Auto-Indexing Technology Connects Data to Patient
A new survey of provider CFOs and operations executives shows that, over the past year, the number of hospitals and health systems using automation technologies has tripled. Half of respondents said their hospitals are monitoring automation technologies to improve accuracy and reduce costs, and of these, 38 percent are already experiencing positive results.
“The pressure for health systems to transform financial and operational performance has intensified with the pandemic,” said Michele Mayes, a partner with Guidehouse Center for Health Insights in an analysis of the survey.
This pressure was evident in the early days of the pandemic, as COVID-19 testing data poured into clinics, hospitals and health departments, placing an overwhelming burden on providers. The struggle to manage the sheer volume of data, and then turn information into actionable insights, was unparalleled – even for the more technically advanced of providers.
Providers with lower digital maturity were particularly challenged as they attempted to apply outdated technology to the problem. Fax machines became a national target, with the New York Times pointing to the legacy technology as “the bottleneck for the U.S. coronavirus response.”
The New York Times article, published in July 2020, noted that while providers have retained paper faxing to comply with health information privacy standards, the process has contributed to data that is poor in quality, duplicative and inconsistent. Providers using the technology are simply unable to quickly and effectively pair information with the individual patients to which it pertains.
Vyne Medical recently introduced new automation technology to its Trace® platform to aid providers in this effort. Trace captures voice, fax and image data and converts it into shareable formats for integration with the patient record. Using Trace, fax data can be integrated with other systems without the need to print, scan and manually enter information.
Vyne Medical’s new Auto-indexing functionality leverages advanced machine learning and form recognition technology to read incoming text data and map it to targeted fields in the patient record. High-volume forms like physician orders, insurance documents and patient registration paperwork arrive with demographic information already classified and pre-populated to the appropriate fields.
By automatically populating data, Auto-indexing reduces the burden of manual data entry and the corresponding incidence of human error. Documents and text are quickly transformed into structured, shareable data. The work happens quickly and seamlessly behind the scenes, creating a significant opportunity for workflow efficiencies.
At one client hospital, Auto-indexing has resulted in improved order processing time, enhanced data quality, reduced phone abandonment rates, and decreased hold times. Schedulers no longer key in patient data or spend time searching for misplaced faxes. Instead, orders arrive electronically with patient information pre-populated to the correct fields. If multiple orders are contained in a single fax, the technology separates the fax according to patient.
When an order is needed, schedulers search by patient name and immediately retrieve the correct order. “I no longer have to tell patients that I’ll call them back when I find their order,” said a client hospital’s scheduler. “And I feel really good about that.”
As hospitals consider automation technologies to improve accuracy and reduce costs, Vyne Medical offers a solution to the longstanding challenge of connecting data to the patient. To learn how your organization can benefit from Auto-indexing functionality, contact us and speak to one our solution experts.