News & Events
Memorial Hospital of Converse County Builds Momentum with MPM 6.0
July 23, 2010
As staff at Memorial Hospital of Converse County (Douglas, WY) prepared for their Medical and Practice Management implementation this spring, Dave Patterson admits they had a bit of lingering trepidation from a previous experience with a newer product.
"We were wary of being a beta site again," says Patterson, MHCC's IS Director. "We'd been the second customer on a product from another vendor and it felt like a two-year long process of adjustment."
Memorial Hospital of Converse County is among the first LSS customers to utilize the 6.0 version of MPM, starting with the administrative and financial applications.
"But this experience has been very different. The level of service from LSS has been outstanding and our implementation was very smooth," says Patterson.
This is a significant achievement, given that the organization was moving off of three separate EMRs with very distinct ways of operating, not to mention different work cultures. A 25-bed Critical Access Hospital in a community of just over 5,000 people, MHCC has two rural health clinics – the Oregon Trail Rural Health Clinic, in Glenrock, and the Register Cliff Rural Health Clinic, in Guernsey. A former pioneer settlement on the banks of the North Platte River, Douglas seems to scream "independence."
Fortunately for the hospital, Patterson had experience on three previous EMR implementations, which helped the organization standardize workflow and software setup while retaining enough autonomy to maintain the strong support among providers and staff.
"We allowed our end users to drive the process, and we played the role of advisors" says Patterson. "Often organizations try to do it the other way around, telling their people how they're going to need to change."
Patterson and his staff involved providers early on, establishing meetings around process change months in advance of their implementation. Approximately a half dozen physicians were regular attendees in these meetings, according to Patterson, where process flow was discussed and agreements about standardization were solidified.
As a result, providers and staff began to see the benefits of making changes to their operations, rather than simply configuring the software to accommodate existing processes. "We told our staff, 'this is your opportunity to make things better than they've ever been,'" explains Patterson. "Even though our systems and processes worked for us in the past, there were many things they didn’t like about how we were doing things and the MPM implementation provided the opportunity to improve these things."
Among the improvements they've experienced is reporting. Patterson says they have much better tracking of things like AR days, for example. And he reports that even in the middle of their implementation their receivables showed no increase. "This is a big accomplishment considering all of our process changes. I expect AR to start slowly coming down now that we have better reporting tools and collections processes in place."
Patterson also observes that MPM’s scheduling functionality has helped them better identify clinics that have openings. Prior to MPM the organization was using a patchwork system primarily using Microsoft Outlook. Patterson expects even more benefits later this fall when they move to a centralized scheduling approach.
Additional features they’re utilizing include a new Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) Desktop that enhances the efficiency of electronic collections, and greater flexibility with customizing their own patient statements.
To date MHCC has been using the administrative and financial components of Medical and Practice Management, with providers and staff building, testing and training on the clinical applications. As they prepare to launch MPM's electronic health record this fall, they continue to hold weekly "core team" meetings, which include Patterson (core team leader for both LSS and MEDITECH implementations), a clinic manager, an RN, a business office manager and two billing specialists. 
On top of this strong team they have an active and engaged physician champion, Dr. James Morgan, a Family Practice physician and Vice President of Medical Staff Affairs for the hospital.
"Dr. Morgan was integral in both the search process and selection process," says Patterson. "And he's been very involved in the implementation process."
Patterson says Morgan is more than a champion for implementing MPM, but a strong advocate for the use of EHRs generally. His leadership, and the respect of his colleagues, has helped the organization maintain positive momentum through each stage, and over every hurdle.
Asked about specific hurdles they've encountered, Patterson pauses. "I'd have to say one of the biggest challenges, which turned into a real positive, was when LSS staff had to recommend a brief delay for our go-live," recalls Patterson. "You sent a coordinator and a development director to meet with us, at our facility, to recommend we postpone."
"You were willing to admit you weren't quite ready," Patterson continues, "But you set an exact timeframe and you delivered. That showed integrity, and that experience gave us a real respect for your staff."
That respect is clearly mutual. "The staff at Memorial Hospital of Converse County were a pleasure to work with as an early adopter of our latest release," says David Pettingell, Vice President at LSS. "I had the opportunity to be on site several times during the implementation and witnessed them putting their mission of providing quality care to their community into action with this project. They were engaged and committed at all levels in the project and worked to make sure it was a success."
Looking forward to their clinical go-live and beyond, Patterson is very positive. "We feel we really have a voice in how the product needs to work at our organization, and how it will need to change in the future."
And about that elephant in the room, Patterson observes, "We decided to get on this path long before the ARRA, so this is the direction we were already heading. MPM will just help us get there faster."
For additional information:
LSS Data Systems
6423 City West Parkway
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
952.941.1000
www.lssdata.com
