GOING DIGITAL

Storage Solution Helps Mercy Health Partners Shift Toward Digitization - and Save 40 Percent on Medical Records Storage Costs

SITUATION:

Mercy Health Partners, a multi-hospital healthcare system in Northwest Ohio, wanted to shift from a paper-based medical records system to the digital age. It also set out to cut costs and improve efficiencies associated with existing paper files to be stored and managed for decades to come.

MULTIPLE STORAGE ISSUES

Mercy's three hospitals in the Toledo area serve some 250,000 people per year. It faced multiple medical records storage issues.

• Voluminous paperwork: in 2006, it had some 500,000 linear inches of files.
• EDMS migration: Plans called for migration to an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) beginning midyear 2007.
• Paper file retention: Files had to be managed cost-effectively during standard retention periods, which were 20 years for pediatric patients and 10 years for adults.
• Disparate storage: Mercy stored records at seven sites, creating lengthy turnaround times for locating, shipping and delivering records.
• Rising costs: A third-party vendor notified Mercy that its annual service fees for offsite storage would increase by 500 percent.

Storage Solution

Mercy chose HIMentors, a health information management consulting firm led by Darice Grzybowski, MA, RHIA, FAHIMA, president, to serve as prime contractor and supervise the project on its behalf. HIMentors utilized a number of other subcontractors as part of the implementation team, including Central Business Group (CBG). CBG is a member of the nationwide Spacesaver Group. The healthcare provider opted to build and operate its own Centralized Document Management Center (CDMC) vs. outsourced record storage or filming solutions. To do so, it renovated a 15,000-square-foot former laundry building at one of its campuses. At the heart of the facility are Spacesaver HDMS systems.

Active records are stored in an eight-tier Eclipse Powered System™. Inactive records are stored in a 10-tier mechanical-assist HDMS unit. Forty years of financial records, totaling approximately 10,000 boxes, are stored in a third Spacesaver HDMS system and static shelving layout.

CBG's Professional Services Division handled the transfer and move of all financial and medical records.
It included the creation of a database and printed bar code labels for each of the 10,000 boxes. The CBG system allows electronic requests for boxed records through the Toledo Mercy Hospital system. It also provides an automated detailed retention schedule for the financial boxes and provides audit trails and location guides to enhance box management. Retention schedules help allow on-time destruction of financial records.