| Case
Study: St. Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, D.C.
Problem
St. Elizabeths Hospital needed to relocate its medical records
department and address a serious backlog of filing. The hospital
also needed to ensure compliance with Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS) and HIPAA, as well as meet fire code regulations.
Additionally, the hospital had not purged its records of inactive
files in many years. Some files were organized on shelves while
others were stacked in piles in random order. Given the disarray,
maintaining the file room became extremely difficult — and
retrieving folders was next to impossible. New folders had been
created for patients whose records could not be found, which meant
that multiple files existed for several patients. St. Elizabeths
also found that some files had water damage due to flooding. With
approximately 60,500 linear filing inches of records stored without
a consistent or effective filing method in nine locations, St.
Elizabeths faced a truly daunting task.
Working with AMES Color-File
St. Elizabeths Health Information Management (HIM) Department
knew it needed help — not only with the physical labor but
also in determining the best way to manage the project and what
resources to use. AMES Professional Services proposed a project
that would meet the hospital’s needs efficiently and cost-effectively.
AMES Professional Services provided
St. Elizabeths with the following services: workflow analysis,
file room purge, file
relocation services, filing system conversion,
floor plan design and shelving configuration, file imaging services,
space analysis, and training and support.
St. Elizabeths used the following AMES Color-File filing products
and technology: SmartPurge®,
Kompress®
Mobile Shelving, Create-A-File®,
static shelving, and durable
press-board folders.
AMES Solution Benefits
AMES Color-File’s comprehensive product and services solution
enabled St. Elizabeths to:
- Consolidate and move its file rooms to a more central and
secure location.
- Create a unified terminal digit filing system for the entire
facility.
- Meet HIPAA, CMS, and fire cost regulations.
- Archive their inactive records.
- Create more shelf space for active files to prevent misfiled
or lost records.
- Create patient records more quickly and legibly using Create-A-File
labeling software.
- Improve filing accuracy, reduce misfiles, and increase accessibility
to files.
For more information
on AMES Professional Services, contact us.
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