KVC Health Systems improves care and reduces cost through speech recognition technology

Reducing the burden of clinical documentation: Success story for behavioral health

KVC Health Systems, headquartered in the greater Kansas City area, serves children and families in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Kentucky and West Virginia. Since 1970, KVC has been enriching and enhancing the lives of children impacted by abuse, neglect and trauma. The 1,600-employee organization provides behavioral health, foster care, adoption and inpatient and outpatient services.

The challenge

Up until 2016, KVC in Kansas and Missouri used transcription services to complete clinical documentation. This created workflow, reporting and care visibility challenges.

Aside from a time-consuming and labor-intensive documentation process, the transcription workflow caused significant delays in care communication. This entire transcription process took up to 48 hours, before clinical documentation appeared in the Netsmart EHR after a client visit. That meant other clinicians also treating the individual couldn’t see valuable information, impacting their ability to provide quality care.

“We knew we needed a solution to do two things: Ease the burden of clinical documentation and integrate with our EHR,” said Shavonda Thrower, KVC Business Relationship Manager. “Also, it needed to be easy to use with minimal training.”

The solution

In the spring of 2016, KVC in Kansas and Missouri implemented the 3M M*Modal speech recognition solution to speed their clinical documentation processes.

“From a business perspective, we’ve seen a significant financial reward,” Thrower said. “After launching 3M M*Modal, we’ve cut transcription costs by 75 percent. And we’ve gained huge time savings for staff, which translates to more services and programs for our clients.”

Before 3M M*Modal, it took providers 24 – 48 hours, sometimes more, to complete the documentation process after a client visit. The 3M M*Modal speech recognition technology cut that time in half. Now, a provider’s notes appear in the Netsmart EHR upon capture, eliminating the delay in information flow and making it readily available to other team members. When a medication or treatment plan changes, it’s vital that everyone treating the person gets the most current information to provide the best possible care.

This was the easiest implementation we’ve done. After about an hour of training, the team began using it immediately.

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The use of speech recognition was an integral part of enhancing quality care and lowering transcription costs for KVC. The 3M M*Modal implementation was smooth, simple and fast. “This was the easiest implementation we’ve done,” Thrower said. “After about an hour of training, the team began using it immediately. What’s more, our providers rave about its simplicity; they say it’s as easy as using a remote control.”

“We researched several other products, but none compared to 3M M*Modal’s technology,” Thrower added. “3M M*Modal was the most effective with accuracy because it understands dialects, accents and medical terminology better than any other products on the market. We have a diverse group of providers with different dialects and speaking patterns, and the 3M M*Modal speech recognition technology was able to capture their narratives correctly.”

“The best part of the speech recognition tool is its powerful integration capabilities with the Netsmart EHR”, Thrower said. “It’s amazing to see how our users leverage all the integration features. They can open forms and access fields through voice commands and create custom templates to meet their individual workflow needs. The integration with the EHR made this possible.”

Results

Because providers can capture notes directly into the EHR, the risk of error has decreased, and the level of detail and accuracy of has improved.

Since the implementation of 3M M*Modal, KVC has reduced its costs, improved efficiencies, increased staff satisfaction and provided better services and more quality care to clients.

Our providers rave about the simplicity – it’s as easy as using a remote control, they say.

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The solution impact

• Reduced transcription costs by 75 percent
• Improved information flow by 50 percent
• Increased time with clients and decreased time entering notes
• Shortened billing cycle with more complete documentation
• Improved care with detailed, real-time documentation
• Increased clinician satisfaction with easy-to-use software