New HR System Improves Patient Care

Shawnee, KS - Perceptive Software, Inc., announced that Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) is using ImageNow integrated document management, document imaging and workflow software to improve efficiency in the human resources department.

The 425-bed CCHMC is the only facility of its type in the Greater Cincinnati area. CCHMC is among the 10 best pediatric hospitals in the United States, according to U.S. News and World Report's 2005 "America's Best Hospitals" survey, and clinical procedures and treatments pioneered at CCHMC are used throughout the world.

Since 2000, CCHMC has tripled the size of its staff from 3,000 to approximately 9,000 to meet the care needs of an expanding number of patients. The organization adds an average of 140 new hires per month, creating an inundation of paperwork that, when coupled with managing current employee files, places a strain on the human resources (HR) department. Hospital administrators selected ImageNow to eradicate time inefficiencies such as the duplication, storage and retrieval of paper files.

"We were impressed by ImageNow's comprehensive functionality," said Lisa Highhouse, Application Specialist III at CCHMC. "ImageNow's ease of use was also a large selling point."

Before ImageNow deployment, nursing managers had to go to HR to view employees' files or retrieve the paper record that was produced every time there was a nursing shift change. WebNow, the fully featured, browser-based complement to ImageNow, gives managers instant, single click document access from any location, allowing them to focus on treating patients.

"Viewing documents in ImageNow gives nursing managers more time to spend with their nursing unit, enabling our medical staff to deliver better patient care," Highhouse said.

ImageNow implementation was scheduled to take a fortnight, but was completed in just a week. Rapid deployment gave CCHMC an immediate return on its technology investment and hands-on implementation and training equipped employees with the skills to manage ImageNow independently.

"Going to training and sitting with the implementation consultant was invaluable," Highhouse said. "ImageNow training is very thorough and the instructor is great."

Patented ImageNow technology (LearnMode) facilitated seamless integration with CCHMC's PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management® (HCM) software, allowing users to wield powerful ImageNow functionality within a familiar software environment.

"LearnMode is amazing," Highhouse said. "It made integration between ImageNow and our PeopleSoft application very simple and contributed to a smooth implementation process.

CCHMC's payroll associates are taking advantage of the tight integration between ImageNow and PeopleSoft HCM to effectively administer online employee W-4 forms. When an employee changes his or her W-4 in PeopleSoft, ImageNow Printer™ electronically prints a copy into ImageNow, rather than creating a hard copy. Daily W-4 reports are linked to ImageNow, enabling users to e-mail amended W-4 copies to the Inland Revenue Service and employees.

"ImageNow has had a tremendous impact on the management of W-4s," Highhouse said. "It cut out a lot of paperwork that used to flow between payroll and HR and users like ImageNow because it's so user-friendly."

CCHMC is planning to extend the reach of ImageNow to the accounting and employee health departments, and to introduce ImageNow workflow to HR. The organization will also use ImageNow to store former employees' terminative files, which will cut out off-site storage costs. ImageNow's ease of use and the knowledge CCHMC acquired from Perceptive Software's education initiatives will make the expansion straightforward.

"We're able to do a lot with ImageNow ourselves," Highhouse said. "We've added several functions since the initial implementation without needing assistance from Perceptive Software."

SOURCE: Perceptive Software