Mass General Increases Productivity with Biscom
To provide highest quality of patience care, doctors, nurses, and administrators need to quickly access a broad spectrum of information about a patient. Medical records contain an incredible amount of private data not only about a patient’s health history, but also personally identifiable information (PII). Using outdated methods to send and share this protected information isn’t just putting your hospital at risk for HIPAA fines and data breaches, but it’s risking patient satisfaction and jeopardizing your organization’s reputation.
When Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) saw that the Social Security Administration began allowing file uploads of electronic records, Mark Haas, Associate Director of Health Information Systems (HIS) jumped at the chance to update and streamline how their organization sent records too. They set out to develop their own secure system for electronic patient record retrieval which needed high levels of security, tracking, and flexibility. The hospital selected Biscom SFT to meet their goals.
After implementation MGH experienced a 104% increase in productivity when using SFT to exchange a record as compared to its previous paper-based methods. This translated into a significant cost savings in all aspects of the hospital’s process, from materials and postage to supplies and personnel. With new reimbursements through Medicare/Medicaid increasing with value-based care initiatives, hospitals will be reimbursed based on patient outcome and quality of care rather than providing more treatments or the quantity of care. Streamlining processes to put the focus back on the patient increases patient satisfaction which is a win for everyone.
Biscom designed SFT specifically for institutions like MGH, which require the utmost security, scalability, and flexibility in their document delivery systems. SFT offers distinct advantages including encryption of files both at rest and in transit, Active Directory for user management and authentication, unlimited file sizes, and integration with existing software and hardware.
In a study commissioned by Biscom, users stated it took at least 6 minutes to send a message securely using a different file sharing tool. With Biscom SFT that time is reduced to less than a minute, about the same amount of time it would take to send an email. The intuitive interface decreases the time it takes to navigate the solution thereby increasing user adoption. Without spending time on trying to send files users are able to then use that time where it’s most needed.
Not only has SFT had a major impact on MGH’s bottom line, but it has also reduced the potential for error in the file transmission process.
“When we ‘send’ a record via SFT, the transmission does not contain any PHI (personal health information)” says Haas. “So if we mistakenly contact the wrong email address, the incorrect recipient will not know the password to unlock the file. But if we mistype a fax number or write the wrong address on a paper file, it results in a potential breach of confidentiality. This is a critical level of protection for us that goes over and above sending records on paper.”
“By partnering with Biscom, we were able to meet pending meaningful use objectives, all in a user-friendly, easy-to-install, and easy-to-train-on system, right out of the box,” Haas maintains. “Instead of going with an outside vendor, SFT allowed us to keep this work in house, where we can exercise greater security and quality control—at a much more reasonable price.”