Q: When considering standardization and simplification, what benefits did MaineGeneral find for IT?

A: MaineGeneral had several applications that were used to manage the revenue cycle. Our system had to bear the additional cost of each system needing its own support, updates and vendor relationship. We were able to replace four of our revenue cycle-oriented systems. We had Siemens MedSeries4® for our hospital, we had another solution for physician practice management, we had a separate solution for scheduling, and finally we had an enterprise patient master index solution. Four separate vendors, four separate systems. We have been able to bring all of that together with Soarian under one application and technology platform. This has been a big benefit for the IT department.

Another key consideration was making sure that we would be able to integrate Soarian Enterprise Revenue Cycle Management with our clinical solution. We use a non-Siemens vendor for our clinical solutions in the hospitals and in the physician practices. We worked closely with IT to create a thorough test plan to ensure that the Allscripts™ applications would work seamlessly with Soarian. Soarian Enterprise Revenue Cycle Management’s open architecture makes that possible, and it has been a great success.

Q: What was the impact on your staff and their skill set?

A: We did a complete redesign of our revenue cycle processes and workflows. We were able to move resources from the backend office to the front-end office, and we restructured to one centralized business office. Within that process, we were able to eliminate 14 FTEs while at the same time creating new positions such as Revenue Cycle Operations. The Revenue Cycle Operations team really partners with IT to ensure that the new processes and workflows can be supported by the system. I am proud of this ongoing relationship.

We added new positions, including payment variance specialists, when we implemented the Soarian contract management tools. We knew we needed staff to confirm if the payers were actually paying us according to their contracts. It is a little too soon to judge how successful this position has been, but so far, progress is being made and we are confident that over time this will have a positive effect on our bottom line.

DISCLAIMER: The outcomes achieved by the Siemens customers described herein were achieved in the customers’ unique setting. Since there is no “typical” hospital and many variables exist (e.g. hospital size, case mix, level of IT adoption), there can be no guarantee that others will achieve the same results.

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About Siemens: Siemens provides healthcare IT solutions and services that enable care delivery organizations to thrive as they address access, costs, quality, and safety of patient healthcare.