Cherokee Health Systems Streamlines Workflows
About Cherokee Health Systems
Cherokee Health Systems (CHS) is a Federally Qualified Health Center that serves about 70,000 patients each year. Cherokee Health Systems is committed to ensuring that every East Tennessean gets access to high-quality healthcare. CHS provides care in an outpatient setting and offers a wide array of comprehensive health services, including integrated primary care and behavioral health, dental, optometry, and pharmacy. All the services are available to children, adults, and seniors who have coverage through private insurance plans and state programs like TennCare or CoverKids and those without health insurance coverage.
Results
Background
Why did Cherokee Health decide to look for a new solution? Cherokee Health Systems was looking for a solution to help them better manage their referral process by reducing the time it takes to send outbound referrals, streamlining their referral workflow, and closing the feedback loop between referring providers and specialists.
Objectives
Decrease Time to Send Referrals
With ReferralMD’s outbound referrals work queue, Cherokee Health Systems could better organize and visualize the referrals that needed to be processed. The integration with their EHR allows referral orders to flow seamlessly into ReferralMD so the referral coordinators can process them in a timely manner. Also, the customized alerts help referral coordinators stay on top of their respective queues by notifying them when referrals need attention. As a result, Cherokee Health Systems decreased the time to send referrals by 60%.
Increase Referral Productivity
By streamlining its referral process with ReferralMD, Cherokee Health Systems was able to process more outbound referrals and increase productivity per referral coordinator. The integration with their EHR allows information to flow seamlessly between the systems, eliminating duplicate data entry and preventing updates from falling through the cracks. As a result, Cherokee Health Systems increased its referral volume by 125% and the number of referrals processed per coordinator by 114%.
Close the Loop with Providers & Patients
Cherokee Health Systems actively manages their patients’ outbound referrals after referrals are sent. ReferralMD’s customizable workflow and alerts allow referral coordinators to better manage their assigned referrals, ensuring that appointments are scheduled with specialists in a timely manner. In addition, status updates are automatically pushed to their EHR, and referral orders are closed in the EHR to keep referring providers in the loop. The system also automatically sends text and email messages to patients when referrals are sent and appointments are scheduled. As a result, Cherokee Health Systems was able to decrease the time t takes to receive the specialist consult reports by 144%.
Customer Quote
“ReferralMD has been key to getting our team organized and working more efficiently. ReferralMD’s workflows reduce the likelihood of having patients fall through the cracks.”
Brittney Winstead
Director of Centralized Operations