It’s no secret that transplant patients have complicated medical histories. eHealth Technologies has helped the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) increase efficiency and significantly decrease wait times for these complex patients.
Founded in 1824 in Charleston, South Carolina, MUSC is the oldest medical school in the South, as well as the state’s only integrated, academic health sciences center. The transplant program serves patients throughout the region and is the number one destination for transplants in South Carolina.
Transplant Administrator
MUSC
MUSC began partnering with eHealth Technologies in 2008. And when Dan Stanton, Transplant Administrator joined MUSC in 2017, he saw great value in working with eHealth Technologies, based on his experiences at a previous organization. Especially when it comes to record retrieval and organization services for the transplant group, two services which eHealth Technologies currently provides to MUSC.
“Our biggest issue was efficiency as we were trying to get patients with complicated health histories and records through the process,” Stanton recalled. Additionally, because MUSC is the only transplant provider in South Carolina, that means patients–and their records–come from all over the state and beyond for treatment.
“eHealth Technologies has all the contacts. Now we don’t need to make those contacts–we simply make the request and eHealth Technologies breaks everything down for us and does the leg work,” said Stanton. “When we get the medical record it’s indexed, and it only takes us seconds.”
With eHealth Technologies’ eHealth Connect Intelligent Clinical Record services, the delivery of organized records makes it possible for staff to find the test results and data they need without paging or clicking through hundreds of medical records.
“Our staff is more effective. They’re able to get the patients through the process safely and efficiently. They’re also able to focus their expertise and time on direct patient care.” – Dan Stanton, Transplant Administrator, MUSC
Wait Time for New Patients Decreased by Over 75%
“A year ago, it took us 9 months to get a new patient in process due to the inefficiencies. By streamlining our process and educating our team, the time for referrals to get a patient off the wait list is now about 60 days,” explained Stanton.
“Our staff is more effective. They’re able to get the patients through the process safely and efficiently. They’re also able to focus their expertise and time on direct patient care.”
Another critical benefit is the reporting capability within the eHealth Technologies platform. Instead of a staff member making a note in a chart or sending a voicemail message about a missing document, eHealth Technologies tracks the records referral process, so data is found more quickly, and staff knows that it is being tracked.
Positive Financial Impacts
Stanton also believes that eHealth Technologies has a positive impact on the financial bottom line.
“If we didn’t work with eHealth Technologies, we would have needed to add well over 10 staff members just to retrieve medical records and images for newly referred patients. And even if we had the staff, the process would not happen as quickly,” said Stanton.
Not only is eHealth Technologies able to access and deliver records within 3–5 days, but the format the records are delivered in leads to faster and more efficient record review for the clinical team. It’s also important to keep in mind that a large portion of the cost for eHealth Technologies’ services is Medicare cost reimbursable as part of the pretransplant process.
“If we didn’t work with eHealth Technologies, we would have needed to add well over 10 staff members just to retrieve medical records and images for newly referred patients. And even if we had the staff, the process would not happen as quickly,” said Stanton.
Flexibility Kept the MUSC Transplant team on Track During the Pandemic
An additional benefit to using eHealth Technologies has become obvious to Stanton over the past several months during the pandemic.
“During the initial COVID outbreak, we were still able to communicate, and get our patients through the process, without having staff members sitting at their desk, using a fax machine or having to retrieve mailed in records. As simple as that sounds, having that capacity to do this in a flexible environment has been tremendously beneficial,” said Stanton.
