CRH Healthcare in Atlanta, Georgia, was established in 2012 with a vision to build one company over several regional brands delivering high-quality urgent care at the point where consumers, retail and healthcare intersect.

THE PROBLEM

The founders and executive leadership team understood the macro trends within healthcare. But they knew they needed a partner with the urgent care and clinical expertise and operational technology to help them meet their growth, revenue and operational goals. They were looking for help to successfully scale the business quickly and consistently across all clinic locations under the CRH umbrella.

"CRH Healthcare's acquisition strategy resulted in the need for technology consolidation, since there were various health technology solutions, software and workflows being utilized," said Andrea Malik Roe, president and cofounder of CRH Healthcare. "Because of this, we lacked visibility into our clinical and administrative data that could otherwise be used to inform decisions across CRH to optimize care and operations.

"Our clinics needed technology that could increase insights and efficiencies company-wide, regardless of each clinic's current processes as they transitioned into the CRH family of brands," she added.

Overall, CRH needed a partner that could offer the urgent care expertise and operational technology capabilities necessary to scale and streamline the business operations without sacrificing the patient experience, she said.

PROPOSAL

Experity offered CRH extensive urgent care expertise and the capabilities of an end-to-end urgent care-specific operating system, focused around the in-clinic workflows, Roe explained. Together, the solutions they promised to deliver and their industry expertise could enable CRH to scale and optimize its business, she added.

"More specifically, we focused on solutions that would improve patient engagement, standardize operational workflows and increase efficiencies across the platform," she said.

"Since our billing team began using the credit card preauthorization feature, alongside the overall streamlined billing process achieved through the vendor's RCM solutions, we've reduced our days sales outstanding on accounts receivables by 10 days on average."

Andrea Malik Roe, CRH Healthcare

"Experity's patient queuing and front-end communication solutions are continuously enhanced in accordance with ongoing trends toward convenience and consumerization in healthcare," Roe continued. "Capabilities included seamless provider-patient texting and online pre-visit registration, empowering patients to make informed decisions based on the clinics' wait times, satisfaction scores and more while helping optimize patient throughput for a quick, seamless patient experience."

To address consolidation challenges and drive greater data visibility, the vendor's electronic health record (EHR) could align CRH operations across locations and provide the business intelligence, charting and reporting functionalities CRH needed to become a unified, data-driven organization, Roe said.

The vendor's software was designed for urgent care facilities specifically and built by urgent care experts, promising to be intuitive, easy to teach and efficient with clinicians' time in charting a visit, she said.

"When we acquire a new urgent care clinic, we strive to add them to the Experity platform as quickly as possible – in some cases, the whole system is operational on Day One of our ownership," she explained.

MEETING THE CHALLENGE

Working with the vendor's experts, CRH implemented the EHR to build consistency and improve operations across its more than 50 clinics.

"While many providers are weary to implement new software in fear of a staff learning curve, our staff were receptive to the change and adapted quickly, and our users were able to onboard with confidence within a few days," Roe said. "Clinicians were almost immediately won over by its ability to simplify workflows, including drastically cutting down the time it took to complete charting during a patient visit.

"In addition to a built-for-urgent-care EHR, integrated practice management, billing features, online registration and reporting provide the company with valuable insights into individual clinic and systemwide operations and results," she continued. "We use the reporting capabilities to monitor bottlenecks in workflow, discover provider practice differences and calculate revenue on a transaction-level basis."

For CRH's patient engagement goals, the technology has helped CRH follow the full patient journey, from initial online research to registration and check-in, when and how long they're roomed, and the time of discharge.

"This allows our staff to understand the patient experience at every step and where improvements might be needed," Roe said. "This reporting helps us identify the small ways we can improve our processes and make adjustments that improve the patient's experience, which in turn bolsters our business success overall."

RESULTS

Since implementing Experity's urgent care operating system, CRH patients are much happier with their care experiences, Roe reported. They can register for a visit electronically and understand potential wait time before they arrive. CRH clinics were able to improve their Google ratings from 4.1 to 4.8 out of 5.0, providing further evidence of patients' improved satisfaction.

"Additionally, providers, too, are happier since adopting Experity, particularly with the time the EHR saves them throughout the day," she said. "Completing a single chart would previously take providers four to five minutes on average but is now closer to 45 seconds using the EHR, which has everything clinicians need on one page, giving providers the ability to give more attention to the patient during their visits and more time to collect themselves before tending to additional patients."

Clinicians are navigating a shorter turnaround time between labs, with resulting time cut in half, allowing them to manage a patient's condition and move to prescriptive action over a shorter timeframe, reducing potential communication and treatment challenges brought on by delays in the process.

"Finally, since our billing team began using the credit card preauthorization feature, alongside the overall streamlined billing process achieved through the vendor's RCM solutions, we've reduced our days sales outstanding on accounts receivables by 10 days on average, enabling our clinics to get paid more quickly," Roe reported.

ADVICE FOR OTHERS

"On-demand healthcare is uniquely positioned to drive convenient, accessible, quality care to Americans more than ever before, and with that comes a unique set of industry-specific challenges providers must overcome," Roe cautioned. "Choosing purpose-built solutions designed with your problems in mind is key to success here.

"Not every EHR is going to serve every provider's needs in the same way, so think strategically about the vendors you partner with and ensure they can help you achieve your business's unique goals by solving your unique pain points," she added.

In the urgent care space, the patient experience is everything, she said.

"Find the business and technology partners that specialize in optimizing this experience, in your field, based on your specific business needs, challenges and patients," she concluded. "Industry expertise can't be overstated in healthcare, and especially in on-demand healthcare."

Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: bsiwicki@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.