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St. Rita's Medical Center Installs TRACE to Reduce Denials, Improve Productivity

Lima, OH, June 2, 2008

St Rita's Medical Center has implemented the TRACE communication event management system to document routine business exchanges that occur across the revenue cycle. The system combines electronic, fax and call management applications that allow authorized personnel to view all communication records through one central tracking system.

"Our volumes are rising and payer precertification expectations are increasing, but staffing remains stagnant," said Cheri Martin, director of Patient Access Services. "We need to work quicker, smarter and faster; and that's what TRACE is all about."

TRACE captures each communication event and feeds it into a web application, where records are searched and retrieved for viewing, routing, printing and playback. St. Rita's will use these records to improve reimbursement, quality and productivity across the revenue cycle.

St. Rita's has implemented TRACE in Pre-access, Registration, Central Scheduling, Admitting, Radiology, Utilization Review, Physical Medicine/Rehab and Patient Accounts. Future areas of implementation include the OB unit, Radiation Therapy and Behavioral Health. TRACE is used to document precertification and eligibility checks conducted by phone or on payer web sites. These records serve as proof to overturn claims denied for lack of precert or authorization.

In patient access, St. Rita's will use the fax management application to manage inbound physician orders. Before TRACE, the department received approximately 20,000 orders a year through one fax machine and filed hard copies of each record. If a patient rescheduled multiple times, the orders were often misplaced, causing frustration among patients and physicians. TRACE now stores all faxes in the web-based tracking system, indexing records according to patient and physician. By easily retrieving faxes, the department has improved efficiency and strengthened relationships with referring physicians.

In the OB unit, staff will use the system to store and retrieve patient charts sent by physicians three months prior to delivery. Due to the length of time the unit has to keep these charts, they struggle to find them when the patient arrives for delivery. With TRACE, the charts will be readily available upon the patient's arrival. This will reduce paper space, improve efficiency and enhance physician and patient satisfaction.

Next year, St. Rita's will begin using TRACE to record all scheduling calls placed in Physical Medicine and Rehab. Future plans also include providing access to physician offices so that office personnel can view records through the web-based system rather than sending them back and forth to the hospital.

As the largest hospital within a 70-mile radius of Lima, OH, St. Rita's provides comprehensive healthcare services for residents in West Central Ohio. Founded by the Sisters of Mercy, St. Rita's is part of Catholic Healthcare Partners (CHP).



About The White Stone Group

The White Stone Group builds and delivers software solutions that improve the management of healthcare communication events. Nearly 400 hospitals are licensed to use the company's TRACE and OptiVox® products that automate managed care, administrative, and clinical communications for healthcare providers. Proven results include improved revenue cycle processes, greater management capabilities, and expedited patient throughput. For more information, visit TWSG.com.

Contact: Erin McCarty, (865)705-1622, Erin.McCarty@twsg.com

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