Automation in Action: How VHC Health is Shaping the Future of Document Management
The following is based on the video session originally recorded at ViVE, February 2025.
VHC Health, a community-focused hospital system in Northern Virginia, received over 2.5 million faxes a year. Medication refills, radiology orders, DEXA results – all arriving in a manual workflow. Each fax had to crawl through a maze of screens and human touchpoints before making it into the EMR. With a 29-page tip sheet of instructions, the process was frustrating with multiple potential error points in getting those faxes to providers to review. Beyond the workflow friction, it revealed the key challenge: manual processes simply can’t scale to meet a growing, modern healthcare system’s needs – or its patients.
But instead of adding more people to the problem, VHC took an automated route.
Finding the Right Automation: RPA or Machine Learning?
To address these challenges, VHC Health partnered with Vyne Medical, known for intelligent automation in healthcare. The initial focus was straightforward: automate a cumbersome 29-page tip sheet that staff relied on to process incoming faxes. But with intelligent document processing in place, the impact went further: streamlining workflows across departments to lay the groundwork for scalable, system-wide automation.
At first, VHC looked into Robotic Process Automation (RPA) options. But, according to Jessica Czelusniak, the Senior Director of Clinical Applications at VHC Health, “… that didn’t feel right. It wasn’t a succinct workflow.”
Tim Hoskins, VP of Solutions Architecture at Vyne Medical, agreed. “… [m]achine learning is really the right solution in this case.” He goes on to explain, “There are certain workflows where [RPA] makes sense. Pulling a bunch of disparate data and clinically relevant values out of documents and then trying to insert those into the EMR – probably not the best fit for an RPA type process. It becomes fragile. It can break very easily.”
With machine learning identified as the right fit, VHC and Vyne Medical took action implementing intelligent document automation across high-volume workflows.
From Solution Implementation to Outcomes
With over 2.5 million faxes coming into the hospital each year and no way of tracking it all, the team now has more insight into where the faxes are, who’s sending the most, and it’s scaleable. “We started with Trace® automation,” Czelusniak explained, “because we needed a better way to automate that fax indexing process.” She goes on to add, “… we can get the data so I can go back and ask for the resources to say that we need more people to be able to do this work, or we need to do it a different way.”
The results of this collaboration have been remarkable. “The 29-page tip sheet we had? Gone. Now we have a process that takes three minutes or less,” Czelusniak said. The more automation they implemented, the easier it became for users to manage incoming documents.
Automation Impacts – Primary Care and Specialty
Previously, due to the manual nature of indexing, there were breaks in the workflow. Staff had to manually identify each document and send it to the right destination. As a result, documents made it to the EMR, but without notifying or routing to the right physician.
With Vyne Medical’s rules engine, routing happens automatically. When someone selects the document type, the system applies logic to route it accordingly.
Take mammograms for example. Previously, that mammogram might not have gotten to that doctor in a timely manner. With Vyne Medical’s solutions, the person looking at documents can see it’s a mammogram, selecting the corresponding document type. From there, the system automatically:
- Creates the appropriate order in the EMR
- Attaches the fax to the order
- Files the document in the correct tab in Chart Review
Not only that, the software supports quality reporting by documenting that a mammogram was received and reviewed during the calendar year. The process is streamlined, visible, trackable, and tied to the patient encounter.
Hoskins summarizes the process, “Within the interface, everything’s automated. We pulled the patient data, the doc type – all that information so that the user can make that match. So, if there is an order that exists, they can attach to it.” It also supports on-the-fly workflows so users can create an order when any unsolicited refill requests or lab results come in.
Automation Impacts – Radiology
VHC Health’s automation journey didn’t stop at primary care and specialties, there’s also a unique process for radiology scheduling and outpatient lab orders.
“The radiology workflow is really special.” The Senior Director continues. “[Orders] come into a fax queue. [Staff] can come in, and they can read the fax… and that files over into [the EMR] into a work queue. So our schedulers just go to that work queue, see that order, and can call the patient and schedule. Then it’s all attached.”
The original fax and the new order are automatically linked within the EMR, keeping everything together, organized, and auditable.
The result is a workflow that’s faster, more accurate, and easier to manage. And while radiology scheduling may involve fewer documents than general intake, the complexity of the orders makes this level of automation a significant operational win.
Automation Impacts – OR Scheduling
Operating Room (OR) scheduling at VHC Health is now running with a high degree of accuracy. “They’re probably 90% automated at this point,” Hoskins explains, a dramatic leap from the manual-heavy workflow they used to manage.
The key? Highly specific order forms. Because these forms follow consistent formats, Vyne Medical’s solution can accurately extract surgery request dates, enabling schedulers to prioritize based on urgency.
“It’s a completely streamlined workflow,” said Hoskins. “It’s a completely streamlined workflow where they can finish their surgery scheduling and attach that document to [the EMR] essentially in a one-click validation workflow.”
This process replaces what used to be a labor-intensive task handled by seven team members. Now, schedulers simply review the extracted data, confirm accuracy, and move on. No more manual routing or redundant data entry.
Even with roughly half of the incoming documents being handwritten, the system is achieving around 80% accuracy, a major win given the variability and complexity of handwriting in surgical requests.
Improved Accuracy and Data-Driven Decisions
While Vyne Medical tends to aim for at least 65% accuracy rate when it comes to handwritten documentation, VHC saw that reach to an impressive 75-85%, with machine-font documents achieving even higher accuracy rates. This improvement not only increased efficiency, but also enhanced patient care by ensuring that critical information reached providers without delay.
One of the most significant advantages of this new system is the ability to gather and analyze data. With the automation in place, VHC Health can track who is faxing the most and identify potential areas for direct communication, reducing the reliance on traditional fax lines. Czelusniak pointed out, “We can get a lot of data out of there… so we can ask for the resources to say we need more people to be able to do this work.”
This data-driven approach allows VHC Health to make informed decisions about resource allocation and infrastructure development, ensuring they can support their growing number of providers effectively.
Future Plans for Continued Improvement
Looking ahead, VHC Health plans to continue enhancing their automation efforts. They aim to establish a centralized team dedicated to indexing documents, which will further improve accuracy and efficiency. Czelusniak mentioned, “We’re going to start a pilot… to see if we can get accuracy rates and see how we do.”
The focus on training and standardizing document types will also help reduce confusion among staff, ensuring that they can easily identify and process incoming documents without unnecessary delays.
A Vision for the Future
VHC didn’t just fix a broken process, they reimagined how information flows across their organization – along with the downstream impacts on patient care.
Czelusniak isn’t done, either. “I talked about us having 220 ambulatory providers. That’s doubled in the past 5 years,” she said.
That kind of growth demands scalable systems. From reducing missed documents to enabling real-time prioritization of surgery orders, VHC Health’s partnership with Vyne Medical shows what’s possible when technology and clinical teams align.
With plans for a centralized indexing team, standardized document types, and continuous machine learning refinement, the focus remains on driving better outcomes with less friction.
Curious what automation could look like within your organization? Contact Vyne Medical for a meeting or to start your complimentary workflow assessment.
*Statistical information was generated from a case study with Virginia Health Center (VHC) using Vyne Medical solutions and presented in a video session during the ViVE conference – February 2025. Any case studies, pilot programs, testimonials, examples, and illustrations included originate from customer statements as general experiences, which are intended for informational purposes with no guarantee of users achieving similar results.