Weathering
the Storm
After enduring a tough recession, Goodall Hospital hastens
its own economic recovery by using the MEDITECH system to
reduce AR days and improve cash flow.
(8/26/2010)
When the economic downturn of 2008 hit Wall
Street, the effects rippled across industries throughout the
country—including health care. Goodall Hospital (Sanford,
ME) was one of many organizations hit hard by the crisis, as
a 30 percent reduction in endowments dealt a devastating blow
to its financial stability. To stay afloat, leaders shifted
their focus to using I.T. to improve the hospital's revenue
cycle, and help restore the lost stream of income.
"The situation for our hospital looked very bleak,"
explains Charlie Caruso, CIO and vice president of business
process improvement at Goodall. "We instinctively looked
to our MEDITECH system, to find ways to reduce our Accounts
Receivable (AR) days and quickly get money in the door."
Part of Goodall's strategy involved rolling out MEDITECH's
Emergency Department Management (EDM) tracker. "We knew
we needed to have a more streamlined and efficient ER,"
says Caruso. "One thing all hospital executives can
agree on: more patients equals more revenue."
Goodall also chose to implement MEDITECH's Scanning and
Archiving (SCA) and transcription interface solutions to help
speed up claims' turnaround times. "The SCA and
transcription solutions actually led to a 20 percent increase
in productivity for our at-home transcribers and remote and
outsourced coders," Caruso notes. "With SCA, our
Electronic Legal Record is 100% paperless—a huge factor
in our ability to utilize remote coders. These solutions have
led to fewer bill hold delays and a steadier cash flow coming
into the hospital."
Over time, Goodall even managed to drop its AR days—all
the way down to 39 by August of 2009. "As our AR days
went down, the hospital's income from operations went up,
resulting in about a $7M revenue increase. And as we are
regaining our financial stability, our endowments are also
coming back in pace with the market conditions," says
Caruso.
"Our MEDITECH system has definitely enabled us to do
more with less. We've come back from the recession strong,
and I expect our outlook will only improve in the years ahead."
MEDITECH
Medical
Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com