Midwest Medical Lab Grows Business With CriticalKey Health Information Exchange
A mid-sized medical laboratory that’s been serving the Chicago area since 1974, Medstar Laboratory Inc. wanted to deliver faster service to current customers while maintaining its long tradition of providing high quality and accurate results. Already handling tens of thousands of tests each day for providers in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, Medstar also wanted to expand throughout the entire Midwest.
Business Solution
Medstar teamed up with CriticalKey to enhance its service by automating the exchange of information with referring physicians. Since launching CriticalKey’s KeyEngine® technology, Medstar can electronically receive diagnostic test orders and send results directly into the patient’s record in the ordering physician’s electronic medical record (EMR) system. The only HIPAA-compliant HIE software with an integrated Master Patient Index, the KeyEngine® technology identifies patients and matches them with their records. During the first year, CriticalKey linked Medstar to more than 70 physicians that were using a total of 25 different EMRs.
Business Results
With KeyEngine, Medstar improved turnaround time for getting test results in front of physicians, building closer ties to its referral base by increasing convenience and satisfaction. In addition, it cut staff costs tied to manually tracking down and routing paper results and was able to reassign those employees to clinical lab work.
At the same time, the electronic capability has opened up fresh growth opportunities through new services. Using KeyEngine, Medstar overcame a limitation of its laboratory information system and can now electronically feed test orders outbound to another lab.
So Medstar has initiated a business relationship with a specialty lab, which provides unqiue cardiac biomarker testing. Medstar can automatically pass along an order to the specialty lab and send the results directly to the ordering provider’s EMR. As a result, Medstar has created new relationships with cardiologists needing the biomarker test for patients.
The lab company is testing the KeyEngine technology with two more prospective partners, a toxicology testing company and a health prevention screening company. “The technology from CriticalKey is game-changing for new business development,” said Charles Dressner, Business Development Manager at Medstar.
Premier NYC Hospital Strengthens Relationships with Physicians By Linking Radiology Services to Medical Practices
Beth Israel Medical Center, part of the five-hospital Continuum Health Partners in New York City, was receiving requests from radiology centers and physician groups to file reports electronically. Being able to insert patient test results from its radiology information system directly into the physician’s electronic medical record (EMR) system would eliminate delays from faxing or the need to actively seek out results through cumbersome portals. A longtime technology innovator in radiology, Beth Israel also wanted to stay on the leading edge and build closer working relationships with referring providers.
Business Solution
To link with referring physicians, Beth Israel signed up with CriticalKey and began rolling out KeyEngine health information exchange (HIE) technology. KeyEngine is the only HIPAA-compliant HIE software with an integrated Master Patient Index, which identifies patients and matches them with their records. As the first step of an aggressive five-year rollout to referring physicians across New York, Beth Israel’s radiology department implemented the software with the 80 physicians in more than a half-dozen offices that make up Manhattan’s Physician Group (MPG).
Business Benefits
Within a month of going live, Beth Israel was sending MPG between 100 and 140 radiology reports daily. “We experienced a significant improvement in productivity and doctor and patient satisfaction right from the start,” said Steve Vickner, Chief Information Officer at MPG. “In our first week alone, we were able to reassign a full-time employee whose sole job had been tracking down results.”
Beyond the immediate benefits of improved staff productivity and faster delivery of results, the CriticalKey technology offers long-term business benefits. “This capability is helping us build partnerships with our physicians,” said Marc Katz, Corporate Director of Radiology at Beth Israel and Continuum. “This is a service to physicians, especially large groups, that differentiates us.”
