1. 25/04/12 North Coast Health Ministries — workflow.com — Readability
workflow.com ORIGINAL PAGE
North Coast Health Ministries
­View Our Primary Care Page
The Company
North Coast Health Ministry (NCHM) is a faith­based free clinic providing healthcare to eligible individuals in
northeast Ohio and is the first free clinic in Ohio with an electronic health record (EHR) solution in place. NCHM
annually serves 2,400 uninsured patients, providing primary healthcare, specialty referrals, prescription assistance and
health education to low­income families.
“With electronic health records, we can see 100 more patients per month, an increase of 33 percent. We were
scheduling two­months out, inhibiting our ability to help patients who needed care more quickly and had nowhere
else to go. Now, with a wait time of about a week, we can provide better patient care by seeing them sooner.”
­ Lee Elmore, Executive Director
The Business Critical Issue
In 2001, NCHM received a capital grant to purchase and renovate a new building for the practice. However, NCHM was
still burdened with the storage and use of 10,000 paper charts accumulated since it opened in 1988. Staff was spending
up to eight hours per day retrieving paper files making daily organization of the walk­in clinic difficult.
As a non­profit free clinic that relies on 60 percent of its funding from grants and depends on the generosity of many
programs and hospitals to help its patients, NCHM has unique challenges as well as the traditional ones faced by
healthcare organizations. NCHM needed to:
Convert paper charts to electronic
Reduce time staff spent on looking for charts and retrieving paper files
Implement an EHR to eliminate the creation of paper charts and improve efficiency of patient visits
Provide various concrete data to qualify for funding
Improve scheduling and appointment wait times
Maintain and improve HIPAA compliance
Improve hospitals’ audits
“Using paper charts in our clinic was particularly challenging, since the information on the charts had to be in
several places at the same time. Given our configuration in the clinic, that was difficult. Now, we are able to share
data among all the people involved in a patient’s care. Ultimately, all of medicine is going this way.”
­ Philip E. Tomsik, M.D., Medical Director
The Solution
After thorough research, NCHM selected Hyland Software’s OnBase enterprise content management (ECM) software,
which combines integrated document management, business process management, and records management in a
single application. Hyland Software donated an OnBase solution to the clinic, allowing NCHM to eliminate the paper
charts. NCHM began the backscanning of inactive charts and then moved to active charts, making all charts available
electronically. Today, NCHM also scans in financial documentation that verifies patients are uninsured and meet
www.readability.com/articles/dntbjbtq 1/3

2. 25/04/12 North Coast Health Ministries — workflow.com — Readability
financial income requirements. This was the first step in having a truly paperless office.
With the charts in OnBase, NCHM began thinking about implementing an EHR to further the solution. After a
demonstration of Workflow.com’s workflowEHR system, NCHM soon implemented the solution and became the first
free clinic in Ohio to have an EHR in place.
The Results
By implementing workflowEHR, NCHM saw positive results in the following areas:
Chart Retrieval
NCHM estimates staff spent up to eight hours per day looking for charts and retrieving paper files before
implementing workflowEHR. Now, they are available in real­time and staff has instant access to the information
electronically.
Scheduling
Each morning, NCHM provides a walk­in clinic that does not require an appointment. The process of scheduling the
walk­in clinic used to take about 30 minutes because staff had to retrieve charts and patient information in order to
schedule the patients properly. With the charts available electronically, scheduling the walk­in clinic now takes only 10
minutes.
Patient Financial Information
Because it is a non­profit clinic, NCHM must provide various concrete data in order to maintain and increase its
funding. Instead of collecting the data manually, NCHM can now get the information it needs electronically, facilitating
the collection of data much more quickly and accurately. When financial information for patient assistance funding is
needed, staff previously had to find the paper file and copy it. Now, they can simply print the electronic file and send it
off with ease.
Hospital Audits
Three nearby hospitals give NCHM’s patients more than $4.3 million in care so they can continue their care after they
leave the clinic. Before the workflowEHR solution was implemented, a hospital’s audit took two to three full days. Now,
the clinic can allow the hospitals limited access to only authorized documents and the hospitals can do their own
auditing. Audits are accomplished in only about two hours, and the clinic can more quickly return to its focus on patient
care.
The Pharmacy
NCHM also acts as a pharmacy for its patients who cannot afford the medicines they need. Handling thousands of
prescriptions, workflowEHR processes them electronically for the clinic through workflowERx, an add­on e­Prescribing
solution. When prescriptions (often donated by nursing homes) come in, staff members enter the information into
workflowEHR. They then use the system to track the prescriptions and provide them to patients more quickly and
accurately.
Patient Photos
NCHM also stores patient photographs in workflowEHR in order to verify patient identity. When a patient is
encountered for the first time, NCHM takes a photo of the patient instead of copying licenses as staff once did. The
photos are displayed in the electronic patient chart so patients can be quickly identified each time they come in,
ensuring they receive the proper care and prescriptions.
www.readability.com/articles/dntbjbtq 2/3

3. 25/04/12 North Coast Health Ministries — workflow.com — Readability
Summary of Results:
All charts are now available electronically
NCHM sees 33 percent more patients per month
Time spent on chart retrieval was reduced from up to eight hours per day to virtually instantaneous
Patient safety was improved since practitioners can make better care decisions with quick access to full patient
records
NCHM is the first free clinic in Ohio with an EHR and serves as a model for other free clinics implementing EHRs
Patient identification is enhanced with digital photos saved in patient charts
Scheduling of daily walk­in clinic hours is three times faster
Collection of data used to qualify for funding has been dramatically simplified
Hospital audits that used to take two to three days now take just two hours
Scheduling waits were decreased to within a week, down from two months
Waiting room times were decreased
Improved HIPAA compliance
Original URL:
http://workflow.com/case­studies/north­coast­health­ministries/
www.readability.com/articles/dntbjbtq 3/3