Banner Good Samaritan “Goes Paperless” Successfully Implementing WoundExpert

“Before we implemented WoundExpert, our medical record was completely on paper. It was impossible for us to cost effectively compile the information necessary for quality management and continuous process improvement initiatives.”
Mark W. Loudenslagel, Director
Wound Care Program & Hyperbaric Medicine
Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center

“We recently completed a Joint Commission survey and the surveyor was very impressed with WoundExpert’s comprehensive clinical pain, nutrition and related risk assessments.”
Patricia Gill, MSN, RN, CWCN, COCN
Clinical Director

The Wound Care Program and Hyperbaric Medicine at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, is a large physician based patient clinic performing nearly 1,000 clinical encounters each month.

In June 2005, Banner Good Samaritan achieved Magnet™ designation in nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, ranking the staff in the Top 3% in the U.S.

Building on this tradition of excellence, in September 2005, Banner Good Samaritan implemented WoundExpert, replacing their in-house outcomes tracking and paper-based, patient medical records with a comprehensive electronic medical record (EMR).

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), describes an EMR as satisfying all mandated - HIPAA, CMS and Joint Commission - security requirements, allowing it to be the legal medical record, eliminating the need for paper charts.

The EMR functions as the clinicians’ primary medical record, documenting evidence-based medicine (EBM), continuous improvement, utilization review, risk management and reimbursement. Finally, HIMSS contends that EMR should support public health reporting, population health initiatives, clinical trials and research.

In early 2005, recognizing the limitations of their in-house solution, Mark Loudenslagel and Patricia Gill, MSN, RN, CWCN, COCN, Clinical Director, led an EMR requirements analysis initiative. Banner Good Samaritan reviewed several alternatives, focusing on solutions tailored to the specific needs of ambulatory outpatient wound clinics. For Banner Good Samaritan, the choice was simple, WoundExpert.

Nearly two years later, Mark and Patricia are confident Banner Good Samaritan has realized all of the aforementioned EMR benefits implementing WoundExpert.

“The near instantaneous availability of outcome data has helped us improve our processes and approaches with patients,” notes Mark. “Now we are able to perform peer reviews with our entire clinical staff, helping to keep our team focused on the goal of healing our patients in the most cost effective, efficacious way possible.”

Patricia is responsible for clinical operations, direction and professional development and enthusiastically endorses WoundExpert.

WoundExpert’s ability to capture complete procedure notes, ancillary services provided and charges, along with evidence of medical decision making attendant with the provision of care has improved program reimbursement.

Mark ads, “WoundExpert is used to justify our requests of reimbursement to fiscal intermediaries and managed care providers, aiding the all too thin bottom line of metropolitan ambulatory centers like Banner Good Samaritan.

However, the completeness of data captures and reporting capabilities weren’t the only considerations in the selection of WoundExpert EMR. Mark and Patricia were required to document ‘hard dollar’ justification to Banner corporate administration before moving forward with a decision.

Improved productivity was a crucial element of Banner Good Samaritan’s business case for WoundExpert. It is used to track length of visit, number of visits, ancillary services and supplies used in determining the actual cost of care. This information is also used to analyze staffing levels and program profitability.

Of course WoundExpert also provides ‘soft dollar’ clinical benefits including patient safety, process improvement, and regulatory compliance.

Patricia concludes, “We recently completed a Joint Commission survey and the surveyor was very impressed with WoundExpert’s comprehensive clinical pain, nutrition and related risk assessments.”