice’s EMR data for import into it’s own EMR. In another case, a partnership with a radiology association was at risk of delay as the association didn’t want to change EMRs, which created big challenges integrating orders and results across systems. InterSystems technology enabled the IDN to be creative and flexible to ensure that information flowed between the two systems without error.
Saving Nursing Time with Automated Newborn Screening Reports for Public Health
When a State Department of Health put in place new rules for reporting on neonatal screening, the IDN explored its option for compliance. The ready-made application they found had a $100,000 price tag. The team instead leveraged InterSystems integration to transform comma delimited output files from their EMR into the required HL7® format, and then transmit the data to the Department of Health. Not only did the team save on software costs, but they were able to automate an information gathering process that would otherwise have taken nursing staff away from patient care.
Accessing Real-Time Data During Infectious Disease Outbreaks
The IDN’s Infection Prevention and Control Department needs real-time, accurate information to do its job, and its infection prevention software is an important part of that effort. But in the rapidly evolving environment of the COVID-19 pandemic, they needed to bring together a host of new test results from multiple new sources. The IT staff had more pressing needs to fill than manual data entry. Instead, the IT team used InterSystems integration technology to normalize the new result data for ingestion by the EMR, and to automate the interface from the EMR to the infection prevention system where it could be accessed by staff members.
Monkeypox brought a new twist to the IDN’s manual data entry problem. This time, the infection prevention team needed to see test orders in addition to results. InterSystems technology enabled the IT team to easily format the order information from the EMR as well as from two references labs, and deliver it to the infection prevention software as required.
In both cases, the IDN also used InterSystems technology to automate alert delivery to relevant staff, ensuring that patients received timely and proper care. “InterSystems enables us to handle just about anything that comes up, and I can’t remember ever having unplanned downtime,” noted the IDN’s senior programmer specialist.
An Efficient Solution for Multiple Challenges and Organizational Growth
InterSystems integration technology is a vital problem solver for this IDN. It connects systems and devices while unifying information and directing it throughout the organization – recovering time lost to manual data entry and freeing resources for other tasks. And it’s enabled the IDN’s growth through seamless integration of information from acquired physician practices and partnerships with other provider organizations. “We’ll always do more with InterSystems,” the senior programmer analyst said, “because we continue to grow and need new ways to increase productivity and keep end users satisfied.”